Or some tips on making the Easter egg hunt at your home a tad more interesting.
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| Our forest gnomes have gathered to discuss their strategy for the Easter Sunday Treasure Hunt. |
All year I wait for this, and always have. Easter Sunday. Memories
of the Easter egg hunt taking place as the sun only begins to emerge over the
horizon.
Now I am an adult and parent, I no longer anticipate the joy
of searching for chocolates, but relish the opportunity to be the architect of
the hunt.
I thought some readers might enjoy hearing about my plans
for this year’s Easter hunt. They are
becoming more complex as Sylvie is growing older. I know that some day they will involve some
orienteering and GPS (yes, I’m serious). I love parlour games and quizzes. It’s a good way
of stretching out the fun.
There are lots of photos provided and I hope that they will give
you some inspiration for your Easter Sunday Egg Hunt. I shall be posting photos of our hunt on
Easter Monday so you can see how we went.
Good luck and have a happy, happy Easter.
PS, I expect the balloon part of this treasure hunt to be
the biggest hit. I shall let you know.
The Easter Sunday Treasure Hunt
The night prior.
Sylvie needs to write a note to the Easter Bunny letting him
know she’s excited about his visit. We
will put out a carrot and a glass of water.
On Easter Sunday morning, Sylvie will bound from her bedroom
and find that the Easter Bunny has indeed, visited. (Ubiquitous flour sprinkled on the floor with
rough approximation of bunny prints made by hand). The carrot will have been nibbled and the
water will have been drunk a little. The
Easter Bunny will leave a note to Sylvie thanking her for her kind gesture with
regards to the Bunny snack she thoughtfully left for him last night. He will leave her fluffy ears to wear as she
begins the treasure hunt. Sylvie’s parents will awaken to the excitement that
is Easter Sunday. The Easter bunny has included in his note to Sylvie that she
needs to look in the freezer to find her first clue. It will have a pink ribbon on it. The Easter bunny will explain the rules of
the hunt, don’t open the presents until you come home and, pick up any rubbish.
Clue #1
If you have read my other blog on the Milk Bottle Easter
rabbit you will know how to cut up a milk bottle for the useful plastic (if
not, here is the link).
Cut some milk bottle plastic into pieces and write the
letters of the next clue on each piece.
Use some small blobs of blu tack to hold the pieces of plastic upright
in a container (with lid). Add some
drops of food colouring to disguise the letters a little. Tie a ribbon around the container. Avoid using an overly large container or your
little one will be frustrated with the amount of time they need to spend to
crack the ice apart. As you are awake
(albeit just awake, remember it’s REALLY early), you will need to assist a little, and run the container under some warm
water to release the ice block. You can
hand your child any hammer and set them up in an appropriate spot in your house
(and old towel on the kitchen floor, the ice block on a cutting board is
good). The child needs to chip away the
ice and retrieve the letters and you might need to help them spell out ‘bath’.
Thus, the first present and clue will be located in the bath
(in the bathroom).
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| The plastic letters held in place with blu tack in a 500ml container (with lid). |
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| Green food colouring added to the water and an identifying ribbon added before placing in the freezer. |
Clue # 2
(In the bathroom).
The clue is attached to the binoculars that have been left
for the purpose of the treasure hunt.
Sylvie has to look through the window with the binoculars to see if
there is anything unusual in the willows in the valley (the balloons strung
from the branches will be the giveaway).
The clue instructs her to go and investigate. I shall walk with her down the hill to
retrieve the next clue.
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| I used a pipe cleaner strung through a hole made with a hole punch, easy to untie and remove. |
Clue # 3
(At the willows).
The clue is a note attached to a balloon. It tells her because it’s morning, the hens
and rooster will be hungry and she ought to go and feed them. This means she will find the next clue in the
chicken’s feed bin. (And so back up the
hill).
Clue # 4
(In the chicken’s feed bin).
“When you have fed the chickens with grain, have a look and
see if anyone has laid an egg” (sending her to the nesting boxes).
Clue # 5
(At the nesting boxes).
The clues are in plastic eggs, some have small chocolate
eggs in them and the larger two have the clues.
One is a deflated balloon with the clue written on the side and the
other contains a note with a pin. The
balloon clue is easy to do. Either draw
a picture clue (if the child is very young) or write out a clue on a blown up
(but not tied up) balloon, deflate it and then put the balloon in the plastic
egg. For the second egg, cut a piece of
paper and attach a pin with a note, “you will need this pin soon”. The adult accompanying the child will need to
inflate the balloon.
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| The plastic fillable eggs that will be placed in the chicken's nesting boxes. |
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| An inflated balloon, a texta is used to write the clue, and the balloon is deflated. |
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| The deflated balloon with the clue. |
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| The contents of the plastic fillable eggs, note the fabric with the pin and note "you will need this pin soon!" |
The clue explains that:
“Find every balloon in the forest and pop it to find the
letters that will spell out your next destination”. We will explain that Sylvie will need to pick
up every piece of balloon plastic before you leave please or the gnomes (who
live in the forest) will be unhappy. Ahh! So this is what the pin is for!
Clue # 6
(In the forest).
In 5 of the balloons I inserted the letters “G”, “N”, “O”,
“M”, “E”. Roll each small paper letter up and slip them into the balloon and
lightly puff them in before inflating the balloon. Remember the fun is in
having quite a few balloons. If you see
a letter flutter down unnoticed, bring it to your child’s attention. Sylvie will need to collect all the letters
and then work out what they could spell (after an appropriate time, if she
hasn’t worked it out, one of us will prompt her…!)
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| Roll up each letter and slip into the balloon before inflating. Blow up quite a few balloons, the children will be delighted! |
Clue # 7
(The gnomes are placed at regular intervals up the
driveway).
As the clue has spelled out gnome, we hope this will trigger
Sylvie to begin looking for them. They
are normally found in the forest, so this will be an unusual event for Sylvie,
to see the gnomes in a long row along the driveway.
Clue # 8
(At the front gate).
The gnomes have left a pretty card with a blog address. Sylvie will need to go back to the house and
type in the address. Create a new temporary blog with only one post (the clue,
a map). It is as simple as drawing a diagram on a piece of paper, scanning it
in and uploading to a file sharing site.
Take the address and add it as a link into your blog. The thrill for the child is typing in the
address correctly and discovering something on the internet that directly
relates to their life. For smaller
children you could use photographs. The
clue will be tied to our stockyards (and will have balloons attached so Sylvie
can see her target destination from the valley).
Clue # 9
(At the stockyards).
Sylvie’s beloved bear, Sydney will be waiting (if it’s
raining he will be under an umbrella).
He will have a note explaining that he has been waiting for a long time
and is desperate for Sylvie to make him a cup of tea. This will send Sylvie back to her cubby
house.
Clue #10
(In the cubby house).
Chicky chicks are placed all about the tea party table. They all are saying something in cartoon
bubbles. Only 5 of them have ‘* = A’, ‘+
= O’, ‘# = N’, ‘~ = D’, and ‘> = S’.
The others can say things like, ‘We love you so much Sylvie’, ‘Happy
Easter Sylvie’ etc. You can make them
yourself (easy to draw, cut out and attach with a hot glue gun), or here is a PDF with the blanks provided for
you.
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| The tea party in the cubby house with the chicky chicks & their messages. |
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| It's Easter Sunday! |
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| Some of the cartoon bubbles hot glued onto the chicky chicks. |
The text below is written on the blackboard, and it needs to be decoded.
Im*gine y+u *re
* p*l*e+#t+l+gi>t.
Fi#~ >+me >*#~
*#~ ~ig.
Y+u #ever k#+w,
y+u might fi#~
* ~i#+>*ur!
Here is the key:
a *
o +
n #
d ~
s >
I wrote this using two chalk colours and made the letters
that required deciphering much paler so they were easy to rub off and write
over.
Here it is decoded.
Imagine you are a palaeontologist.
Find some sand and dig.
You never know, you might find a dinosaur!
This will send her to the sand pit (in our case an old
inflatable pool filled with play sand).
Several Schleich dinosaurs have been buried in the sand. Sylvie is very interested in dinosaurs and
claims she either wants to be a palaeontologist or a swimming teacher when she
grows up. I shall have some brushes and
a small play spade sitting by the sand pit as pretend palaeontology tools.
After this has all been completed, we are looking forward to
a special breakfast of poached eggs, smoked salmon and a glass of champagne.
Wishing you a very Happy Easter!
You are SO smart! I bet it was a hoot.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing so thoroughly.