Classroom Easter Ideas

Is it just me or does every single special calendar event and special day seem to always take you by surprise? I have seen some amazing special day preparation and activities posted to social media accounts over the last few years. The pressure seems on to create a bigger than big classroom event that is fully decorated and caters to a variety of amazing activities so that students can have fun for one day. Does this sound negative? I don’t mean it to be. Hats off to anyone that has this amount of energy. Me? I’ve always been too busy with standard classroom teaching to have the energy to spend on doing amazing special day activities. So, how does this help you? Well, there are a few “easy” and quick activities that you can include on your day without sending you over the edge!

1. Keep it simple. Display ONE poster to “advertise” Easter. Better still, have your class design their own Easter posters and display them.
2. Have a stuffed Easter bunny, a few carrots, painted eggs or other items by the doorway or entry to your class.
3. Colour ins. I like to have one or two colour in pages for the week leading up to Easter. Better still, sometimes I have printed off activity (or colour in booklets) booklets for the students to use at their own pace (e.g. before school, finishing off work, free time). I find it really helpful to have a colour in page on the desks as students arrive to school on the last day of term before their Easter holiday. They love it, it is Easter themed and it is super easy. It contains their energy too. They are encouraged to sit down and quietly colour in.
4. Decorate a biscuit. Hats off to anyone who does Easter baking with their class. I used to do this quite a bit too. One activity I used to do was chocolate making. I have since found it more worthwhile to get the students to decorate a biscuit. They get to participate more since it’s all cold ingredients and safe. I find Milk Arrowroot biscuits (available in Australia but if you are not in Australia just purchase a flat oval-shaped biscuit of some kind) are perfect. I pre-make (or sometimes show the students how I make it) pink, blue and white icing. I put the icing, plastic knives and some lollies for students to decorate their biscuit. It goes into a zip lock bag to take home, their Easter basket or gets eaten in the afternoon (because, you know… colouring and sugar!).
5. Easter bonnet. No, nothing fancy here. I have found it so fun for students to decorate a straight card headband. I attach it to their head (not their actual head but fit it to size their head) and provide collage materials to decorate. They love it and it’s completely student centred.
6. Easter placemats. Simply provide a piece of card (A4 or A3 paper depending on your table space) and allow students to decorate the paper. If students are having a special morning tea or lunch, they use these mats to put their plates of food on (e.g. even just the biscuit mentioned above).
7. Step-by-step drawings. This is a fun and easy way to keep students occupied and also provide great artworks to keep for calendar gifts at the end of the year. Simply show them how to draw a bunny step by step. I do, you do and off we go, colour it in.
8. Easter stories. I read some Easter themed stories that I have collected at the school library. These make great and free classroom displays too!
9. Easter basket. There are many basket templates on the market however, I have found the fine motor skills required to put it together are usually too challenging for the early years and I end up doing most of the work. For this reason, I have found it useful to get the students to create an Easter basket as a STEM activity using pre-made materials. I have provided empty small boxes, collage materials, ribbons and so forth. The STEM task may be that it has to use only specific materials (e.g. 1 box, 1 ribbon, 5 pieces of tape) and hold one egg without breaking.
10. Egg and spoon race. Just grab some spoons from home (or plastic spoons if you have them) and some real eggs (unless you have plastic or wooden eggs at your school centre). Students love doing these relays no matter how old they are really!
11. I have reduced my spending of gifts in general. I now purchase one egg for each student. How I get the gift to look nicer though, is to simply put it all together well. Students keep their Easter baskets (that they previously made), put some crepe paper in the bottom, put their Easter biscuit in the basket and the Easter egg from me. It looks nice and it’s more meaningful. We usually line our baskets up on the second last day of school and leave a note for the Easter bunny. The next day, they will find the baskets put together nicely (with their biscuits and the Easter egg)!
12. Easter games. Depending on the year level I teach at the time, I do have printable Easter games for students to play with on a rotational basis. I just keep them laminated and all in one plastic folder to pop out each year. See the links below.
13. Easter play dough. Just add some oval shaped cutters and bunny shapes to your collect. Honestly, kids of all ages love play dough. Your older students can shape Easter-themed words or make math stories if you need it to be more educational!
14. Dress-ups. The quickest way to look “Easter-festive” is to simply wear a pair of Bunny ears as a headband. The students will love it. 

What about an Easter egg hunt? Yes, I have done this in the past but it can get tricky depending on where you live and the social skills of the students involved. I have found it best, if you are going to do a hunt, to do it as a whole class. Solve the puzzle clues to find where the bag of eggs are hidden. 

So there you have it. The easy way to make your Easter celebrations look “put together” with minimal fuss, minimal preparation, minimal finances and most importantly – Student Centred!

Wishing you all the best to a smooth sailing Easter ahead. Relax and enjoy it. 

Kind regards, 

Jennifer