Easter Banners

Materials

• Butcher Paper
• Paint 
• Paint Brushes
• Cups of water and napkins (to clean paint brushes)

Instructions
Tell the patients that they are going to make an Easter Banner to decorate their unit. Give them the supplies and have them talk about how they are going to decorate it. Let the patients drive this activity and just watch for anything inappropriate. All of my groups loved this!

Discussion
Teamwork: what did they do to work together? Did a leader come out among them?
Communication: where there any problems with communication? How did they clear these up?
Expressing self with others: how can we express ourselves but still be part of a team?

Please Share
What are other ways that you would do this activity?
How would you discuss this activity?
What other Easter activities have you done with patients?

More Easter Activities
Origami Easter Eggs
Easter Puppet Bunnies
Easter Bags

Easter Puppet Bunnies

Materials

• Brown bag for each patient
• 3 sheets of construction paper for each patient
• Glue
• Scissors

Instructions
Give each patient a brown bag and three pieces of construction paper (I let them choose their colors). Two of the pieces of paper will be used to cut out the eyes, ears, feet, nose, teeth, and whiskers for the bunny. These will be glued on the front side of the bag (where the flap folds over-put the face on the flap). One piece of paper will be balled and glued on the back side of the bag to be the tail.

If you have more paper, they can make a carrot and put it in the bunny's mouth.

Discussion
Problem solving: give the patients the materials and tell them what the end product needs to be but do not give the middle instructions.
Importance of Rules: give the patients step-by-step instructions and talk about the importance of rules.

Please Share
How would you discuss this activity?
What do you do to celebrate Easter?

More Easter Activities
Origami Easter Eggs
Easter Banners
Easter Bags

Easter Bags

This is such a fun and beautiful holiday! I love celebrating the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

At my work, we do not celebrate religious holidays though so we focused more on secular celebrating of Easter. We made Easter bags!

Equipment

• One brown bag for each person
• Paint and paint brushes - this can also be done with markers/crayons/colored pencils
• Napkins and cups of water (to clean the paint brushes with)
• One paper plate for each person

Instructions
Each patient received a paint brush, plate, and brown bag. To start with, I filled each person's plate with three colors of their choosing. Patients could request more paint after everyone had received paint. Then the patients began painting. The only direction I gave them for painting was that these were their Easter bags. One patient made a beautiful picture of the cross on the hill, another painted "Happy Easter", more psychotic patients just did scribbles of paint, etc. The children, adolescents, and adults all enjoyed this activity.


Discussion
Family rituals: we talked about the different rituals each patient had with this holiday and how family rituals are so important to keep members of the family close.
Self-expression: expressing ourselves on our regular basis and the benefits thereof.
Relaxation: the importance of participating in relaxing activities and activities that relax us.

Stuffing the bags
After the group, I collected the bags and stuffed them with candy and different activity pages. The patients will receive their bags Easter morning!

Activity Pages Links (these pages all print well)
Coloring Pages

•  http://www.coloring.ws/t.asp?t=http://www.coloring.ws/easter/easter3.gif
• http://www.crayola.com/services/printService.aspx?i=5a02a505-b083-4b0b-8a7b-27a128ef626e
• http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/easter-egg-wreath-coloring-page/
• http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/easter-eggs-coloring-page/
• http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/easter-lilies-coloring-page/

Color By Number

• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/bunny-maths-facts-colouring-page
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chicken-maths-facts-colouring-page

Drawing

• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/chick-symmetry-worksheet
•  http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-egg-symmetry-worksheet
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/rabbit-symmetry-worksheet

Color By Coordinate

• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-bunny-coordinates
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-chick-coordinates
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-egg-coordinates

Mazes

• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-bunny-maze
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-egg-maze
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-maze-1
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-maze-2
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-maze-3
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-path-puzzle
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/rabbit-maze-2

Word Sudoku

• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-word-sudoku-easy-1
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-word-sudoku-easy-2
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-word-sudoku-medium-1
• http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/easter-word-sudoku-medium-2 

Word Scramble

• http://www.crayola.com/free-coloring-pages/print/easter-scramble-coloring-page/

Please Share
What activities have you done to celebrate Easter?
What activity pages have you used?

More Easter Activities
Origami Easter Eggs
Easter Banners
Easter Puppet Bunnies

Image Credit
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRkFSmCDioyKOJy2PpClTIf1uUNk7TZ6_uS3av0OdhsRKbtHLNg