Spring Into Mark Making!

With Easter just around the corner and families nation-wide now housebound, I thought I’d show you some seasonal Easter mark making ideas to keep all the little hands busy. As a mum of two one year old boys I can empathise with any parents that are feeling that the days are long and testing when you can’t get out and about. Mark making is the perfect way to keep children of all ages and abilities busy and engaged. 

There are so many benefits to mark making activities like these including hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills as well as the added fun factor and sense of pride in their finished product. These little crafts are perfect to brighten up the house for Easter or to send to grandparents and relatives missing your little ones. 

Easter Bunny Printing

All you need for this simple Easter bunny printing activity is an empty toilet roll (if you have been lucky enough to find any), some paint, paper or card and markers or crayons. Cut three rings off the empty toilet roll of equal sizes. Manipulate two of the rings into bunny ear shapes and tape them onto the third ring making a round face with two long ears. Pour some paint onto a plate and you are ready to dip in your homemade bunny stamp and start printing. Once the bunnies dry you can use markers or crayons to make a little face and whiskers. This activity is suitable for all ages and adult involvement can just be differentiated to suit the age and ability of the child. 

Non-messy Easter Paint Marbling

For this activity you will need paper or card, paint and cling film. Again, this activity is suitable for all ages but I would highly recommend it for babies and toddlers as my little boys thoroughly enjoyed it. I don’t know about you but its very rare any of our baby/toddler crafts turn out how they look on Pinterest but with this activity the final product is genuinely their own work and happens to look really good. Definitely something you wouldn’t mind displaying on your fridge! The popular baby hand and footprint activities never ever work out for us as my two are usually less than cooperative so this activity was something different and gave them the independence they need. I drew an outline of an Easter egg and a chick and squirted on random blobs of paint. I carefully wrapped the pages in cling film and put them on the floor for the boys to press and manipulate. They loved exploring the texture and watching the colours mix together. When the cling film is removed it leaves a lovely marbling effect and when it dries you can cut it out and mount it on coloured paper. Don’t forget to draw a face and feet on your chick.

Easter Chick Fork Painting

Fork painting is one of the quickest and simplest ways of mark making using paint with toddlers. They get to activate those essential motor skills in their little hands that they will need for writing. This is the perfect Spring or Easter activity and again can be differentiated for babies by holding their hand as they move the fork through the paint. All you will need is yellow paint, paper, a fork and some markers or pencils. Optional extras would be stick on goggly eyes and a felt beak but probably like most of you I don’t have access to such luxuries under the current circumstances! Fork the yellow paint from the centre outwards to make fluffy marks. Once the paint dries draw on some eyes (or stick on eyes if you have them), a beak and feet. This is perfect for an Easter card for relatives or grandparents in isolation. It’s the little things!

I hope these activities bring your little ones some Easter fun and help you make some happy memories during this strange time. Stay safe and we hope to see you at our classes soon!

Happy Easter!

Fiona – Little Learners Lisburn & North West Belfast

Don’t forget to tune in to our daily weekday Little Learners Live sessions for more messy play and mark making ideas. If you have missed any you can catch up by subscribing to our YouTube channel. If you think your little one would benefit from our multi award winning classes, check out our locations across the UK. You can join the waiting list to be notified when classes are starting back up!