We will begin by talking about the first part of the Easter story. We will show the children a range of pictures, some of which are the Easter pictures  plus some non-Easter pictures to see if they can identify the correct ones. We will remind the children about the Nativity story and that Jesus was a special baby and that he grew into a special adult.  We will highlight that Christians believe Easter is all about Jesus giving them a second chance, to start a new and better life like the man he healed. It is like the miracle of new life we are seeing all around us in the Spring. Then we will move onto finding out what happened next to Jesus and his disciples. Having discussed this we will talk about how children resolve issues at home and at school. We will look again at Easter story pictures and other images, before discussing with children why they think there are eggs and hot cross buns at Easter? We will talk to the children about what happened towards the end of the story. Then we will look at the picture of the hot cross bun, Easter Egg and the baby and adult birds. Our hot cross bun represents the stone that closed the cave which was rolled away when Jesus came out and saw his disciples. They were amazed! We will explain finally that Christians believe that Jesus showed everyone that new life is possible and that is why we have eggs at Easter – because they symbolise new life just like those chicks. At the end we will also talk about Jasper’s query - “Why does the Easter Bunny leave eggs?”

Following on from yesterday - all about Easter and New Life. Today we will be talking to the children about chicks. We will look at pictures of them and think about how we could represent them with paints and pens. The adults will show children examples. The children will then have a go at representing chicks using brushes and finger and thumb prints. We will look at the features of a chick and talk to the children about what they need to add to the chick image to enhance it. Once they are pleased with their design they will move on to explore writing. We will encourage them to use the pinch and flick technique and look at letters individually before imitating them.

Henry asked about the patterned wrapping on Easter eggs so today we are going to explore creating a design for an Easter Egg using software on the chromebooks. We will show the children how to use both touchpad and touchscreen input, how to click and select colours to decorate their egg. We will encourage the children to use both types of input as they decorate the egg. Once they have done this we will remind them of how they added their names by typing them when they created their Superhero characters. We will give the children their name cards and encourage them to locate the letters that they need to be able to type their name. As they use the chromebooks we will also highlight what to do if the children feel uncomfortable about anything that appears or happens as they use technology.

Today we are having a party and the children can wear party clothes. Bringing in a favourite food to share at the party is ‘show and tell’ for this week. (Please remember to consider all allergies before sending foods in, also food needs to be prepared and ready for the children to eat - thank you). We will play some party games and dance to their favourite music. As part of this we will be having an Easter Egg Hunt - we will keep an eye out as Thea warned us that the Easter bunny might steal the eggs! The children will need to look at groups of eggs and tell us how many there are without counting - they can then stick a number on the group. Their challenge is to distribute all the number stickers correctly!  We will also discover whether the Easter Bunny leaves trails to find  - Wilf thought that they might! Ivy wondered if they would be muddy footprints.

Friday

Today we will be tidying and sorting the outdoor area with the children so that it is ready for next term - the children need to wear older clothes and welly boots if they have them. 

We will also revisit the Easter Story and the children will have the opportunity to share their understanding of the story and features of Easter celebrations and new life. The children will also have the opportunity to discuss how they celebrate Easter at home or in the wider community. Finally we will sing favourite songs and join in songs and dances from this term.