Easter crafts and activities for kids

If you’re looking for ideas to help entertain the kids at home this Easter, these easy-to-follow crafts and activities, devised by experts, are perfect. Whether gathered round the kitchen table, cosying up in the living room or escaping outside together, embrace screen-free moments and let their creativity flow. 

Prefer to get out of the house? Visit a John Lewis store where, every day from 25 March until 14 April, we’re running a Play-Doh treasure hunt. We’ll kit you out with clues and activity sheets when you arrive in-store, before rewarding anyone who takes part with a Play-Doh treat.

‘You can make your own Easter headpiece using materials found around the house and in the recycling bin, including foil wrappers, cardboard, cereal boxes and magazines,’ says Millie Butler-Hiorns, manager and tutor at The Fashion School, which runs creative workshops for kids and teens. Apart from this, all you need to complete Millie’s design is a hat, glue and scissors.

1. Find a hat that you would like to add your ears onto (a stiff hat is best). 

2. Find a length of ribbon or make a narrow strip out of card (about half-an-inch to 1-inch wide, and long enough to loop around the crown of the hat).

3. Fold the ribbon or card strip in half and, placing it at the front of the hat, tie the band around the full circumference. Mark the spot on the ribbon or paper band where you want your ears to be, then put the band to one side.

4. Draw two ear shapes on a piece of cardboard and cut them out. 

5. Decorate the ears with magazine scraps; find colours and textures you like and collage them on to the cardboard. Consider collaging both the front and back of the ears. Tidy up the edges with scissors. 

6. Finally, glue the ears into place on the spots on the band that you marked earlier and attach the band to the hat.

Easter egg hunts are a joy for children of all ages and are super simple to set up – all you really need is an Easter basket for each child, plus a bag of Easter chocolates that you can hide while the little ones are asleep, ready to find the following day.

To make it a little harder for older children, create a proper treasure hunt with clues. We have a downloadable Easter egg colouring sheet and cut-out Easter eggs that you can print out at home and use to set up your trail. 

Get the kids excited for the hunt – and create few more creative activities for them – by encouraging them to make an Easter basket to collect their treasure, an Easter hat (see above) or a cape to wear to complete the mission. For younger children, try a teddy bears’ picnic and help them make invitations, party decorations and costumes for their toys.

Expert crafter Ruth Oliver from The Make Arcade shares a step-by-step guide to making pompoms using a fork and yarn. 

You will need: Yarn, a fork, scissors, card (a cereal box is ideal), glue, paints or colouring pencils. 

1. Take the fork and wrap the yarn around the outside of the prongs about 15-20 times. Make sure you leave a gap at the top and bottom of the prongs.

2. Cut a length of yarn and thread it through the middle gap of the fork prongs at both the top and bottom of the wrapped yarn, before tying it tightly around the middle of the wrapped yarn.

3. Slide the wrapped yarn off the fork and snip through the loops to create a pompom.

4. Draw a bunny shape on the card and cut it out. Colour in or paint to decorate, then glue on the pompom to make a tail.

5. Make a few of these bunnies, punch a couple of small holes around their neck area and thread onto another length of yarn to form a garland.

Kids will love making these biscuits – they’re a fun alternative to decorating chocolate eggs. 

CHICK BISCUITS

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: 9-10 minutes
Makes: 24

Ingredients
250g plain flour
½ tsp Cooks' Ingredients Bicarbonate Of Soda
2 tsp ground ginger
100g Stork vegetable spread
1 Waitrose British Blacktail Medium Free Range Egg
2 tbsp golden syrup
300g icing sugar
Gel food colouring 

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Line two large baking trays with parchment.

2. Place the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger in a large bowl. Add the Stork and rub in with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs.

3. Mix the egg and syrup, pour this into the flour and mix to a soft dough. Place on to a floured surface and roll out to 0.5cm thick. Using a 6cm round cutter, cut out 24 biscuits and place on the lined trays, leaving space between them. Bake for 9-10 minutes or until golden. Cool on a wire rack.

4. Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl and stir in 2-3 tbsp water – you're looking to get a smooth mixture that is thick but just pourable. Add the gel food colouring and decorate however you fancy. 

With sustainability and accessibility at its core, independent brand Wool And The Gang has helped to bring knitting and crochet back in fashion. And now it's time to get the kids involved, too. Learning to knit and crochet will encourage them to slow down, focus and, in turn, reduce stress and improve dexterity. 

The Wool And The Gang team have given us a free Ruby the Rabbit crochet pattern for you to make. It’ll take about four hours and is probably best suited to those with some previous crocheting experience.

You will need
Ball of Shiny Happy Cotton yarn
Ruby the Rabbit pattern
4.5mm crochet hook
Sewing needle

Time to make
4 hours

1 ball of yarn makes two rabbits

Completing this kit will help you to master: magic loop, chain stitch, single crochet increasing, single crochet decrease, slip stitch and whip stitch.