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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 the Easter story together through hands-on fun. Here is an animated version of the Easter story:

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 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: 

• Homemade playdough (check out our no-cook playdough recipe)
• Food colouring in pastel shades
• Easter-themed cutters
• PlayTRAY
• Playdough tools  
  

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.  
   

2. 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 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: 

• Coloured rice (check out our rainbow rice for play recipe)  
• Confectionery sprinkles shaped like flowers  
• PlayTRAY  
• Pastel silicone scoops, bowls and tongs  
• Wooden or toy Easter eggs, rabbits, chicks (you get the idea!)
  

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. 

4. Feed the Bunny  

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

 What You’ll Need: 

• Coloured green rice (here’s our rainbow rice recipe)  
• Bunny and carrot printables  
• PlayTRAY 
  

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: 

• Printable Easter eggs cut in half  
  
• PlayTRAY or garden
• Sensory base (e.g. shredded paper, feathers)  
  

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: 

• Our printable Easter scavenger hunt clues  
• Plastic eggs  
• Optional: small chocolate treats to hide inside the eggs 
  

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: 

Pre-paint pasta and allow to dry.  Pop the different coloured pasta shapes in the PlayTRAY compartments.  Place your cardboard egg cutout into the lid of the PlayTRAY.   Help your toddler squeeze out the glue in lines across the cardboard egg.   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 makeValentine’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: 

Add drops of food colouring in your chosen colours to shaving foam.  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).   Place a piece of card or photo paper on top of the shaving foam and press down gently.  Once the paper is covered, lay it face up in the lid of the PlayTRAY and scrape off excess using a ruler.   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 

10. Chick Small World Play 

If you have any of the cute little chicks that are everywhere at Easter, set up a little world for them! Small world play is great for encouraging storytelling and imaginative play. 

What You’ll Need: 

Toy chicks  Loose parts (grass, moss, flowers, small pebbles)  PlayTRAY 

How to Play: 

Arrange chicks in a mini-world with foliage and natural elements.  Encourage children to create stories and scenarios. 

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: 

Easter Bunny Box printable  Card   Glue  Optional: stickers or decorations 

How to Play: 

Download and assemble the bunny box.  Decorate with stickers or craft materials.  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: 

Our Printable Easter Placemats  Crayons, pencils, or paints 

How to Play: 

Download and print our Easter Placemats.  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: 

Printable Easter Eggs  Safety scissors 

How to Play: 

Download and print our Easter Egg shapes.  Get your child to cut out the egg shapes.  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: 

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.   Add a flowerpot and arrange pebbles and flowers to create an Easter garden.  Bind some twigs to make your cross.  

15. Oobleck Easter Eggs 

A super simple but engaging activity for little ones. Hide magnetic letters or numbers in plastic eggs and they become magnetic! Great for a little treasure hunt or “lucky dip” game. 

What You’ll Need: 

Magnetic letters or numbers  Plastic eggs  Magnetic wands  PlayTRAY   Sensory base 

How to Play: 

Choose your sensory base and fill the PlayTRAY (see ‘10 Sensory Bases for Small World Play’ for inspiration).   Hide magnetic letters or numbers inside plastic eggs.  Give your children magnetic wands and ask them to retrieve the eggs and find the number inside.   This activity supports letter/number recognition, problem-solving and fine motor skills. 

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. Wooden Easter Egg Decorating 

We bought these gorgeous wooden eggs on Amazon. We decorated them with acrylic paint pens and then used them for a family Easter egg hunt. A lovely little activity that encourages creativity, precision and fine motor skills.   

What You’ll Need: 

• Wooden eggs   
• Acrylic paint pens  
  

How to Play: 

1. Decorate wooden eggs with patterns, stripes, or designs.
2. Let dry and use for an Easter egg hunt or Easter basket decorations. 
   

18. Easter Pebble Painting 

My girls love pebble painting (and so do I)! It’s such a fun Easter activity and you can hide them around the garden for an Easter hunt afterwards. 

What You’ll Need: 

• Pebbles  
• Acrylic paint pens, ready-mix paint or paint sticks  
  

How to Play: 

1. Go on a family nature walk or trip to the beach to collect pebbles.  
2. Decorate using acrylic paint pens, read-mix paint or paint sticks.   
3. Use for storytelling, hiding, or display. 
   

Tip: I personally recommend Posca Pens for older kids and adults, and the Colorful Art Co. as a cheaper brand with chunky tips for little ones. You could also use paint sticks or ready-mixed paint, though the colours won't be quite as vibrant. 

19. Pom-pom Easter Animals 

My six-year-old daughter loved making these pom-pom animals. We used different sized pom-pom makers, but you could also use a couple of cardboard discs instead. You can use the animals afterwards for imaginative play!  

What You’ll Need: 

• Pom-poms  
• Glue  
• Pom-pom makers or cardboard discs  
• Googly eyes and felt  
  

 How to Play: 

1. Assemble pom-poms into animal shapes.  
2. Add eyes, ears, noses and tails. 
   

Need a hand? Watch this Pom-Pom Maker Tutorial.  

20. 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.  
   

21. 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: 

• Our Nature Bunny printable  
• Leaves, flowers, twigs  
• Glue or tape 
  

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!

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