Easter Games for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners

Get your kids hopping this Easter! Whether at home or at school, these active, holiday games are so much fun you'll forget they're educational.

1. The Easter Bunny Race

Number of Players: 3 or more

Materials:
One Easter basket
10 plastic Easter eggs
Jelly Beans
Paper bunny ears for every kid (optional, but fun!)

How to Play:
Before beginning the game, put 1 to 10 jelly beans inside each plastic egg, and place the plastic eggs in the basket. Choose one child (the Easter Bunny) to sit in a special seat and hold the Easter basket. Line up the other children at the starting line. Explain to the kids that the Easter Bunny is holding a contest to find the fastest, biggest jumpers to deliver eggs on Easter morning. You might want to read the classic picture book, The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes (Houghton Mifflen, 1939) by Dubose Heyward, in which there is a similar race.

The Easter Bunny will choose a plastic egg from the basket, count the jelly beans inside, and announce the number. The other little bunnies hop forward, counting up to that number. The kids "freeze" until the Easter Bunny opens another egg and calls off the next number. Cheer when every bunny crosses the finish line. Repeat the game until every child has a turn to be the Easter Bunny. (Even though this is a race, there are no winners and losers . . . just winners!)

You might want to celebrate crossing the finish line with a jelly bean or two . . . but please don't eat the ones that were handled by all those bunnies!

2. Egg Hunt Bingo

Number of Players: Any

Materials:
Lots of plastic Easter eggs (several per child)
One basket for each child
One bingo card for each child

How to Play:
Before the game, fill the plastic Easter eggs with mini-flashcards of colors, letters, numbers, shapes, or common Easter symbols like bunnies, chicks, and eggs. Hide the eggs. Prepare bingo cards with no more than 8 squares, a row of 4 on the top and on the bottom. (The number of squares will be determined by the age and skill-level of the players.) In the squares, draw pictures that match the mini-flashcards in the eggs. Every child's bingo card needs to be unique.

When it is time to play, distribute one basket and one bingo card to each child. The kids must find eggs, open them, and put them in their basket if the flashcard matches a picture on their bingo card. If the contents of the egg do not match anything on their card, they must put it back for another child to find.

When the kids find the items they need to make a bingo, they receive a small sticker or a piece of candy. Everybody wins!

3. Bunny-baloo (inspired by Cranium's Hullabaloo)

Number of Players: 1 to 6

Materials:
Paper plates decorated with different colored and numbered Easter symbols, like bunnies, chicks, eggs, and jelly beans.
A basket filled with small slips of paper matching the colors, numbers, and symbols used on the plates.

How to Play:
A grown-up calls off a series of fun directions, such as . . .
"Hop to a bunny."
"Spin to something green."
"Wiggle to number 3."
"Dance to a jelly bean."
The players follow the directions and stand on a matching plate.

After a few commands, shout out, "Freeze!" and randomly choose a slip of paper from the basket. The kid(s) on the plate that matches what is on the paper can take a little bow or do a silly Easter dance. Play several rounds to use up that holiday energy!

Have fun learning this Easter!