Easter Math Ideas For Play Based Learning
Keeping kindergarten and preschool kids engaged and learning in all the excitement of the classroom Easter activities can be a challenge. The children are soooo excited about Easter celebrations and the change in routine certainly does not help.
Don’t worry!! I’ve got some Easter math activities to keep your kids on task and learning right up until the Easter break.
Easter Math Investigation Areas
These Easter themed math investigation areas are easy to prep and easy to set up. They will have your kindergarten kids developing and consolidating their early years math skills through engaging hands-on Easter activities.
Sorting Easter Eggs
Sort different coloured plastic or wooden Easter eggs into small Easter baskets. You can make little baskets from noodle boxes, bowls or cups. Attach a cardboard handle with tape to make some cute little Easter baskets.
To encourage sorting by specific attributes, label the baskets by colour, shape or size. Colour code the baskets by painting them or using coloured card for the handles. Tape cut-out pictures representing size or shapes to the basket if you would like to lead the children to sort by those attributes.
Egg cartons are also ideal for sorting small objects such as beads, buttons and counters. Each cup section can be labelled with pictures representing colours, shapes or sizes. Use paint, markers, stickers or cut-out shapes glued into the bottom of each cup. Provide the children with small shaped beads, buttons or manipulatives which correspond to the sorting attributes.
Counting Easter Eggs
Invite the children to count small plastic or wooden Easter eggs into numbered baskets. You can pick up a set of small cardboard Easter baskets from the discount store and label them with number stickers to encourage counting practice.
There are number labels in the Easter Math Provocations Set if you would rather use them to label your baskets. Just like the sorting provocation, if you do not have access to Easter baskets, you can make your own using small noodle boxes or paper cups.
Add tongs or tweezers to the provocation. The children will develop their fine motor skills when they use them to transfer the eggs into the baskets.
Easter Math Adding Machine
Make an Easter adding machine by attaching a couple of cardboard tubes to a strong cardboard backdrop. You will probably use this adding machine a few times throughout the year so it is well worth the effort of making a strong, reusable version.
The backdrop pictured above is from Spotlight. Decorate it with adhesive contact, scrapbooking paper and printed signs. To make it easy to store, stick Velcro dots to the back of the tubes and to the cardboard backdrop. This will make it easy to remove the tubes and fold the backdrop flat again when the adding machine is not in use.
You might like to add printed recording sheets to this learning provocation. Recording sheets will remind the children to record their learning. Differentiated recording sheets and the adding machine signs are part of the Easter Math Provocations Set HERE in my store.
If you do not wish to go to the trouble of making a reusable adding machine, securing a couple of tubes to a wall with blutac will work just as well.
Easter Sensory Tray
Children learn everything through their senses, so including sensory play whenever possible is a great idea. The Easter sensory trays above will teach number concepts and develop fine motor skills in your early learners .
First place a sensory play base material in your tray. Try shredded paper grass, real grass clippings, bird seed or corn kernels. Next add some Easter themed small toy bunnies, carrots, chicks or eggs to the tray. You could also include pompoms, artificial flowers, buttons, or math manipulatives.
Then provide a few small numbered baskets, sorting bowls or Easter cups in or beside the tray. These containers will encourage the children to sort and count the small manipulatives you have added. The containers also help to keep the area organised and tidy.
Finally add a dice to encourage number games and tongs or tweezers to develop fine motor skills.
Easter Pattern Blocks
Children will work on shapes, hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills with this easy math learning provocation. Supply a basket of pattern blocks and some printed prompt cards to set up this engaging math invitation.
Invite the children to explore and discuss shapes as they create Easter themed pictures using the pattern blocks. If you would like to use the task cards and visual prompts in the picture above, they are available for instant download in the Easter Math Provocations Set HERE.
Easter STEAM Challenges
Children love STEAM challenges. So do teachers! They provide opportunities for hands-on learning and integrate seamlessly into the play based classroom. STEAM incorporates Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths. If you are interested in reading more about STEAM education in the early years, head over to this blog post: STEAM Activities
STEAM Challenges with an Easter theme could include: Can you make an Easter basket? Can you make a car for the Easter Bunny? (supply a small toy Easter bunny) Can you make an Easter hat?
There are 8 illustrated task cards in the Easter Math Provocations Set, but you could easily make your own task cards by writing the STEAM challenge onto a piece of cardboard. Place the STEAM challenge card in any hands-on construction area like the play dough table, Lego basket, makerspace, collage area, box construction or blocks area.
STEAM challenges are also perfect to add to busy bags or tubs of construction toys. The challenges can be delivered to a whole class or incorporated into small group rotations.
Easter Math Weighted Eggs
Teaching measurement concepts about the mass of objects in an authentic way is sometimes tricky in the early childhood classroom. This math learning provocation is an opportunity not to be missed at Easter time.
The plastic Easter eggs that clip apart are perfect for adding different weights to. If your school does not have weights in their math resources, you can make weights using fishing sinkers, rocks or small bags of gravel. Put different weights inside each clip apart egg and seal with cello tape.
Add the weighted Easter eggs to a basket along with some Easter books and measurement books. Also make sure to provide some clipboards for the children to record their learning. The children can use the weighted eggs to learn about hefting and develop their measurement metalanguage.
Extend this learning invitation by adding balance scales and eggs of different sizes.
Easter Maths in Home Corner
The dramatic play area is a great place to add real life math learning invitations. Encourage problem solving and hands-on learning experiences in this imaginative play space.
Add a basket of toy Easter eggs to Home Corner. Children can be encouraged to make their own Easter baskets for the dolls and will have fun sharing the Easter eggs into the baskets. Most children will enjoy making Easter decorations to decorate the space too.
Easter Number Book
The writing area can include math learning too. Add some Easter number cards and Easter vocabulary mats to the writing table as an invitation for the children to make Easter themed math resources. Children can make posters, games, task cards, signs and books.
Easter themed stickers, stencils and stamps will invite children to create a variety of Easter themed resources. Also supply cardboard, coloured, patterned, and plain white paper along with a couple of staplers.
The children might like to make Easter counting books. The child made math books can be added to the class library area or to any of the classroom math spaces. The ones pictured above are templates from the Easter Math Provocations Set. Download this pack HERE. Children love using these templates just as much as designing their own.
Easter Play Dough Number Mats
The Easter themed number mats featured here are also part of the Easter Math Provocations Set. Children could design and draw their own play dough mats. Some of their creations could be laminated and added to the play dough table.
The play dough provocation pictured above has homemade play dough with cocoa powder added during the cooking process. You can download my fail proof play dough recipe HERE in the FREE Resource library. Sometimes I add essential oils to our play dough but I it was not necessary this time. This Easter play dough has a delicious chocolate smell.
Eggs-timation Station
The final math investigation area is an invitation to estimate. Fill a jar with Easter eggs and run cello tape around the rim and lid to deter children from opening it. Try to have enough eggs in the jar for each child in the class to receive one at the end of the week.
Add some recording sheets and a box to collect the written estimates. Children can examine the jar and record their estimate on the supplied recording sheet.
At the end of the week, open the jar and count the Easter eggs together. When looking through the children’s estimates, discuss the strategies they used to make an educated guess.
These Easter activities are all tried and tested. They have always been successful learning invitations in our play based classroom. If you are keen to set some of these learning areas up in your classroom too, you might be interested in the Easter Math Provocations Set mentioned throughout this blog post.
All the posters and visual prompts have been done for you so you can print, laminate and quickly set up some engaging and purposeful investigation areas in your classroom this Easter.
