Montessori-Inspired Easter Activities for Toddlers

With Easter just one week away, I wanted to put together some Easter activities for Alexander (age 2 years, 9 months). I looked around online, through Google images, Instagram, and mostly just in my own head. Finally I came up with more than 15 different ideas that are Easter-themed but also have a learning aspect. I wasn't able to use all of them because (a) I ran out of eggs! and (b) I ran out of space on my schoolroom shelves.

In a post later this week, I'll share a few more Easter things:

Breakfast and Lunch (served in eggs, in an egg carton... I'll repurpose eggs for that!)
What's in Alexander's Easter basket
Some ideas for egg hunts for toddlers

Here are 15 Montessori-inspired Easter activities for toddlers. I've got some links along with each picture and description if you're interested in buying the products to do it yourself. If you use that link to buy something, it doesn't cost you anything extra; but I get a tiny bit of commission from Amazon, which helps me fund future projects and activities.

Sound Matching Eggs

This is a great sensory activity that involves hearing, which isn't always an easy sense to work with. In each pink/green pair of Easter eggs , there's a different object. For example, one pair has a little bit of rice. When you shake the egg, you hear the sound of the rice inside. So the object of this activity is to shake each pink egg and find a green egg that sounds the same. Here are the things I put inside my 6 pairs:

about 1 teaspoon of instant oats per egg (I taped over the holes as well)
2 tiny pom poms per egg
1 tiny plastic turtle per egg
1 small crumpled piece of paper per egg
2 rubber erasers per egg

The sounds are distinctive enough but can still be confusing for a toddler. The rice and oats are similar. The felt balls are nearly silent, as is the crumpled piece of paper. And the plastic turtle and erasers sound a bit similar.

Double Digit Number Matching (10-19 only)

This idea is fairly simple and can be used for lots of things. I took the numbers 10-19, since they all started with the number 1, and I put one number on each half of an egg. So 1 and 2 make twelve, for example. I put all of the egg halves into a bowl along side some tracing cards. He will pick a card, then find the halves that go together to make that number. NOTE: You'll want to use more than just a regular Sharpie (or you can paint over the Sharpie with some clear fingernail polish); otherwise it will rub off. I used this Sharpie Pro.

Count and Match

For this activity, I used jumbo Easter eggs. Inside each egg, I placed 1-9 little rabbit erasers. I found a cardboard egg container that was going to be thrown away, and I cut it down to a 3x3 grid. I labeled it with the numbers 1-9. Alexander's task is to open each egg, count the erasers, close the egg, then place the egg in the corresponding hole.

NOTE: All of my bowls, I found for under $2.00 at the local thrift store (Goodwill specifically).

Upper and Lowercase Letter Matching

The image below shows most of the activity but not all. All together, there are 52 egg halves that can be matched! In order to make it not so overwhelming, I simply separated these by color. Now, a bigger challenge would have been to swap all the colors around, but I decided to keep the colors the same (for the top and bottom halves). On the top half, I wrote the uppercase letter, and on the bottom half, I wrote the lowercase. Alexander's task will be to find the matching letters and combine the egg halves.

Open and Empty

This was easy! I took some of the tiny pom poms and put them inside of some eggs. He just has to open the eggs and dump out the pom poms. (I got this idea from Busy Toddler!)

Melty Bead Kit

I bought this from Hobby Lobby, and all I did was put the beads in a little bowl next to the egg shape. This is a great practice for fine motor skills. There are a TON of beads, though, and I'm not sure if I want to leave them all out for him or just have about 20-30 at a time. I can imagine a lot of little beads all over the floor... Anyway, he'll create a pattern, and I'll heat the final product to set it. This can be done and redone, using the egg shape as the base. It should make a pretty little activity!

Window Clings

Window clings are simply stuck to a window. But in order to get to the cling, you have to first peel off the front and back plastic layers! So Alexander will have to peel open each cling, then press it to the window.

Carrot Patch

This was a super simple little craft. I saw it somewhere, a little while back, and had to recreate it myself. When I saw it there were no instructions, so I did my best! I used orange and green pipe cleaners plus half of an empty egg carton.

Trim the egg carton so that when you turn it upside down, it lays flat.
Poke holes in the tops (the bottoms, really) of each little cup. I just used a pair of scissors to stab it into an X shape.
Cut two orange pipe cleaners and two green pipe cleaners into 3 equal segments each.
Fold one orange piece in half and twist the ends shut. The twisted part becomes the bottom of the carrot.
Thread one green piece through the top of the carrot and twist to secure it.
Take the loose ends of the green piece and fold them toward the orange, to create two leaves.
Shove each carrot through an X-shaped hole.

The task here is to simply tug on the carrot and pull it. I made some carrots a little fatter than others so that they'd be a little tougher to pull out. And once finished, push them back in!

Flower Arranging

This is a classic Montessori practical life activity. I really should have fresh flowers and water and a watering pitcher and all that. I do want to do that in the future, but for today, for this week, for this theme, it was easier to opt for the fake ones. I found 3 little bouquets of flowers at the Dollar Tree (for $1 per bunch). I cut off each individual stem (they were connected). THAT was a task... if you have some wire cutters, it will be easy. If you do not have wire cutters (like me) it will be more tricky! I used scissors, clamped them shut, and just twisted each stem around and around about 10 times. Then I released the scissors, bent the stem back and forth a few more times, and it finally broke off. It took about 10 minutes to cut all the individual stems.

I stuck some of the flowers into a mason jar, and I placed some extras next to the jar. I'll show Alexander that this is what a bouquet looks like and ask him to make an arrangement for himself. There are 3 colors of flowers. I anticipate that he'll put all 3 colors together, but he may choose to stick to just one color for his arrangement.

Pom Pom Color Sorting

Here are those pom poms again! And I used a divided tray that I found for $1 at the Dollar Tree. Here's a set of them, though, if you just want to get some for future sorting practice (but if you have a Dollar Tree, check there first since it's cheaper!). I put 4 colors of pom poms in the center, and Alexander simply has to separate the 4 colors into the 4 sections. This isn't totally Easter-related, but I didn't have any more tiny Easter-y things! You can use small crosses, or rabbits, or chicks, or eggs. The pom poms are Spring-y, at least.

Tweezer Practice

I found these felt egg pouches at Target and these tiny colorful chicks from Hobby Lobby. I matched up the colors, placed the chicks inside the matching egg pouch, and I put a set of tweezers inside the 4th egg pouch.

DIY Nesting Eggs

I found a giant egg filled with jumbo eggs, at Target. I had some regular sized eggs, but I bought more regular eggs as well as some miniature eggs at the dollar store. I matched colors to make 4 sets of nested eggs! I placed them inside of the base of the giant egg.

Simple Egg Puzzle

I was really excited about this idea. If we had a router, I would have cut these from a thin piece of wood, sanded them, and stained them. But alas, I used scissors and heavy card stock. I cut 5 eggs to be the same size. Then I cut them in half in 5 different ways. Alexander simply has to match them. If it proves to be way too easy, I'll make a new set that is a variety of similar jagged cuts.

Tong Practice

I saw these bunny tongs at Hobby Lobby. They are perfect for picking up the tiny eggs!

Easter Stickers!

Stickers are good for fine motor skills! I make it a little easier by peeling away everything but the stickers.

OUR SETUP

Since I came up with more than I expected, I'll leave these trays available for two weeks instead of just one. I found some bunnies that I put in our frames for the time being.

What About the Meaning of Easter?

We are Christian. And I do have a few crafts related to the Easter story planned. One big project I hope to finish this week is a children's book of the Easter story that is in the style (of writing and illustration) of Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I have the text written. I just need to work on the simple illustrations and put it all together!

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