Today is the first day of our Easter Eggs-travaganza! We’ll be featuring a number of craft and recipe ideas along with beautiful ways to decorate your home for the holiday and ideas for non-candy Easter baskets. Lots of good stuff to be had for all in the next few weeks! Just a reminder that Good Friday falls on April 18th and Easter Sunday being April 20th. 

Easter Sensory Bin: 2 Ways

Andrea

I finally took the navy beans out of the sensory bin and decided to go with something a little bit more colourful for Easter. It also means less chance of stepping on a bean or discovering one of my cats eating a wayward bean. I took out a lot of the mess that comes with smaller items and filled it with larger items this time around. Miss O loves sorting far too much though so I had to include a bucket for her. Traditionally Easter sensory bins tend to include the paper or plastic “grass” typically used in Easter baskets. I wanted to do something a little bit different as well as avoid little strips of paper all over my house – my cats will seriously eat anything. Miss O typically sorts everything in the sensory bin which isn’t a bad thing but I wanted to give her an opportunity to do something different. By using larger items, she has to find a new way to interact with the bin. 

Items Included

• Plastic Easter eggs in a variety of sizes and colours
• Easter bucket and yellow cup
• Muffin tray
• Tongs to pick up eggs
• Plastic bunny figurines
• Mini bunny hoppers
• Shovel
• Easter cookie cutters

 In total this bin cost about $5 to assemble. I already had a big stash of plastic eggs from previous years. The cookie cutters and muffin tray were also already in my home. The other items were purchased from the local dollar store or from dollar bins at Target & Walmart. Miss O doesn’t need fancy, expensive toys added to her sensory bin – that’s the whole point! She always wants to play with her sensory bin when she spots it. She will even put down the crayons to play with the bin and that’s saying a lot for her.

 

Play Ideas

• Make Some Noise! – Miss O quickly realized that a metal shovel + metal cookie cutters = lots of noise. The smile on her face was priceless as she hammered away.
• Accessorize – Miss O surprised me with this one: she wore all the cookie cutters as bracelets (they were enamel coated in pretty colours – it only made sense really!). Find a new use for any of the items in your bin – your kids just might surprise you with what they come up with.
• Nesting Eggs – Our bin has different size eggs. Learning that they fit inside each other was very exciting for her. They also made a fun noise when we shook them.
• Sort, Sort, Sort – This is Miss O’s favourite thing to do. Include smaller items in your bin and a variety of containers. Sort the eggs by colour, or size. Miss O liked putting the bouncy rabbit toys into the bucket. 

Holly

I was following the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) principle on this bin, and decided to use only things I could find around the house. I got inspired using my paper shredder after completing my taxes and having so much to shred! I wanted to reuse it somehow and why not in an Easter bin?

Items Included

• Paper shredder grass
• Plastic eggs
• Plastic bunny eggs
• Chocolate eggs
• Recycled egg carton
• Tongs

So while I was waiting for Mr J to get up from quiet time, I had an important realization. I don’t usually let Miss P go first. She usually gets to go second, or last after the big kids. So I let her to try the sensory bin, before anyone else. And you know what? She was absolutely delighted. Her favourite item was the rock & roll eggs. P loved that they made a noise when she shook them. She was delighted that I was playing with her and laughed and giggled the whole time.

Mr J got into the party too. He was very patient and helped Miss P reach things beyond her grasp. They both shook eggs at the same time but I think he most enjoyed opening all the eggs. His face after he realized there was chocolates in some of them was priceless.

His second favourite was tossing the shred everywhere and yelling SURPRISE! I got a kick out of it and it was a breeze to vacuum up.

Play Ideas

• Free Play: Let the child explore the different textures of the paper shred and smooth eggs.
• Colour Matching: Use the egg carton and match up the pairs of each colour. If you get one right, enjoy the chocolate inside. 
• Rabbits Learning: Learn what rabbits eat & grab some carrots and lettuce from the fridge to feed the hungry ones in your bin.
• Musical Eggs: Add a bean or popcorn seed to the egg to make it shake rattle & roll.
• Picture Matching: Print out easter related match-ups (or make your own with colouring images) and put one in the egg & keep the other out and have the child match them up.
• Toss the Grass: Grab your tongs and let them throw the grass around (yep, it’s messy).
• Bury the Egg: Toss the eggs in the bottom of the bin and cover them with  your medium of choice and let the child dig for them. For an added difficulty, get them to use tongs.

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Looking for more great crafts, activities, and foods to celebrate Easter? Check these out.

We’ve got all the ideas you need for your Outdoor Easter Egg Hunt.