What does Easter mean to you?
For me, it’s camping in Albany, sleeping in a dorm full of kids (when I was a kid), chocolate egg hunts, campfires with toasted marshmallows, colouring in competitions, tuna mornay on Good Friday, and racing on the Saturday.
Easter means different things to different people.
Maybe your family doesn’t celebrate Easter at all, perhaps you have never had the Easter Bunny visit you in your tent and leave footprints behind for you to discover the next day.
Perhaps you’ve made your own easter eggs (which is something I’m going to try this year. I bought two moulds so I’m going to have a go at making them and if it doesn’t work, I can just eat the chocolate with my niece anyway).
In some places and for some families they might go egg rolling down a hill. Perhaps you’ve dyed eggs. Perhaps you know what egg tapping is – have you ever tried to see who has the hardest egg by giving them a little tap? Your family might be Catholic or Christian and Easter is the end of Lent and you visit church. Maybe your family bakes Easter bread at this time of year. Perhaps you’re from Auckland and you miss the yearly Easter Show. Perhaps for you and your family it’s just four whole days when no one has to work or go to school, and you get to be together. And for many people it’s the same as other weekends and they work to ensure we have police, nurses, and firefighters if we need them and can nip to the shops for more easter eggs.
Easter is fast approaching and for those of you who are interested in celebrating, or learning more about Easter, I have some books and craft for you.
The Smallest Bilby and the Easter Tale by Nette Hilton and illustrated by Bruce Whatley
It’s the night before Easter and for the first time Billy and his band of little bilbies must deliver the eggs. “This is fun,” they sing as they hide eggs here and there and up and down. But when one of the bilbies gets into trouble, only Billy knows what to do.
In Australia, we often swap out the traditional bunny for a bilby (the first known instance was in 1968) which given how much of a pest the bunny rabbit is in Australia this seems like a very good swap. All of the books I’m highlighting today feature these native marsupials which remain a vulnerable species. This is a really sweet book and a favourite at Easter Storytime.
Little Bilby’s Aussie Easter Egg Hunt by Yvonne Mes and illustrated by Jody Pratt
Near bush and scrub and oceanfront, they tiptoe on their Easter hunt. A group of baby bilbies are on an Easter egg hunt. They find all kinds of eggs – a kookaburra’s egg, a turtle’s egg, a cassowary’s egg – before the little bilbies finally find what they’ve been looking for: Easter eggs to share with all their friends. This colourfully illustrated picture book showcases the diversity of Australia’s egg-laying animals. Each spread reveals an egg in its natural environment and asks the question ‘Whose egg could this be?’. After turning the page, the egg is matched with the animal it belongs to.
According to Wikipedia, eggs became part of the Easter celebration because eggs were not allowed to be eaten during lent so children feasted on them before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. One of the best parts of Easter, in my opinion, is when creme eggs finally hit the shelves so the connection between Easter and eggs is appreciated. Bilbies don’t lay eggs however, so in this sweet book the bilbies go hunting for eater eggs and along the way find eggs from other animals. It’s a great way to introduce or discuss the different ways animals have young.
In WA, Dalgyte is the Noongar name for a bilby.
Easter Rabbits, or traditionally hares, have been around for centuries and they used to only give eggs to the good children and would keep their own Easter version of the naughty and nice list we are so used to associating with Christmas.
Aussie Easter Hat Parade by Colin Buchanan and Simon Williams
Hey! Ho! What a show! Look at what we made! As we go marching round and round in the Easter Hat Parade!
Traditionally, people wore new clothes (and therefore a new hat for church was needed) for Easter. It’s tied to welcoming a new period and good spiritual tidings or good luck into your life. Now, an easter hat parade is a fun way to decorate a hat, or make a hat, and find time to promenade around to show it off.
Easter Story retold by Heather Amery
This is a simple retelling of the Easter story for young children. It includes a simpler text at the top of each page for beginner readers, and a longer text at the bottom of the page for parents to read aloud to children learning to read. It provides an enjoyable opportunity for parents and children to share the excitement and satisfaction of learning to read.
For many, Easter isn’t a religious holiday and they focus on the eggs and bonnets, however Easter is a Christian festival and if you would like to discuss the origins of Easter with your children this is a very simple version of the story.
The dates of Easter change, and while there are ongoing (all of the 20th and 21st centuries) talks to agree on a static date. Easter and its related holidays are ‘moveable feasts’, not falling on a fixed date; its date is worked out based on a lunisolar calendar (solar year plus Moon phase) which in Australia means it falls on a Sunday somewhere between 22 March and 25 April making this year’s date of 9 April (Easter Sunday) about in the middle of the possible dates.
Easter Cooking and Other Fun Stuff for Kids by Fiona Hammond
Make Easter time fun for kids in the kitchen and during play. From a bunny down the burrow ice cream delight to little chicken truffles, from a bunny mask to dyeing eggs, this delightful book is packed full of recipes and fun things for kids to make. The simple illustrations and easy to follow steps will make cooking fun for children.
The long Easter weekend is a great time to spend some time cooking, crafting, and having fun learning new skills.
Rhymes
Little Peter Rabbit
(Sung To: Battle Hymn of the Republic)
Little Peter Rabbit
(Make Bunny Ears)
Had a fly (flap arms)
upon his nose (point to nose)
Had a fly (flap arms)
upon his nose (point to nose)
Had a fly (flap arms)
upon his nose (point to nose)
And he flipped it (brush nose with hands)
And it flew away (flap arms)
The Bilby Pokey
to the tune of “The Hokey Pokey”
You put your right paws in,
[right hand and foot]
you take your right paws out.
You put your right paws in,
and you shake them all about.
You do the Bilby Pokey,
and you scurry all around.
That’s what it’s all about!
You put your left paws in….
Your put your nose in…
You put your floppy ears in…
You put your long tail in…
You put the whole bilby in…
Craft – Colouring In Easter Photo Puzzle
Colouring in is a great activity for children, it develops hand-eye co-ordination, fine motor skills, allows children time to practise and develop the skills they will need for colouring later, is a creative endeavour and can spark our imaginations. It’s fun and entertaining and a great way to develop our colour sense.
For the craft, you’ll need an Easter colouring in, I’ve used one from cleverpatch but you can use absolutely any colouring in page you want. Every member of your family, no matter the age, can enjoy this activity so make sure to have enough colouring in pages for everyone. It will provide a great time and space for you all to chat as you colour.
Puzzles are great for our brains too; they develop our pattern recognition (finding lines and colours that match and indicate they go next to each other) which are mathematical and scientific skills. They help develop spatial concepts (where things are in relation to one another) and concentration.
What you need:
- colouring in page,
- colouring pencils/pens/crayons/textas,
- scissors
What you do:
- Colour in the picture.
- Cut it up into puzzle pieces (how many depends on the age of your child).
- Put it back together.
- Extra – you can now glue it onto another piece of paper if you want to hang it up somewhere.
