10 Play-based learning activities for Easter to try in 2025
Easter is the perfect time for early learning and care services to enjoy creative, fun and rich learning experiences. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to include play-based learning activities at your service. Play-based activities help children develop essential skills through exploration, discovery and fun. Try these 10 play-based learning activities with Easter themes at your early learning and care service this fall. They’re surely a fantastic way to engage young learners and support their educational development.
1. Easter egg hunt—but with a twist!
That traditional Easter egg hunt is fun for children, but you can quickly transform it into an educational adventure. To turn this into a play-based learning activity, fill plastic eggs with letters, numbers or simple shapes. Hide the plastic eggs throughout your service, both indoors and outdoors, if possible. Have children hunt for the eggs, then encourage them to open them and match the surprises inside to charts.
Additionally, they can form simple words or put numbers in order, making it a creative way to build early literacy and numeracy skills. The egg-citement of hunting for the eggs and discovering the hidden surprises inside will keep young learners engaged.
2. Easter crafts inspired by nature
Easter crafts aren’t just a fantastic opportunity to teach children about sustainability. They’re also a chance to document your efforts under Element 3.2.3 of the NQS—environmentally responsible. You can use natural materials for Easter crafts to encourage creativity as well as sustainability. Some ideas include:
- Have children collect leaves, twigs and flowers to create beautiful patterns on hard-boiled eggs.
- Repurpose cereal boxes or other cardboard to create bunny masks and decorate them with petals, seeds or leaves.
- Use natural dyes like boiled beetroot or turmeric to colour eggs.
- Weave and decorate Easter baskets from recycled strips of paper, fabric scraps or small branches and twine.
These unique activities encourage children to eggs-press their creativity while also promoting environmental awareness in a fun way.
3. Easter-themed sensory play
Sensory trays can serve up oodles of play-based learning fun. Children will certainly enjoy touching and sorting coloured rice, shredded paper “grass” and hidden Easter treasures like small chicks or plastic eggs. The bright, festive colours and themed items help children connect with Easter celebrations in a unique way.
Instead of using their hands, you can provide spades, tweezers and containers for children to sort, scoop and transfer items. In addition to building fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, it also sparks imaginative storytelling as children discover and group their Easter finds.
4. Bunny hop challenges
You can further encourage the enhancement of gross motor skills and physical development with outdoor bunny-themed activities. Some ideas include:
- Bunny hop races—no walking or running allowed!
- Hold decorated Easter egg-and-spoon relay races.
- Create a bunny-themed obstacle course with tunnels little “bunnies” can crawl through and items for them to hop over.
Include some animal-inspired stretches for a fun, movement-filled Easter session before you begin or as a cool-down activity.
5. Storytelling and puppet play
Children will love it when you bring Easter stories to life with puppet play. In addition to classic tales like The Tale of Peter Rabbit, you can create simple bunny or chick puppets from paper bags or socks to recreate these Easter favourites, recommended by Readings:
- We’re Going on an Egg Hunt (Martha Mumford)—A playful adaptation of the classic “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt,” where children follow a group of bunnies searching for hidden eggs.
- Spot’s First Easter (Eric Hill)—Follow Spot, the puppy, on his very first Easter egg hunt, perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.
- That’s Not My Bunny (Fiona Watt)—A delightful story for younger children—use it for touch-and-feel exploration with an Easter bunny theme after the puppet play.
- Peppa’s Grand Easter Egg Hunt (Peppa Pig)—A familiar favourite for little ones, where Peppa and her friends go on a fun and simple Easter egg hunt.
- Bilby’s Easter Surprise (Miranda Birthisel, Cate James (illus.)—It’s Bilby’s first time helping the Easter Bunny deliver eggs, but things don’t always go as planned.
- Another Book about the Easter Bunny (Laura Bunting)—It’s impossible for the Easter Bunny to deliver eggs all over the world and perform in fancy Easter books. What will happen to Easter?
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar’s Peekaboo Easter (Eric Carle)—The Very Hungry Caterpillar is famished again— but this time for Easter treats! Enjoy this seasonal take on a classic.
- Bluey: Where’s Bluey? At Easter (Bluey)—The Easter hunt is on, but Bluey and Bingo are nowhere to be found. Engage young minds with fun Easter surprises in this search-and-find book.
You can also involve children in puppet plays, encourage them to retell stories or collaboratively create their own Easter adventures.
6. STEAM: Egg science experiments
Spark curiosity with simple eggs-periments. You can adapt several of these ideas based on children’s ages and abilities.
- Egg drop challenge—Use recycled materials to protect an egg from a drop. But don’t worry about “failures”—the splat is half the fun, right?
- Eggs-plore buoyancy—Introduce the concept of density by testing whether an egg floats or sinks in freshwater and saltwater.
- Rubber egg—Dissolve an eggshell in vinegar and observe changes over several days.
Hands-on, physical learning is a fantastic way to get children eggs-cited about learning new things. Fun eggs-periments are the perfect way to engage curious young minds.
7. Easter songs and music activities
Why not enjoy some Easter-themed songs and movement games at your service? Children can use shakers or tambourines to follow rhythms inspired by hopping bunnies and chirping chicks. Additionally, circle dances and musical storytelling help develop language and coordination.
Here are some other songs to get you started:
- Easter Bunny, Here We Go!
- The Easter Bunny Song
- Happy Easter Song for Kids
- Colour Egg Song
- Old MacDonald Had a Farm | Easter Song for kids
Songs and dancing are undeniably great fun for children (and educators) of all ages.
8. Easter food fun
Depending on your children’s ages and available facilities, incorporating some Easter-themed food activities is a terrific way to get children involved. In addition to developing fine motor skills, children can work on math skills while counting and measuring ingredients. Food-based activities can also help children work together and develop patience as they take turns with different kitchen implements.
- Easter nest cookies—Children can shape cornflakes or shredded wheat mixed with melted chocolate into nests and then add mini egg decorations.
- Bunny biscuits—For younger children, you can prepare sugar cookies in bunny shapes that young children can decorate with icing and fluffy bunny coconut tails.
- Rice Krispies eggs—A great no-bake treat where children can measure, mix and shape Rice Krispies eggs (instead of boring squares).
- Play-Doh hot cross buns—Play Noughts and Crosses with these Easter-style hot cross buns.
Whenever incorporating food-based activities, be sure to check for food allergies beforehand. Most recipes and activities can be easily adapted for dietary requirements, such as gluten-free or dairy-free options.
9. Multicultural Easter and autumn learning
Egg-splore Easter traditions from around the world and connect them to Australia’s autumn season. For example, you could invite families to an Easter-themed show-and-tell where they can highlight their Easter traditions. Spring-themed Easter activities from countries in the northern hemisphere can serve as an introductory geography lesson. You can then contrast them with autumn Easter activities in Australia by incorporating colourful leaf collections, which can be used in other crafts or activities.
10. Easter-themed mindfulness and wellbeing
Encourage mindfulness with an Easter flair.
- Bunny breaths—Start with three quick sniffs through the nose, followed by one long eggs-hale through the mouth. Imitating a bunny’s breathing pattern in this way is an egg-cellent way to help with relaxation, stress relief and emotional regulation.
- Easter yoga poses—Many “traditional” yoga poses can be rebranded for Easter, such as the squat pose (chick pose), flower pose (Easter lily pose) or egg pose (Easter egg pose).
- Easter-themed colouring page—Quiet colouring can be a terrific way to promote focus and creativity in a calming way.
Easter provides the perfect opportunity to weave creativity, movement, curiosity and mindfulness into your early learning program. These play-based activities not only celebrate the season but also nurture key developmental skills, cultural awareness and a love for learning.
Check out our Easter-themed experience to find more inspiration for play-based learning activities. Learn how educators can use Playground for Easter-themed play-based learning programming and planning, as well as to share pictures and videos of these egg-citing activities via the Home family app.
Contact us for a demo to see for yourself how Xplor Education helps with documenting learning experiences and sharing them with families.
Dean Comeau
Marketing Team Lead
