A Little Izziwizzi Idea - Make an Easter Bonnet

1. Take a sheet of yellow or green card and cut out a large circle (approx. 35cm). A large saucepan is ideal for this.
2. Place a 1pt pudding basin inside the larger circle, draw round it and cut out a smaller circle. This will be perfect for the top of the Easter Bonnet.
3. Cut a strip of card approximately 15cm wide and 50ish cm long for the sides of the hat.
4. Snip in to the long rectangular piece of card along each edge approx. 2cm apart and 1.5cm in.
5. Fold the tabs in one direction for the top and another direction for the bottom, and stick to the top and rim of the hat.
6. Secure the side of the hat with sticky tape.
7. Decorate the bonnet with Easter decorations.

Age Suitable: 3 years + (2 years with close adult supervision).

Tile Painting With Easter

Age: 2-99

Get a white tile an get and adult to paint on a black outline on the tile an egg an easter chic or an eater bunny. the children just paint them.

Kim Day, Lanarkshire, United Kingdom

Cut Out Your Easter Eggs

Ages: 3-6 really

This is an activity I do every easter with my children. I started this when my eldest child was 3, then when his baby sister became old enough, we started to do it together and now my youngest little one absolutely loves this activity. It is basically a very, very simple idea, but little one's love to do it. I call it 'Cut Out Your Easter Eggs' but it is really more of a mosaic Easter Egg picture when it is finished. It is brilliant because it also is something that can be done on the spur of the moment - without having to spend money on expensive craft supplies! All you basically need are some plain sheets of paper - any colour will do - as this will be the 'background' for your mosaic Easter egg. Glue - any type of glue providing it is child friendly. I always tend to have washable PVA glue in the house for when my little one's want to do craft. Scissors are also needed (obviously child-friendly safety scissors - as the fun thing with this activity is it allows the little one's to cut out paper themselves...something little one's absolutely love to do. This is why I recommend it for ages 3 and upwards, as I found that my little one's were able to use safety scissors from the age of 3). A pencil is also needed, as are any old magazines, newspapers, catalogues or even the dreaded junk mail which seems to come through our doors all the time! What to do is this, an adult draws a large 'Easter Egg' shape on the background paper, and then gives the child the magazines, catalogues etc and ask them to cut out pieces of paper in any colours, shapes, sizes that they like. Once they have cut out all their shapes they can arrange all the pieces of paper in and around the egg to make a beautiful brightly shaped egg and then stick the papers down. This is a brilliant activity for little ones - loads of fun, mess and creative too.

Hayley Todd, Flintshire, United Kingdom

Creative Easter Egg Hunt

Ages: 2+ with supervision

Easter party egg hunt! 1ST STAGE (ADULTS ONLY) Boil enough eggs so each child participating has at least 4 Eggs each. Allow to cool and then the fun begins! 2ND STAGE (CHILDREN AND ALL) On Good Friday gather the children together and using various crafty materials including paint decorate the previously boiled eggs which should now be cool to your own liking - making sure all materials are suitable for the ages groups participating. Allow to dry and store until Easter morning 3RD STAGE Easter morning while the children are sleeping or being entertained elsewhere - hide the decorated eggs in various locations i.e; Garden or if weather is poor hide in a room where there are lots of exciting places to slip the eggs in but easily findable for the children. 4TH STAGE - the hunt begins Line the children up and on a timer let them loose to search for the decorated eggs - the child who finds the most eggs will win a large easter egg. You could do a 1st, 2nd and 3rd prize depending on the numbers participating. Also you could hide extra special prises like cadbury cream eggs or little mini eggs or even something non edible - do not want to make the child sick!!!!!

Marie-Anne Taylor, Berkshire, United Kingdom

Easter Bunny Fun

Ages: 18 months to 8 years Make a card template of a large bunny ear and encourage the child to draw around it and cut it out. Decorate the ears using fake fur pieces, paints or felt tip pens. Make a simple card headband and fix the ears to it with sticky tape. Using face paints, paint the child's nose pink and add a few black whiskers. Learn hop to hop like a bunny. If there is more than one child, they could have bunny hopping races with a carrot for the winner!

Lydia Houghton Wiltshire, United Kingdom

Egg Decorating

Age: 2-6

Materials: hard boiled egg(s) vinegar (plain white) small bowls, cups or empty margarine containers water food color drops Directions: fill containers about 1/2 to 2/3 full of water. Don't TOO full or when you put the eggs in it will overflow. I like using cups because it's the most frugal Add 1 tsp of vinegar (for every 1 cup - ish of water. We don't need absolute measurements here, but if you're using a gallon ice cream pail you'll need more vinegar than if you're using a teacup) Add drops of food color until you're happy with the hue. (I usually get happy with the hue and then add 2 more drops... I find that tends to make the eggs the color I was originally happy with). Put hard boiled eggs in the cups (I use a Tbsp to put them in and take them out) Let dry. Wipe with vegetable oil (with paper towel or a rag) to make a glossier egg NOTE: I always cover my work surface with newspaper so the dye doesn't get on my kitchen table. If it does get on furniture, wipe it off with a rag immediately. This goes for the store bought packages too.

Kate McCartney, London, United Kingdom

3+ to make lamb pictures paint the children's hands with black paint and then get them to press them down on a white piece of paper, then decorate. The lambs look cute with packing "popcorn" or white paper tissue, or cotton wool.

Kenny Kenny, Merseyside, United Kingdom

Easter Pollock

Age: From birth up to 100 years old

materials needed: Wallpaper newspaper to cover the floor aprons any kind of paint Medicine syringes (different sizes available from local chemist) Lay out the paper on a flat surface, the floor works well. Fill bowls with different coloured paint. Fill medicine syringes with paint and gently squeexe the paint out onto the paper. We call in the Pollock design (after the famous artist that produced similar paintings worth millions!) It works on gross and fine motor skills, is a great stress buster and looks brilliant. We hang ours on the wall as a decoration. You can also use canvasses from the pound shop (£1 each) and work on those, they look fabulous on the wall as a permanent exhibition of children's Pollock style designs. All my kids from age 4 up to a teenager love this acitivity! And I do too. The medicine syringes are safe and have no sharp points at all, bigger ones are easier for younger children to handle, they are reusable, some chemist give them away, but they are aways calpol/medicine syringes in every mother of children's medicine cabinet.

Diane Boustead, Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Paper Mache Easter Eggs

Ages: 3+

Make a giant papier mache easter eggs. You will need the following: Balloons Plain flour Water Bucket Newspaper - cut into strips 30cm Plain paper - cut into strips aprox 30cm Strip of card paints/glitter/ craft bits How to make them Blow up the balloon and knot it. Mix the flour and water together in the bucket to make a runny paste 2 parts water/1 part flour. Dip the newspaper strips in the paste Cover the balloon with layers of wet newspaper strips until you can no longer see any part of the balloon Repeat until you have covered the balloon with about 3 layers of newspaper in total. Then do the same again but this time use plain paper and cover the newspaper completely. Stick the ends of the papaer card together to make a stand for you egg creation and leave to dry for a few days. When the egg feels dry decorate with the poster paints and your its and bits. Very messy but loads of fun!

Laura Dougdale, South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

Easter T-Shirts

Ages: 5 years

Getting very cheap t-shirts from Tescos and poster paints. Then get the children to paint their own easter egg designs onto their t-shirts. When they are dry, then they can go easter egg hunting in them.

Sharon Page, Herts, United Kingdom

Easter Eggy Animals

Age: 3+

Paint hard boiled eggs into different animals and stick fabric or glitter on them.

Emma Kinsey, Cheshire, United Kingdom