Easter Sensory Play & Craft Activities for Kids

by Laura Tuck
Easter Play & Craft Activities

Laura @inspiremyplay

Founder of @inspiremyplay, Early Years teacher for 11 years and mummy to three gorgeous girls. I'm passionate about the benefits of play in early childhood.

Easter is such a lovely time for sensory play and crafts. From pastel playdough and chickpeas to nature-inspired art & crafts, there are so many ways to make the season feel egg-stra special! It’s a wonderful opportunity to build family traditions, spark curiosity and explore and reflect on the meaning of the Easter story together through hands-on fun. You can watch an animated version of the Easter story below — it's a lovely way to enjoy some family time together and reflect on the meaning of Easter. 

Here are some of our favourite Easter sensory play and craft ideas to try at home — all simple to set up and most using materials you’ll already have at home.

1. Easter Sensory Tray

This fun Easter sensory tray combines texture, colour and imaginative play. Children will love scooping, pouring and exploring while learning about Easter. 

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Colour rice in two shades of green paint and leave to dry (or dry gently in the oven on a low heat if you’re in a rush).
  2. Once cool, pour into the PlayTRAY and add flower-shaped sprinkles.  
  3. Place eggs, rabbits or other Easter-themed toys in the rice for children to find, scoop and move with silicone bowls, scoops or tongs. 

This encourages fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and imaginative storytelling. 

2. Easter Scoop & Pour Coloured Chickpeas

These pastel-coloured chickpeas are perfect for Easter sensory play and they’re super fun to scoop and pour, which help children develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.  

What You’ll Need: 

  • Dried chickpeas  
  • Ready-mix tempera paint  
  • Zip-lock bag or jar  
  • Lined tray to dry  
  • PlayTRAY  
  • Silicone scoops and bowls  
  • Optional: wooden or toy Easter eggs 

How to Play: 

  1. Place chickpeas in a bag or jar, add a squirt of ready-mix tempera paint and shake to coat evenly.  
  2. Lay chickpeas out on a lined tray to dry (or place in oven on a low heat for 5 minutes if in a hurry).  
  3. Pour chickpeas into the PlayTRAY and provide scoops, bowls, and tongs for play.  
  4. Add Easter eggs for children to scoop and sort.   

Our pastel silicone sensory tools look perfect alongside the coloured chickpeas!     

Just like rice, dried chickpeas last forever! So you can reuse them again and again for endless sensory fun!

3. Easter Playdough

Playdough is a favourite activity in our house and this Easter-themed version brings a burst of pastel colour to your child’s playtime. It’s brilliant for creativity, imaginative play and fine motor development as little hands roll, press and shape.

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Make a batch of our no-cook playdough and divide it into smaller portions.  
  2. Add a tiny drop of food colouring to each to create soft pastel tones.  
  3. Pop playdough cutters, and loose parts such as chickpeas, feathers or pom-poms in the PlayTRAY compartments.   
  4. Encourage your child to roll, stamp, and create Easter shapes on the lid of the PlayTRAY.  

4. Feed the Bunny  

This playful game teaches early numeracy while encouraging fine motor practice and problem-solving. 

 What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Fill a PlayTRAY with coloured rice.  
  2. Download our bunny and carrot printables and pop them into the PlayTRAY.   
  3. Ask your child to “feed” the bunny by posting carrots into its mouth.  
  4. For a numbers challenge, number the carrots and ask your child post them in order. 

5. Easter Egg Letter Match 

This is a super-fun activity for preschoolers that combines sensory play and letter recognition. 

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Print out our eggs and cut them in half.  
  2. Hide the eggs in the feather filled PlayTRAY or around the garden.  
  3. Match each uppercase letter with its lowercase pair. 

6. Easter Scavenger Hunt 

We hope your little ones love our Easter Scavenger Hunt — a fun problem-solving activity that promotes screen-free play and observation skills.  

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Print out our Easter Scavenger Hunt clues.  
  2. Fold clues and hide them inside plastic eggs.  
  3. Guide your child to find each egg and solve the next clue.

7. Pasta Eggs Craft 

A lovely fun Easter craft for toddlers and pre-schoolers that provides a great workout for little fingers and builds hand-eye coordination. 

So you’re ready to go, you can prepare painted pasta in advance — check out how my blog: “How to Dye Pasta for Play & Craft Activities” for the instructions. 

What You’ll Need: 

  • Pasta shapes  
  • Paint   
  • White glue  
  • Cardboard egg shapes  
  • PlayTRAY 

How to Play: 

  1. Pre-paint pasta and allow to dry.  Pop the different coloured pasta shapes in the PlayTRAY compartments.  
  2. Place your cardboard egg cutout into the lid of the PlayTRAY.   
  3. Help your toddler squeeze out the glue in lines across the cardboard egg.   
  4. Encourage your child to press the pasta onto the glue to decorate their egg. 

8. Shaving Foam Easter Egg Wreath 

A messy but magical craft that teaches colour mixing and creative expression. It works really well for sibling groups. Here’s the instructions, but if you’d rather watch the technique in action, I made a reel a while back using the same process to make Valentine’s hearts.  

What You’ll Need: 

  • Shaving foam  
  • Food colouring  
  • Pencil or paintbrush  
  • Card or photo paper  
  • Ruler to scrape foam  
  • Ribbon 

How to Play: 

  1. Add drops of food colouring in your chosen colours to shaving foam.  
  2. Use the end of a pencil or paintbrush to make patterns with the food colouring, or leave as blobs of colour (each will achieve a different look).   
  3. Place a piece of card or photo paper on top of the shaving foam and press down gently.  
  4. Once the paper is covered, lay it face up in the lid of the PlayTRAY and scrape off excess using a ruler.   
  5. When dry, cut into egg shapes and assemble into a wreath glueing them together.  String it up with a ribbon. 

I love this activity because it creates beautiful, unique patterns every time.   

Switch it up! Using the same method you could also create colourful Easter bunting or Easter cards.    

9. Easter Egg art 

This is a simple activity we come back to again and again! Black glue is perfect for creating bold outlines and is great for helping little ones practise staying within the lines. We tried this as we were finishing a glue bottle, and it worked beautifully to make a patterned Easter egg. Adding watercolour paint over the dried glue makes the colours really pop against the black lines—such a striking effect!

What You’ll Need: 

  • PVA/school glue 
  • Black food colouring or paint 
  • Paper
  • Watercolour paints 
  • Paintbrush

How to Play: 

  1. Add a few drops of black food colouring or paint to your glue and mix well. 
  2. Use the black glue to draw patterns or outlines (we made an Easter egg design). 
  3. Leave the glue to dry completely. 
  4. Once dry, paint over your design with watercolours and watch the colours resist the glue and pop through beautifully.

10. Chick Small World Play 

This simple activity is a lovely way to encourage imaginative play using recycled materials. These little chicks are a favourite at this time of year, and creating a cosy multi-level home for them adds an extra layer of fun. With ramps, platforms and hiding spots, it’s perfect for storytelling, exploring movement and open-ended play.

What You’ll Need: 

  • Cardboard (boxes, tubes, scraps) 
  • Glue or tape 
  • Scissors 
  • Toy chicks  
  • Sensory base (e.g. popcorn kernels, rice) 

How to Play: 

  1. Use cardboard to build a simple structure with different levels, ramps and spaces. 
  2. Place your structure into the PlayTRAY and add your chosen base. 
  3. Add the chicks and invite your child to explore—moving them up and down ramps, hiding them and creating their own small world stories.

11. Easter Bunny Box 

Make your own mini bunny baskets with our Easter Bunny Box Printable. They’re so cute and perfect for collecting a few chocolate eggs or flowers from the garden. 

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Download and assemble the bunny box.  
  2. Decorate with stickers or craft materials.  
  3. Hide eggs around the garden to collect in the box, or encourage your child to collect small flowers or natural treasures. 

12. Easter Placemats 

Decorating placemats is a collaborative, creative activity that also develops fine motor skills. It’s also great for keeping little ones busy while you’re preparing your Easter lunch!  

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Download and print our Easter Placemats.  
  2. Place on the kitchen table and invite children to colour and decorate together. 

13. Easter Egg Scissor Skills 

Our printable Easter Eggs are perfect for practising scissor skills, building hand strength and getting children ready for early writing.  

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Download and print our Easter Egg and carrot shapes.  
  2. Get your child to cut out the egg shapes.  
  3. Encourage repeated practice for skill building. 

Tip: If your child finds cutting tricky, draw a smiley face on their thumb — as long as they can see it while cutting, they’re doing it correctly. 

14. Easter Garden 

Every year we make an Easter garden as a way of exploring the Easter Story. For this one we used a flowerpot to show the empty tomb, and bound some twigs together to make a cross. We then gathered lots of foliage and flowers to make a beautiful garden. 

What You’ll Need: 

  • Flowerpot  
  • Stones, twigs, foliage, flowers  
  • PlayTRAY 

How to Play: 

  1. Place grass, soil and foliage in the base of the PlayTRAY. You could also make your own soil or mud (check out my blog: '10 Sensory Bases for Small World Play’ for the recipe), or colour rice for grass.   
  2. Add a flowerpot and arrange pebbles and flowers to create an Easter garden.  
  3. Bind some twigs to make your cross.  

15. Oobleck Easter Eggs 

Our silicone Alphabet Letters are soft and flexible making them perfect for messy sensory play—and they’re so easy to clean too! We love popping them inside plastic Easter eggs and adding them into oobleck for a fun activity that little ones can explore again and again. 

Oobleck is such a fascinating mixture, acting like both a liquid and a solid, making it ideal for sensory play and early learning.

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Mix 1 cup of cornflour with ½ cup of water in the PlayTRAY (add a little extra water if you’d like a runnier consistency). 
  2. Add a few drops of food colouring and stir until combined. 
  3. Place your letters inside plastic Easter eggs and add them into the oobleck. 
  4. Encourage little ones to scoop, squeeze, and explore—opening the eggs to discover the hidden letters inside!

16. Sticky Easter Eggs 

This Easter craft is a hit with children of all ages, and it’s great for building hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills. It uses a piece of contact paper (sticky-backed plastic) stuck onto a cardboard surround with an egg shape cut out.  

What You’ll Need: 

  • Contact paper with egg cut-outs  
  • Craft supplies: pom-poms, tissue paper, sequins, buttons, coloured pasta 

How to Play: 

  1. Place sticky paper on cardboard surround with an egg shape cut out.  
  2. Draw lines over the egg using permanent marker.  
  3.  Place craft items in the compartments of the PlayTRAY and invite your child to decorate the egg, following the lines you’ve drawn. 

17. Easter Tablecloth 

It’s become a little family tradition of ours to make an Easter tablecloth to use on Easter Sunday. It’s such a lovely activity to do together as a family – I look forward to it every year! 

What You’ll Need: 

  • Roll of paper or paper tablecloth  
  • Q-tips, paints, markers 

How to Play: 

  1. Draw egg outlines on the paper.  
  2. Decorate using Q-tips, paints or markers.  

18. Nature Bunny  

Often the best activities are free, and this is a lovely one to do as a family. It gets the children off screens and encourages outdoor exploration and sensory learning. Our Nature Bunny Printable features five adorable designs to decorate.  

What You’ll Need: 

How to Play: 

  1. Go on a family walk and collect leaves and flowers.   
  2. Download and print our Nature Bunny Printable.  
  3. Decorate using the treasures you collected on your walk.  

Have Fun this Easter!

We hope these Easter sensory play and craft ideas inspire some magical family moments! Don’t forget to tag us @InspireMyPlay if you give any a try — we love seeing your Easter creations come to life!

For more great ideas and inspiration, sign up to our newsletter and check out our blog.  

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