Eggcellent Easter activities for young people and children

Easter is the perfect opportunity to go hopping mad with all sorts of fun-filled, bunny and egg-themed activities. Your younger clients will have a great time while they engage in fun Easter activities that support your occupational therapy practices. 

Get creative and messy with arts and crafts, set up an Easter egg hunt, or explore some sensory activities. We have some eggcellent Easter ideas to get you started, don’t forget to have some rewards in the form of chocolate eggs! 

Sensory Easter bins 

Sensory bins are a great way to engage children. Filling tubs with tactile items that kids can explore at their leisure is a great way to stimulate their senses.  

You can start by dying uncooked rice and pasta shapes with food colouring. To do this you simply place the rice or pasta in a ziplocked bag with a small amount of food colouring, and shake to coat the contents in the dye. Once covered, leave it out on a tray to dry out for at least two hours. Once dried you can add it to the sensory tub, and you can make as many colours as you want to create a rainbow effect in the sensory bin. 

Look out some fluffy chicks, foam Easter eggs, bunny-shaped items, and anything else that is Easter-themed and safe for children to play with. Add some scoops, large tweezers and cups to allow children to explore scooping and filling, pouring and emptying, as well as using the tweezers to work on their fine motor skills. 

This activity can be used over and over, and you can keep adding to it so kids have more things to discover every time they play with it.  

Herb and Plant Growing 

Despite what some might say, science is extremely cool, especially the incredible science of nature. Easter is the perfect time to get in amongst the dirt and plant something beautiful – be it sweet smelling lavender or something a little more edible. Teaching kids about the science of nature is a brilliant, hands-on activity that requires attentiveness and patience, but can be incredibly rewarding: studies have shown that gardening can improve motor skills, enhance creativity, increase social skills and improve self-confidence, while also providing an outlet for stress and anxiety. Growing herbs is an incredibly easy thing to do, fun, and can be done indoors. Garden cress can be grown with great ease and if your fingers are particularly green, you can even get it to cultivate on a paper towel! Not only does it grow quite quickly, sprouting in about two days and being ready to harvest in around two weeks, it’s got a very interesting peppery taste and crunchy texture, meaning it can be a great sensory experience from start to finish. 

Easter Fro-Yo 

Chocolate isn’t going to be the ideal snack for every child – some might be allergic, and for others it might not be on the nutrition plan – but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve a sweet treat at Eastertime! The brilliant Grace Hall who blogs at Eats Amazing came up with an awesome alternative to chocolate eggs – Easter Egg popsicles. Made of only three ingredients – yoghurt, granola and fruit – these frozen yoghurt lollies are super customisable, so they can be changed depending on a child’s dietary requirements. Grace uses silicone egg-shaped moulds to make them extra Easter-y. The recipe, which can be found on the blog, is extremely child-friendly, so even making the treats counts as a fun sensory experience the whole family can enjoy. Visit Grace’s blog at EatsAmazing.co.uk for more details. 

Egg Decorating 

Letting your child’s creative side loose on an Easter egg is a brilliant idea, and the activity is so easily adapted for children who have additional needs. Pinterest is an incredible resource when looking for ideas on how to adapt this traditional activity for your child: for example, there’s a few brilliant guides on how to turn egg decorating into a fun, tactile event for blind children using felt, neoprene, glitter, and sticky crystals. For those who might not take much joy out of a real egg, there are great guides on how to turn an egg hunt into a tactile game by filling plastic eggs with touchy-feely items, like slime or cotton wool. If breaking the eggs is something you’re worried about, never fear – you can buy decorating eggs which are made of recyclable materials, which can’t be broken. 

Egg Hunts 

Once your eggs are looking good and ready for the Easter Bunny to whisk them off and hide them, it’s time to get started on the traditional Easter egg hunt. For some kids, that’s going to be easier than others, but it doesn’t mean anyone has to sit out the fun. This is a great time to lay down some classic (but not too hard!) problem solving tasks for children of all ages. If finding the eggs on their own might be too difficult, it might be fun to give children clues on where their eggs are hidden. These can be punny or visual clues – like a map with X marking the spot of the eggs. It’s important to remember the needs of all children involved, so make sure all of the eggs are accessible to all of the children, which means no hiding them in high places, unless an adult is there to give them a hand! 

Petting Zoos 

Of course, not all Easter activities need to involve the Easter Bunny – other animals are of course available. Petting zoos are a fun, sensory experience for kids, and with it being springtime, petting zoos will be filled with adorable baby animals. Baby bunnies, lambs, sheep and loads more will be on offer to feed and pet, which can both be an extremely exciting activity and extremely relaxing. Many petting zoos will offer an accessible experience which can be tailored to the needs of children with additional needs, so if you’re worried about accessibility at your local petting zoo, give them a call before heading out. You can also find animal handlers who will bring animals to your setting, allowing for a calmer, more structured visit from your favourite animals. 

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