Toddler Theme: Easter

This is one of those holiday toddler themes that you can explode into a whole week long exploration.  And that's just what we did!  One afternoon, we went down to the creek across the street from our building and fed bread to the ducks & new ducklings.  And on another, we did an egg hunt at a local park.  We're not big candy eaters in this family (we all prefer ice cream, donuts & cookies) so I filled Mia's eggs with assorted polished rocks, an adjustable dinosaur ring, and hair clips.  Just little trinkets that I knew she'd appreciate.  An annual egg hunt is a big tradition in Adam's family so he got the all-important job of hiding the eggs.  Can't fool Mia, though.  She found them quickly but spent much more time going through all her spoils.

It wouldn't be Easter week without egg dying.  I made my own egg dye by mixing food coloring with boiling water and a splash of vinegar.  Mia picked 3 colors this year -- pink, orange, purple.  I put her in charge of color saturation timing.  If she said an egg was done, then we pulled it out.  She very quickly noticed that the longer she left the egg in, the darker the color got.  The next day, I gave her some egg stickers I found at Target to embellish her dyed eggs.  A little KISS Tip: cut a little ring from a toilet paper tube to rest the eggs on.  This easy, non-messy art project kept her busy for quite some time and the results were pretty fantastic.  Don't you think?  

We happened to have some fresh flowers in the house, so I proposed an experiment.  What would happen if we put some of the dye we used to color eggs in the vase water?  She didn't know but was eager to find out.  This time, she chose the blue dye and we added a few drops into the vase.  Within merely hours, we could see blue striations in the white flower petals.  The next day it was even darker.  This made it easy for her to see that the flowers actually "drink" the water in the vase through their straw, the stem.

And lastly, we learned about Jesus and his death & resurrection, the Easter story.  For snack one afternoon, I prepared a mini Last Supper with naan (or you could use pitas) and grape juice.  I told her the story of how Jesus said goodbye and gave instructions to his disciples over a meal just like our snack.  I also made a construction paper scene with a cross on a hill and a tomb with a rock to cover it.  Some of these abstract religious topics are tough to impress on a child so young but I presented Jesus' resurrection as the best game of Peekaboo ever played.  He died and was placed in the tomb but when people went to visit his tomb, he had vanished!  If you have other ideas for presenting the Easter story to young children, please comment.  I'd love to hear it!

A summary of all Easter week activities with links:

ACTIVITIES: Did a little science experiment by putting food coloring in the vase water of a flower, Fed bread to the ducks swimming in the creek

ART PROJECTS: Dyed Easter eggs and decorated with stickers

OUTINGS: Went on an Easter egg hunt at the park

SNACK: Created a "Last Supper" with naan and grape juice

BOOKS: Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by Beatrix Potter, Miffy by Dick Bruna, My World by Margaret Wise Brown, Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems

BIBLE STORY: The Easter story

If you'd like to share a photo of your kid doing theme week activities, you can email it to me (email button in the left menu) or tag me on your Facebook photo or use the hashtag #weeklytoddlerthemes on Instagram (if you are private, just make sure I'm following you or tag me in the photo).

Happy Easter!