Easter Wood Stick Puzzle Craft
Materials needed: Easter Craft Bags, wood sticks, (we found the craft sacks and wood sticks pictured at Hobby Lobby), scissors, pencils/crayons, and glue sticks.
Each craft sack in the package is printed on both sides. We cut the sacks apart, prior to the activity, so that we could make 24 puzzles from the 12 sacks in the package.
Use the straight edge of the wood stick to line the non-printed sides of the craft sack. Have the children cut apart each strip and glue the strips to the individual puzzle sticks (younger children will need assistance with cutting and adhering the strips to the wood sticks.)
When the children are finished adhering the strips to the wood sticks, have them scramble the sticks before putting the puzzle together. *For younger children, number the back of the wood sticks to aid in placing the sticks in the appropriate position. It also helps younger children to have a visual of the uncut picture to look at while assembling their stick puzzles. This activity works well for trays as each tray might contain separate skills: scissor skills, gluing, measuring/lining, assembly of the completed puzzle.
Easter Clay Flowers Craft
Materials needed: Bright colors of modeling clay, green pipe cleaners (cut into 1/3’s prior to the activity), plastic knives, and scissors.
This activity works well for trays and for mixed-age groups of children. Have the younger children practice rolling balls with the clay. Demonstrate how to place the clay in the palm of one hand and use the other hand to form the ball in a circular motion. For many young children, rolling balls successfully is a miletone in fine motor skills. Manipulating the clay to form a ball takes some practice. Once the balls are formed, the clay balls should be cut with scissors (almost in 1/2, from the top of the ball of clay) *see PINK clay ball in the photo above. Once the clay balls are cut, have the children gently pry apart the two halves of the clay ball.
The older children can then make 3 small cuts in each of the clay ball halves *see PURPLE clay in the photo above. We cut the clay halves with plastic knives, but scissors will work, too. Again, gently pry apart the cut clay to make the petals of each clay flower. If desired, the children can roll a smaller ball (or tear off a small piece) of clay for the flower’s center. After making the clay flowers, have the children insert a pipe cleaner for the stem.
The clay is sturdier than play dough and will tolerate the handling necessary to form the flower. To simply practice rolling balls and cutting skills, play dough works just fine.
Thumbprint Easter Eggs
Materials needed: White plastic Easter Eggs, assorted paints (non-washable works best), thin-tipped paint brushes or q-tips, and paint smocks or old t-shirts.
Have the children choose the colors they wish to use for their thumbprint egg. Let the children make a thumbprint on the white egg. Allow the thumbprint to dry thoroughly. When the thumbprints are dry, the children can decorate their eggs with any way desired (q-tips work well for decorating the thumbprint if you do not have thin-tipped brushes available.) Label the eggs with the child’s name and/or age. The eggs can be filled as a gift for parents or used as each child’s “special” egg during an Easter egg hunt.
For MORE learning and play activities for Easter, the EASTER THEME for preschool and kindergarten is now available via this blog!
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