Christmas always brings out my inner "Pinterest Mum" but Easter crafts and activities are arguably even more fun as there's more time, less pressure and they heavily feature cute bunnies and chicks.
Over the years, we've tried lots of Spring crafts and activities, and I'm going to share just a few with you in the hope that it will give you some inspiration in the run up to Easter, the bank holiday weekend and school holidays.
Pompom colour sort
This is a great activity for the littler ones! It's very simple to set up and can be used over and over again (a must for young children in my opinion!). Simply save an egg box, colour in the bases, fill the lid with brightly coloured pompoms (felt balls or buttons work just as well) and invite them to match the coloured pompoms with the correct hole. They can use their fingers or you could add scoops or tongs for an extra challenge (we have this set and have used them so many times!).
Cutting eggs
Another nice and easy activity that is perfect if your little one is enjoying practicing their scissor skills. Just cut out a handful of egg shapes and draw lines across them. My littlest loved practicing cutting the simple straight lines while my eldest enjoyed taking his time with some of the more complicated patterns.
Fishing for eggs
I think most families have a set of these fillable plastic eggs lying around the house! We've used them so many times for egg hunts, play dough play (obviously!) and they make great scoops for rice and other sensory materials too. Plastic eggs are also perfect for water play as they float! We added ours to the bath and used a cheap fishing net to scoop them up but you could also take this game outside into a paddling pool, or into a large plastic tub on a sunny day.
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Puffy paint
Puffy paint is a great way to change things up a bit and easy to make too.
Mix equal parts shaving foam with white glue, and add a few drops of your favourite food colouring. As the puffy paint dries, the colours will get darker, so don't worry about it looking a bit lighter than you'd like. Grab a paintbrush and dab the puffy paint onto paper, card or canvases - we made this adorable little bunny with ours and because of the glue, the paint is sticky so it's easy to add on extra bits and bobs.
Dying eggs
This was the first time that we had dyed eggs and I was so impressed with how they turned out.
Simply put half a cup of boiling water into a cup and add a teaspoon of vinegar (apparently it helps to fix the colour) and some food colouring. Place a hard boiled egg into the water so that it's completely covered and leave it for 5 minutes before removing it with a slotted spoon.
We took our bright rainbow eggs on a picnic but this year I have bought these transfers from Meri Meri and plan to use our eggs to decorate the Easter table.
Fizzy eggs
Have you tried a simple bicarbonate of soda and vinegar experiment with your kids before? We've done this a few different ways (lava, potion making etc) and it always goes down well.
Here we used our old plastic eggs again but you can use any small cup or dish. Place a small drop of food colouring in the bottom and cover it with bicarbonate of soda. decant some vinegar and let your child squirt it over the top to discover the colour hiding underneath. We have this cheap set of colourful pipettes from Amazon and they're great for little hands.
Chocolate cloud dough
If you're feeling brave enough to embrace some messy play, chocolate cloud dough is perfect for Easter and it's taste safe too so suitable for all ages. Cloud dough has a crumbly texture but it can also be compressed together and moulded to form simple shapes and structures.
To make a large batch of chocolate cloud dough, simply mix 6 cups of flour with 2 cups of cocoa powder and 1 cup of vegetable oil. Once used you can store it in an airtight container and it'll last for about a week.
I picked these little carrots and plant pots up in Poundland, but chocolate cloud dough would work well with farm animals, baking accessories or flowers (real or artificial) too.
Chocolate nest cakes
Is it even Easter if you don't make cornflake cakes? I'm sure you've all made these before but I love this simple recipe as you don't need chocolate and can just use items that you probably already have in your cupboards.
Pop 4 tablespoons of each of the four ingredients; icing sugar, cocoa powder, butter and golden syrup into a pan and heat until everything has melted. Pour in as many cornflakes as you can, stirring well to cover. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cases and press a chocolate egg (or 2 or 3) into the centre. Refrigerate until set and then just try not to eat them all at once!