5 fun Easter activities from The Week Junior

Looking for some fun, simple Easter activities to do with the kids? Look no further – The Week Junior has you covered. 

Here are five fun and family-friendly activities for you to enjoy this Easter. We’d love to know how you get on – please share stories and photos of your efforts with us at hello@theweekjunior.co.uk.

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1. Make mini Easter egg houses

Find a home for mini Easter eggs by creating these colourful little houses, cleverly made from recycled cartons. You can use them as packaging for a unique gift,  to make your Easter egg hunt more colourful, or just as a fun place to store your chocolate goodies over the holidays. 

You will need:

• Juice or milk cartons
• Paper towel
• Scissors
• A ruler
• A pen
• Card
• Paints
• Paintbrushes
• Sponges
• Glue
• Big elastic bands

1. Cut a washed one litre carton into two sections and wipe the inside with paper towel. Remove the lid from the top section then push the pouring spout inside the carton so it doesn’t stick out. If it won’t push inside, carefully cut it off to make the roof shape flatter.

2. Draw matching triangle roof shapes on the facing sides of the bottom section of the carton. Cut out the triangles and across the sides. 

3. Make the rooftops from two pieces of thick card taped together. They need to be slightly bigger than the sloping top so the roof hangs over the edges. Glue along the edge of the carton then press the roof on top. Wrap elastic bands around the houses while the glue dries.

4. Paint the houses then leave to dry. Cut a door in the house made from the bottom section. Glue card windows and doors to the front and sides. Use white card to frame the windows and doors, it helps the shapes to stand out. 

2. Epic Easter egg hunt

Celebrate Easter with an epic egg hunt. You can use chocolate eggs or make them out of paper mache or painted stones instead. Make it as easy or challenging as you like by writing clues, or drawing an egg treasure map that leads to a grand prize. 

If there are lots of people joining in, split them into two teams and have an Easter egg relay, where one person from each team runs off to find an egg, then comes back to tag the next person.

3. Grow your own food

You will need:

• Spring-growing seeds like tomatoes or runner beans
• Seed trays or small pots with holes in the bottom for drainage
• Seed compost
• A clear plastic bag

Fill the pots almost to the top with seed compost. Place the seeds on the surface, cover them with some more compost and water gently. Leave the pots on a warm, sunny windowsill covered with a plastic bag until you see shoots appear. When this happens, space them out into larger pots. 

In late spring, plant outside in the ground or in compost bags and water every day. Tall climbing plants like runner beans will need strong supports made out of bamboo canes. 

4. Make Easter egg rocky road  

This chocolatey, cake–like tray bake (minus the baking) is an easy Easter recipe that you can whip up in about 20 minutes. There’s no need to heat up the oven at all, just pop your mixture in the fridge and let it cool.

You will need:

• 550g milk chocolate
• 90g butter
• 5 tbsp golden syrup
• 200g shortbread
• 100g chocolate mini eggs
• 175g fudge
• 100g mini pink and white marshmallows
• 18x28cm baking tin
• Baking parchment
• Heatproof bowl
• Saucepan

1. Grease and line an 18x28cm tin with baking parchment. Put 400g chocolate, 75g butter and five tablespoons of golden syrup into a heatproof bowl that slots on top of a pan of simmering water to melt. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Ask an adult for some help.

2. Meanwhile, put the shortbread into a large plastic bag, tie a knot to secure and bash with a rolling pan, to crush. Put 50g of the mini eggs in a plastic bag and bash to crush. Cut 125g of the fudge into small pieces with scissors.

3. Take the chocolate off the heat, tip in the biscuits, crushed eggs, fudge and marshmallows. Stir until the mixture is well combined. Tip into the prepared tin and chill for a couple of hours.

4. To make the topping, melt 150g milk chocolate with 15g butter. Pour this over the chilled mixture, to cover. Scatter over 50g fudge and 50g of mini eggs, then chill until set. Cut into 16 even squares and enjoy!

5. Build a bug hotel

You need:

• A small, clear plastic bottle
• Things to put inside like sticks, leaves, tree bark and pine cones from your local area

Cut the ends off a clear, plastic bottle to make a tube. Fill the tube with as many of the sticks, leaves, bark and pine cones as you can, making sure it doesn’t fall out. 

Next, hang your bug hotel from a tree or tuck it under a bush. Wait a few days and see who visits.

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