easter Archives - Early Learning Childhood Education

10/04/201911/04/2019

Exploring Easter beyond the chocolate

Who doesn’t love chocolate? We can’t think of a single person who doesn’t love some variety of the sugary treat, especially children! And while a chocolate Easter bunny is nice, there’s plenty more to explore about Easter that children will love too!

Four facts about Easter to help you celebrate

As we prepare to celebrate Easter, it can help to have a little more insight into this much-loved time of year. Perhaps it will inspire you to approach it a little differently.

1. Easter is all about new life
The eggs, flowers and baby chickens – they’re not a random bunch of items, but actually symbolise one of the meanings behind Easter which is new life and rebirth. Furthering this theme is that for most countries, Easter takes place in the season of new life – the spring equinox!

2. Easter has songs too
While Christmas is renowned for its carols, Easter singing isn’t anywhere near as popular. We think this should change! Our special gift to you for Easter comes in song form — enjoy our Bonkers Beat song, ‘Easter Bunny’! Print the lyrics here and learn the moves and tune via the video:

3. There’s not just one day for Easter
The commonly celebrated Easter days in Australia incorporate Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Good Friday recognises the death of Jesus Christ, and Easter Sunday is significant as the day Christians believe Jesus was resurrected. In addition, there is Orthodox Easter which, this year, takes place on 28 April.

4. It’s a fun, family-friendly time of year that everyone can enjoy!
There are many things you can do to celebrate Easter, whatever your religion or preferences may be.

Decorating eggs is a favourite Easter tradition (real or fake are equally fun – get some inspiration here). You can also organise an Easter hunt (with or without chocolate ) which always gets children smiling and excited. Also meeting an Easter bunny can be enjoyable, though a little scary for some children!

However you choose to celebrate, we wish you all a very Happy Easter spent with your loved ones!

image from www.freepik.com

15/03/201816/03/2018

Engaging Easter experiences to try with children

Easter is around the corner and many centres are getting ready to celebrate this much-loved holiday in early childhood settings!

Colouring in images of Easter bunnies is fun, but why not fire up children’s creativity this year and do something different? There are so many learning experiences for children around the subject of Easter – let’s look at a few of them.

Talking about religion at Easter

As we know, Easter is traditionally a religious acknowledgement. Perhaps your centre would like to explore the religious aspects of Easter this year.

While many Australians will celebrate Easter over the long weekend from Friday 30 to Monday 2 April, it’s worth noting that these dates are based on the Catholic Easter dates. Other families may celebrate Orthodox Easter on Sunday 8 April in 2018.

A simple way to share the traditional Christian story of Easter with children is through books. Easter Story and Tiny Tots Easter are suitable for children as young as 2 and can help start the discussion.

Perhaps other children and families could share their religious or cultural views on Easter and how they celebrate.

Engaging Easter experiences for children

There are plenty more creative, hands-on Easter activities to try when incorporating Easter in early childhood.

Get hatching

A big part of the meaning of Easter is around new beginnings, and what better way to learn about new beginnings that with new life?! At Bonkers Beat Music Kinder the Henny Penny Hatching Program is currently an exciting and engaging experience for children (and educators!).

Traditional eggs decorating

Egg decorating is a traditional Easter activity that is lots of fun. Any egg-shaped object is fine, but why not use natural resources by hard-boiling eggs for decorating and making your own natural dyes. This means fewer chemicals and an additional learning element.

The Easter Bunny song

There is a song and music for every occasion as far as we are concerned! Easter is no exception. As a Bonkers Beat follower, we invite you to access our special Easter song ‘Easter Bunny’. Watch the video for our simple movements and print the words if needed. Children always love this song! Access ‘Easter Bunny’ here.

Share your Easter celebrations and educational ideas with us on Facebook!

16/03/201617/03/2016

Get Eggcited About Easter

You’re probably thinking “Easter already?!” and it certainly feels like that with Good Friday coming up next week on 25 March.

From Easter egg hunts to chocolate bunnies, decorating eggs and Easter bonnets – there are so many different ways that we celebrate Easter. Easter traditions are unique across many different countries, religions and cultures too – this might be something to bring in to your centre’s celebrations.

If there are families or educators in your centre who celebrate Easter a particular way, it can be wonderful to have them talk about – or even show – how Easter is recognised in their lives.

Regardless of whether you take a secular approach to Easter or talk about all the different ways Easter is enjoyed over the world, it is almost always a time that children get excited about.

Incorporate it for a day or have a whole Easter-themed week – whichever way you approach it, we’ve compiled a bunch of inspiration and activities that children will love!

Activity Inspiration to Celebrate Easter

Easter Bonnets/Easter Bonnet Parade – Try some Easter hat ideas listed here or come up with some wild creations of your own.

Easter Colouring Pages – These great Easter-themed printables make for a simple but always enjoyable activity. Make it interesting by adding glitter, cotton wool and other textures.

Craft For Easter – Get inspired to decorate eggs, create Easter baskets and more.

Easter Recipes – A homemade Easter treat can be yummy, educational and fun!

Our special Bonkers Beat song ‘Easter Bunny’ is a favourite for Easter too. You can access it here!

Share more Easter ideas with us on Facebook! Bonkers Beat members, you can share your Easter celebrations with us via our My Bonkers Beat Facebook group.

Stay safe and have a happy Easter break everyone!

30/03/201501/04/2015

Discovering Easter Beyond the Chocolate

With chocolate bunnies and eggs taking over the supermarkets, we all know that children love an Easter egg hunt and keep their eyes peeled for the Easter bunny!

But Easter can present the chance to do some fun craft activities with children too – we love these Easter handprint card ideas on Kidspot. For a spot of cooking, these Easter biscuits are simple to do with kids with minimal ingredients and no fuss, plus they’re chocolate free! We also recommend egg decorating, creating bunny masks complete with cotton wool ‘fluff’ and there are plenty of Easter story books to choose from too. Share your ideas with us on Facebook too.

Of course, at Bonkers Beat we believe that every occasion needs to be accompanied by a song… For Easter we would like to share ‘Easter Bunny’ with you: https://musicearlychildhoodpresenter.com/useful-resources/

The cultural and religious elements of Easter may also be something you’d like to explore, including Orthodox Easter, Jewish Passover and their varied approaches to celebrating.

Whatever you do, make sure you enjoy your Easter with loved ones!

Dates to remember:

School Holidays: March 27 – April 13
International Children’s Book Day: April 2
Good Friday: April 3
Easter Sunday: April 5
Easter Monday: April 6

Have a very happy Easter break and we hope the school holidays are an enjoyable time for all.

Stay safe.