Welcome to Part 2 of our Easter activities!
Our aim is to help parents and caregivers incorporate speech and occupational therapy goals into Easter celebrations. These activities cater to different ages and therapy needs, making sure the Easter break is both enjoyable and beneficial for your child’s development.
Easter egg hunt
Whether you’ve hidden eggs in your backyard or around the house, an Easter egg hunt provides an engaging and fun-filled environment that has speech-language and occupational therapy benefits. This easter holiday, hide some chocolate easter eggs, or easter related toys of your choice (chicks, bunnies), grab a basket, and encourage your child to locate the hidden items. This activity can be enjoyed as a family or with a group of friends!
Speech-language Pathology goals:
- Social-communication skills: as children collaborate with friends to strategise their search, express excitement when discovering hidden treasures and share findings and clues with each other. During an easter egg hunt, children have the opportunity to practice important social communication skills needed for turn-taking, waiting and sharing.
- Expressive language skills (verbal and non-verbal communication): Have children plan their search strategies with each other, promoting use and understanding of important concepts such as ordering and location terms (first, next, then, under, on, between). Can encourage the use of gestures, such as pointing. Moreover, the hunt itself sparks curiosity, leading to questions and discussions about colours, shapes, and spatial relationships (the egg was under the big tree!).
- Comprehension and inferencing skills: incorporate verbal or written clues and directions for your children to follow and find the hidden treasures. These instructions can be tailored to your child’s individual level, and include directional and locational concepts such as in, on, behind, near, between etc.
Occupational therapy goals:
- Gross Motor Skills: The physical act of searching for hidden eggs encourages gross motor skills such as running, jumping, and balancing. These activities contribute to overall physical development and help enhance coordination, strength, and agility.
- Fine Motor Skills: Picking up and handling small objects like eggs involves fine motor skills. Children practice precision, finger strength, and coordination, which are essential for tasks like writing, buttoning, and using utensils.
- Visual Perception: Spotting and identifying eggs hidden in various locations enhance visual perception skills. Children develop the ability to discriminate between different colors, shapes, and sizes, which is important for academic tasks and daily activities.
- Social Interaction: Participating in an egg hunt often involves collaboration with peers or family members. Children can work together, share strategies, and communicate during the activity, fostering social interaction and teamwork.
- Emotional Regulation: Engaging in a fun and exciting activity like an egg hunt provides an outlet for emotional expression. The sense of accomplishment and joy associated with finding hidden eggs can positively impact a child’s emotional well-being.
Making easter bunny ears
Engaging children in the craft of making Easter bunny ears can be a learning experience that goes beyond the festive fun. This creative activity integrates both speech and language development as well as occupational therapy goals.
To make easter bunny ears at home you will need:
- Printable bunny ears
- Scissors, glue stick.
- Decorations (as many or as little as you please): paint, pencils, crayons, pom-poms, paper, ribbon, string, stickers, easter grass/shredded colour paper/ confetti.
Speech Pathology goals:
- Pretend play skills: Once the ears have been made and are worn, this provides children the opportunity to engage in pretend play as little bunnies! Pretend play skills are crucial for development as a child needs to think imaginatively, use a diverse range of vocabulary and engage in social communication with others.
- Listening and understanding skills: children carefully listen and follow instructions, needing to sequence steps in the correct order to make their ears. Children learn to understand directions with multiple steps as well as temporal (then, before, after) and locational (in, on, beside) concepts.
- Vocabulary building and expressive language skills: As children work together to follow instructions, share ideas, and express their preferences, they naturally build vocabulary and enhance their verbal communication skills. Additionally, discussing colours, shapes, and sizes during the crafting process introduces new words and concepts. Use this task to prompt children to express choices and make requests, for example, what paint they need for their ears.
Occupational Therapy goals:
- Fine Motor Skills: Cutting, folding, and gluing during the crafting process involve fine motor skills. These activities help children develop hand strength, coordination, and precision, which are essential for tasks like writing, drawing, and using tools.
- Bilateral Coordination: Many crafting activities, including making bunny ears, require the use of both hands together. Bilateral coordination is crucial for tasks like buttoning clothes, tying shoelaces, and other activities that involve the coordination of both sides of the body.
- Visual-Motor Integration: Following instructions, cutting along lines, and placing materials in specific positions involve visual-motor integration. This skill is important for tasks that require hand-eye coordination, such as reading, writing, and playing sports.
- Sequencing Skills: Following step-by-step instructions in the crafting process helps develop sequencing skills. This ability to organize and carry out tasks in a specific order is beneficial for academic activities, daily routines, and self-care tasks.
- Attention and Focus: Completing a craft requires sustained attention and focus. Engaging in such activities can help improve a child’s ability to concentrate on a task, which is beneficial for academic and daily activities.
Bunny hopscotch
Hopscotch, a classic foot-path game enjoyed by generations, takes on an egg-citing Easter twist. Beyond its physical benefits, Easter-themed hopscotch can be a powerful tool for fostering speech and language development in young minds. So, get hopping like a bunny this easter holiday, with some easter-themed hopscotch. Grab some chalk and get creative with a hopscotch course on the foot-path or use the print outs for an indoor version.
To make an easter bunny hopscotch at home you will need:
- Printable bunny jumping mats for indoor and outdoor fun, or
- Chalk for outdoor hopscotch
Bunny jumping mats:
Encourage your child to hop on both feet to hop on bunnies “1” and “2”, and then hop on one foot for bunny “3”, and continue this pattern.
Speech Pathology goals:
- Vocabulary development: Encourage your child to decorate the hopscotch squares by drawing their own easter-themed chalk masterpieces, a great opportunity for children to express their ideas and describe their artwork. As children navigate the squares decorated with Easter-themed illustrations, children encounter new vocabulary associated with the holiday; “hop”, “bunny”, “egg”.
- Sequencing and following directions: the numbered squares provide a natural framework for understanding order, while the hopping and skipping motions reinforce the concept of progression (first, second, third etc.). This sequential aspect enhances a child’s ability to understand and follow instructions.
- Social communication skills: Bunny hopscotch involves taking turns, sharing ideas, and expressing themselves as they collaborate to navigate the hopscotch course. For example, taking turns with friends jumping down the hopscotch course and gathering easter eggs. This social engagement contributes to the refinement of language skills through conversation and cooperative play.
- Phonological awareness skills: Incorporate rhyming challenges to enhance the understanding of sounds, syllables and word patterns. For instance, your child thinks of rhyming words for an Easter-themed word like “bunny” while hopping (e.g., funny, sunny, honey, runny) Alternatively, if your child has difficulties with speech sounds, each square could be a time to practice these!
Occupational Therapy goals:
- Gross Motor Skills: Bunny hopscotch involves hopping, jumping, and balancing on one foot. These movements contribute to the development of gross motor skills, including coordination, balance, and strength.
- Bilateral Coordination: Jumping and landing on one foot require the use of both sides of the body simultaneously, promoting bilateral coordination. This skill is essential for tasks such as riding a bike, climbing, and participating in team sports.
- Balance and Spatial Awareness: The hopping and jumping motions in bunny hopscotch challenge a child’s balance and spatial awareness. Enhancing these skills is beneficial for daily activities that require stability, such as walking on uneven surfaces, navigating stairs, and maintaining an upright posture.
- Motor Planning: Bunny hopscotch involves planning and executing a sequence of movements. This helps children develop motor planning skills, which are crucial for organizing and coordinating movements in a purposeful way.
- Crossing the Midline: Hopping and jumping from one square to another in bunny hopscotch encourages the crossing of the body’s midline. Crossing the midline is important for activities like reading, writing, and other fine motor tasks.
Easter sensory bin
An Easter sensory bin can be an effective tool for promoting speech and language development in children. By incorporating various textured materials like grass, plastic eggs, and soft bunny toys, the sensory experience engages multiple senses, creating an interactive learning environment.
To make an easter sensory bin at home you will need:
- Plastic or cardboard box
- Easter Grass
- Easter Eggs
- Bunny Erasers
- Cottonballs
- Egg Dying Cups
- Rice or pasta
Speech Pathology goals:
- Vocabulary:
- Labeling: nouns[people, places, things], verbs [action words] – use modelling and repetition to build language and vocabulary. For example, “Bunny”, “Soft bunny!”, “Bunny jumps”.
- Language skills: use adjectives to describe objects, textures, colours, sensations (how does it feel?)
- Wh- questions, What does it feel like? What does it smell like? Who would like this? Where should we put it?
- Social communication: Use this as a time for children to practice their social communication if playing with others, through turn-taking, waiting and sharing, and the communication needed for this. While discovering treasures your child can share ideas, express preferences and engage in conversations by asking questions about what a child has found.
Occupational Therapy goals:
- Sensory Stimulation: The diverse materials in the sensory bin, such as plastic eggs, grass, or themed objects, provide varied sensory experiences. Exploring different textures, colors, and shapes stimulates the senses and contributes to sensory integration.
- Tactile Sensitivity: Sensory bins can help children who are sensitive to certain textures gradually desensitize and become more comfortable with tactile stimuli. The variety of materials in the Easter sensory bin allows for exposure to different tactile sensations.
- Fine Motor Skills: Manipulating small objects in the sensory bin, such as picking up plastic eggs, hiding objects, or scooping materials, engages fine motor skills. This is beneficial for hand-eye coordination, finger strength, and precision, which are essential for activities like writing, buttoning, and using utensils.
- Visual Discrimination: Sorting through different items in the Easter sensory bin encourages visual discrimination. Children can identify and differentiate between various colors, shapes, and sizes, which is important for visual perceptual skills and academic tasks.
