If you celebrate Easter and are looking for last minute ideas on what to put in your children's Easter basket, why not make it unique with a multicultural twist?
I've listed some ideas below of things to put in the basket. I've included affiliate Amazon links, but you can find many of these (or something similar), at your local bookstore, Target, Walmart, and/or Michaels. Those of you with Amazon Prime can get most of them delivered before Sunday if you act fast.
Learn to count, sort, and match - in any language! Exercise children's hand-eye coordination. Each plastic egg contains a different color and shape, with corresponding holes.
A memory and matching game that develops patience and memory skills. Children are introduced to the inspiring diversity of 24 warm and accessible children from cultures around the world, opening doors to empathy and discovery. The back cover identifies each child’s home country.
The Melissa & Doug Children of the World Floor Puzzle includes 48 extra-thick cardboard pieces that are easy for children to put together. The finished puzzle displays beautiful original artwork.
Nurture your child's musical abilities! The Rhythm Club Konga features a bright, playful sound, a vibrant Rhythm Club graphic, and can be played while sitting or standing. Equipped with an Acousticon shell and a pre-tuned Suede drumhead.
If your family celebrates Easter, I wanted to just share a few resources for children (and their parents).
First, many countries celebrate Semana Santa with special events or traditions. We were lucky to have Shannon Alvarez who lives in Guatemala with her family, share this post about the incredible alfombras (or "carpets") that are made in the streets prior to Easter. Here's a peek at one of them to entice you over there to read about this beautiful custom.
Amazing, no?
And in Andalucía, Spain, children collect wax balls made from the dripping wax of participants in the nightly parades of the region.
Easter Crafts
If you're looking for some great crafts for your kids, check out these!
Boost your child’s literacy and math skills with this fun, Easter-themed packet! This multicultural packet contains images of both the Easter bunny and cascarones.
Introduce your young students to the vocabulary associated with Easter. This little booklet lets them color in the picture, then read and write the words.
I hope you enjoy these free counting mats for children learning to count from one to five. So much fun, they can easily be used with ANY small objects...decorations, buttons, beans, Easter-themed stickers, etc. Or your little ones can just draw their own shapes or pictures to fill in each row.
I'm losing track of the days now that our normal routine has been thrown out the window. Even though we already homeschooled, the days were easy to recognize based on when I was required to go to town to take my son to his taekwondo classes, Civil Air Patrol meetings, and homeschool Co-op classes.
So the point is that Easter has snuck up on me. I can't believe it's less than a week away. And one of my children has a birthday this week. This quarantine, while extremely necessary, is really hard on kids who were hoping to celebrate birthdays with big parties and lots of friends, but now have to spend it like any other day at home. To find ways to celebrate both, I'm looking everywhere online to find ideas for activities we can do here as a family.
And if you find yourself wondering what to do with the kids this coming Easter weekend, don't forget that I do have fun printables for your little ones to color. Or make cascarones!
Boost your child’s literacy and math skills with this fun, Easter-themed packet! This multicultural packet contains images of both the Easter bunny and cascarones.
Introduce your young students to the vocabulary associated with Easter. This little booklet lets them color in the picture, then read and write the words.
I hope you enjoy these free counting mats for children learning to count from one to five. So much fun, they can easily be used with ANY small objects...decorations, buttons, beans, Easter-themed stickers, etc. Or your little ones can just draw their own shapes or pictures to fill in each row.
This mini-book is a brief history of the popular Hispanic craft of making cascarones. This book includes coloring pages of items related to the history of this craft, as well as brief descriptions in English and Spanish that are easy for young children to understand. At the end of the book are simple directions in English and Spanish for making cascarones. Contains three language versions.
This is a one-page history of cascarones. From where they originated to how to make them, this informational text is written for students in 4th - 8th grade. Includes a 7-question comprehension quiz plus answer key.
Today, I'm delighted to share this post written by Shannon Alvarez, who is living in Guatemala with her family and agreed to write up what she observed about Guatemalan alfombras during Semana Santa. Thank you, Shannon!
Hola A Todos!
Our family has now been living in Guatemala for the past eight months! We live about 15 minutes outside the city of Antigua. What a beautiful country Guatemala is!
After many years of watching from afar, we were finally able to be here during the Easter/Holy Week season. Every weekend in Antigua, there are processions and alfombras (carpets) made during the month preceding Easter.
There are local families, art schools, and other organizations who create their alfombras in Antigua. The tourist season is very high and the traffic is crazy! We were happy to stay home and watch the local procession from our rooftop. Many of the little towns have set days when their church does the processions through their town.
The alfombras cover the streets - a beautiful display of art! The alfombras are all unique and designed by the families displaying them. There is no set area assigned, but many people make theirs outside their house. Some are made of grass, flowers, vegetables, and/or fruit. Some are made of sawdust (serrín). The serrín is bought in its natural color and then each family dyes it to the colors they want for their design. Many use natural methods for dyeing, using fruits, herbs, etc.
Stencils are made for the designs you want to create with your sawdust. Depending on the complexity of the design made, some families begin their alfombras around 3 to 4 am. The procession in our area began at 10am outside the Catholic Church, where there gathered a large group of the town who attend that church. There are two platforms/floats in this particular church’s procession.
Each year, the decorations and forms change. Urban areas may have more extravagant decorations, while the smaller towns tend to be more simple. The larger floats may be so large they require over 100 people to carry them. The ones in our town require around 60 people to carry them, with people taking turns as they pass through the streets. Men carried the float with Jesus and the cross, while the women carried a float with the Virgin Mary. The men wear purple and white gowns to symbolize the royalty and purity of Jesus.
The procession begins at the church when the people carry the floats through the main streets of the town, and hours later, return back to the church, The people walk surrounding the floats, singing, praying, some carrying incense. There are musicians who follow behind as well. Everyone walks over the alfombras!
Once the procession has passed by, the alfombras are swept up and thrown away. It was very sad to see all that hard work gone within such a short amount of time. The procession returned to the church around 3:00 and by 3:30, there was little sign of the alfombras on any of the streets! A fleeting work of art!
I learned other interesting bits of information from talking with a local friend. Cascarones are made here, but only used on the Tuesday of Carnival. During this time of year, families will eat a cabbage salad called curtido, which is made purple from the ingredients in it. This is also the only time of year when people will eat empanadas. They can be found other times of the year, but the majority of people will only eat them during the Semana Santa season.
This is a very special time for families here as they spend time together and reflect on their faith and lives going forward in the year. We are so blessed to be able to witness the beauty of the culture around us!
If you'd like to see video of the procession, check out the one Shannon took. The video is rough between :10 and 1:15 (probably due to internet connection during upload), but the video portions before and after that are clear.
Make Your Own Alfombra
Are your kids inspired to make their own alfombra? Start small! And here are a few items you might need:
I was unpacking a box the other day and found a collection of miniature Easter-themed decorations that my kids used one year when they decorated a shoebox float. So I started thinking about how I could use them next year with my toddler (who is just a little bit too young to play with them this year), and - Bing! - I came up with several ideas.
This one was too good not to share.
So I sat down at my computer and pulled up my Easter-themed clipart and quickly put together these counting mats for children learning to count from one to five. So much fun, they can easily be used with ANY small objects...decorations, buttons, beans, etc. **IMPORTANT! Be careful with little objects that can be choking hazards if your child is prone to putting things in his or her mouth. Use only with supervision!
I think that I will probably laminate mine next year so that I can use them as an activity to keep my child busy while I am cooking dinner or doing school with my older son.
But if you didn't want to do that, then they would be more versatile because you could also use Easter-themed stickers or just let your child draw shapes, eggs, or whatever they want!
I hope you enjoy this free set of counting mats to use with your own toddlers or preschoolers!
