Three Quick and Easy Easter Activities

I was planning to get this Easter post out sooner so you could use it in your Easter lesson planning, but things didn't go as planned so instead I am hoping I will be giving you all the PRINTABLES necessary to add these three quick and easy Easter activities to your lessons in a snap!

First up a fun math activity called How many eggs in your basket? Watch the video below to see how to play.   

All you need is the printable above, an egg stamp (I found my in the Easter section at Wal-Mart last year), and a number and/or dot die. 

If you have both a number and dot die you can differentiate instruction very easily, like I did in the video.  EJ can read numbers so I used a number die with him. Payt cannot so I used a dot die with him until the end when I tried the die I made that had numbers one through three, the numbers he has mastered thus far. 

TIP:You can make your own dice with a variety of numbers, colors, letter, shapes or even sight words on them by using a sharpie and one inch wood or foam cubes.  The foam ones are nice because they roll quietly. 

Second up a fun science and math activity called What do you hear inside the egg?  Watch the video below to see how to play. 

All you need for this game is the printable above, (a dry eraser marker and page protector if you plan to reuse the printable), a medium sized plastic egg, and small items to put in the egg for guessing. 

The first year I did this activity I gathered two of every item I was going to put in the egg to make the visual below so my students had a concrete support to make a guess as to what they thought was  in the egg.

I still use this with some of my really concrete thinkers put I moved on to the version below for those that can generalize between the actual item and an icon drawing of the item. 

This also services as an aided language board for students who need it to support their communication. 

Last up, Shake and Listen Eggs  Watch the video below to see how to play.

All you need for this game is the printable above, plastic eggs in the colors that are on the printable, super glue, rice, and tongue depressors. 

To make the egg shakers simply put a small amount of rice in one side of the egg and super glue the other half on top. 

So there you have it 3 quick, easy and FUN Easter activities.  Happy Easter!

Lindy

March Work Tasks for Easter

Okay so I know it is a ways off, but I am super excited to share 8 Easter work tasks as part of Autism Classroom News' Workbasket Wednesday!  All you need is a few sets of these Easter erasers from Dollar Tree and the eraser visuals from my TPT store and you have the first 6 tasks at your fingers tips! 

And what's even better, they are leveled!  Level One- a Simple Put in Task: 

Level Two- Egg Assembly:  (My favorite!)  All you need is three cans and some plastic Easter eggs. Arrange the cans left to right for students to take an eraser, open an egg, put the eraser inside, close the egg and put in all done.  

Level Three-Sorting Easter Erasers to Picture Images:  All you need is the picture images, magnet dots and a muffin tin.  

***If you have a student or two who are very rigid and have a hard time being flexible 

you can add a few erasers that don't below and then a symbol that says 

'this does't belong' (like in the photo below).  Just a little extra problem solving :)

Level Four- Sorting Easter Erasers to Icons: This task helps generalize vocabulary.  For example the purple egg and the pink egg are still both eggs.  It also helps students work toward recognizing icons have meaning for icon schedules and visual communication supports.  

Level Five- Sorting Easter Erasers from Christmas Erasers: All you need is some Christmas erasers and a microwave dinner tray with two sections (or any container with two parts or two cans or bowls).  

Level Six- Graphing Easter Erasers: All you need is the worksheet printable and a can to put the erasers in after the students graph them.  

***BONUS: Print the colored version of the worksheet, put it in a page protector 

and use it as a math or social small group activity using a dry erase marker and a take one bag.  

For students who are non-verbal or have limited language you can use this aided language board to facilitate communication about the erasers the students pick out.  

And before I sign off for the night, two other Easter fine motor tasks using this box of Easter memory cards also from the Dollar Tree.  

All you need is a box and clothes pins and you have a fine motor and matching tasks all in one!

To make the task a little more challenging for students who need to strength their fine motor control use binder clips.  

Thanks for stopping by on Workbasket Wednesday or in looking at the time, Workbasket Thursday!

Until next time 'spring' into some new Easter work tasks!

Lindy

Celebrating Easter in an Early Childhood Classroom

For the past few weeks we have added a little challenge to our literacy center. I am a firm believer that students need a combination of structure and novelty. Think about yourself... if you do the same thing every day, you are bound to get a little restless and when students get restless out come the behaviors!

So here is the change. First, we added a small table to the space. 

Next, we added this work system schedule specific for the literacy center. 

It works similarly to the math system I showed you last week. The students read a story at their level from the leveled boxes in the bench seat.

Note: I purchase boxes that are half-sized at home depot so I can easily offer five levels of instruction. (Typically, level one has more interactive materials and requires a larger box for storage.)

The teacher then reads a theme book. The theme book is usually a repetitive story that works on concepts like letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. For example, during our healthy choices unit it was a book entitled Healthy Foods from A to Z and during our Valentine's unit it was 10 Little Valentines.

These are all stories I make on Boardmaker and have posted on Boardmaker Share. The reason they are Boardmaker stories is because after the students read the theme book each day, they have the opportunity to make one page in the story as a mini book.  This allows the student to have the whole concept book to take home and share with his/her family at the end of the unit.

You may be asking, "Wow, how do you manage that!?"  Well, it is actually quite simple with a little work system put in place for staff. 

This little container holds the pages that need to be done in the back. It has a tab for each of the students so as they finish a page we just file it behind their name. By the end of the theme, the whole book is in order behind the student's tab and just simply needs a few staples before going home! 

The book featured in this picture is Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom, What’s Behind the Numbered Room? It was part of our Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom theme and can be accessed on Boardmaker Achieve.

So here is a sneak peek into what our Easter story will look like!

This is the large version that will be read each day to the children during small group.
And here are a few pics of the smaller student version so you can see the entire story.

Note:  If you make class books on Boardmaker, you can easily adjust the size of the story to one page of the story fitting on each 8 ½ by 11 page or shrink it down so 2 or 4 pages fit on the page. All you do is select all the Boardmaker buttons you made and then hit control function to make the whole set bigger or smaller.

Also note that the egg stamp we used for this project is actually a holiday bingo dauber. 

My grandmother has gotten me a few of them on her bingo outings. And WOW!... do we love them! No mess but a lot of fun. Don’t have themed bingo daubers or an awesome grandma to get you some☺?  You can also use Easter stamps from Wal-Mart.

With Easter right around the corner, don’t forget to check out some of our previous Easter posts.

• Not So Typical Easter Egg Hunt Ideas!
• What’s in the Egg?
• Where did Bunny land?

Easter-Themed Pre-K Classroom Activity: "What's in the Egg?"

Collect six different colored Easter eggs and fill them with different items.  I have two sets: one I fill with familiar items such as a key, a toy dinosaur, and a crayon and then the other set I fill with magnetic letters for my older students to work on letter identification.

During small group, I give each student a copy of this worksheet. I put the worksheet in a page protector so I can use them from year to year.  The children use dry-erase markers or crayons to complete the activity.

They take turns pulling an egg out of the bag.  They open the egg and tell their friends what was in the egg. 

All the children then find that colored egg on their paper and draw a line from the egg to the object or letter that was in the egg.  

Easter-Themed ECSE Activity: "Where did the bunny land?"

Here is a fun, simple Easter activity that works on a variety of skills.  

All you do is take a blue piece of fun foam or construction paper and add green islands of grass on it.  If you use paper, you will probably want to laminate it so you can use it from year to year without having to remake it.  Then, you take a plastic bunny that hops and have the children push the tab to see if the bunny lands on land or water. What a great fine motor activity!!

These game pieces are available in the Easter section at most department stores. I actually bought mine at Dillon’s after the season one year for $0.50! 

Following each bunny hop, have your students work on their recall skills by using the bunny chart to show if their bunny landed on land or water.  Teacher's Tip:  I slide my chart into a page protector and then use dry-erase markers on it so it can be reused.   Send me an email if you would like a copy of the bunny chart. I would be ‘Hoppy’ to share! 

It can be great math practice too by asking the students to watch if the bunny lands on land or water more often.  

Happy Hopping!  

Not-So-Typical Easter Egg Hunt Ideas

This week I am sharing two ways the McDaniel family has done Easter egg hunts.  I was getting tired of the typical hunt for candy and little goodies so two years ago I filled eggs with loose change and placed them around the yard.   Then, I left a note with a brand new piggy bank for my then three year-old to put the loose change from the eggs in.  He loved it!

Last year, I purchased a small Easter puzzle at Wal-Mart.  I put the inside parts of the puzzle together and wrote this message on them.  

I then took the outside edges of the puzzle and placed them in Easter eggs to hide around the yard.  On Easter, my son went out and searched for the puzzle pieces to complete the puzzle.  The outside edge of the puzzle had three clues to where he could find the Easter bunny.

After he read all the clues, he discovered that the Easter bunny was in his bedroom.  He ran to his bedroom where there was a note that said he just missed the Easter bunny but instead found two personalized Easter baskets filled with goodies for him and his baby brother.  

I found the personalized Easter baskets at Walgreens last year.  They had "Egg Hunt" embroidered on them.  I added the boys’ names and the word treasures with fabric paint.  So the baskets read Emmitt and Payton’s Egg Hunt Treasures.  I plan to use the baskets as a new tradition each year.   

Another tradition is to add these little bunny footprints along the trail to finding the boys’ Easter baskets.  

My student teacher, Miss Stephanie, gave me the idea and I love it.  Thanks, Steph!  

All you do is wet your fingers and place two knuckles in powdered sugar and then place them on the carpet to make a “bunny footprint trail”.  I realize this week’s blog entry is not written for classroom use but a lot of us are parents, too. I wanted to share it because my family has had so much fun with it! 

Teacher Tip: You could easily modify the puzzle piece egg hunt in the classroom to help the kids find a special Easter snack or surprise.  

When I have egg hunts in the classroom, I typically structure them so students at lower skill levels are looking for eggs with their photo on them and my more advanced students are looking for eggs with their first or last name on them depending on their level and ability.  This helps the children all get the same amount of eggs.  In the past, I have also color-coded the eggs so each friend in my morning class has to look for a specific color as they are younger and need the visual support to know which eggs are for them and then my older group will look for an egg of each color that has their name on it.  We use a social story and visual checklist for students that need it so they can successfully and independently search for their eggs.