Are you in the process of planning a series of Easter related events for your children? If so, you may want to consider throwing a handful of holiday games into the mix. As a former preschool employee, I happen to know of few that you may find useful. Here’s a quick look at each one:
Color Sorting
Should you be in the process of teaching the children about colors, you may want to consider challenging them to a game of Easter egg sort. In order to set-up the game, you’ll need colored plastic eggs, clear plastic bins, magic markers, tape and pieces of cardstock that match the colors of the eggs. You should be able to purchase all of those items through large department stores.
Continue setting up the game by writing the name of each color on its corresponding piece of cardstock. For example, you would write the word “green” on the green piece of cardstock. Once that’s done, tape one piece of cardstock to each bin. Just make sure that you reserve one bin to hold all the unsorted eggs.
Next, dump all of the eggs into the unmarked bin. Then challenge the children to sort the eggs by placing each one in the bin with the matching piece of cardstock. The children that manage to sort the most eggs correctly could be given bunny money. The money could be traded in later for an inexpensive prize.
You can make the bunny money on your home computer using the template provided on author Rosemary Wells’ website. The bunny money is designed to be utilized with her book of the same name. Personally, I’d suggest reading her book out loud prior to the sorting activity. Doing so will help to give the children a perspective on how to spend their earnings.
Sequencing
Another superlative option would be to play the Easter Egg Race Game. What I like about the game is that it involves number recognition, color recognition and counting. Basically, the children are challenged to roll dice and make their way around an Easter egg shaped game board. You can find the printable game board and full instructions posted on the Activity Village website. The site also contains templates for Easter themed memory cards and dominos that may be utilized with preschoolers and kindergarteners as well. The dominos are my favorite because they require the kids to utilize their color and pattern recognition skills.
Motor Skills
If you’d rather engage the children in games designed to get them up and moving, there are quite a few to choose from. For instance, you could play pin the tail on the bunny or hold an Easter Bunny race. Based on my experience, there is a great pin the tail on the bunny printable posted on the Busy Bee website. I found favor with it because it uses colored bunny tails. Thus, you could also use it as part of a color or pattern recognition game by printing out more than one game board.
As far as the Easter bunny races go, you could hold one outside that requires the kids to hop like bunnies from one point to the other. In addition, you could have the children engage in egg spoon relay races and egg tosses outside. My children always enjoyed such games. If the weather is bad, you could also play an indoor race game. The TLC website has one that I just adore.
In order to play the game, the kids will need to create bunnies out of cardstock. The bunnies get threaded onto strings that are attached to various points in the room. Afterward, the kids must make the bunnies move by manipulating one end of the string. The children that manage to make their bunnies reach the end of the string first win. In my opinion, the game pairs really well with Grace Maccarone’s book “Bunny Race!”
Source: Personal Experience
More from this contributor:
Make Easter Bunny Yo-Yos with Door Pulls for Preschoolers
5 Great, Animated Easter Movies to Watch with the Kids
Create 3-D Note Cards for Easter with Gold Foil
5 Great Easter Books for Preschoolers
