Easter lesson plan

“Happy Easter!”

Special lesson Level 1 Age 3-5

Lesson plans for ESL kids teachers

Special lesson

Easter

In this lesson, students are introduced to some common Easter vocabulary. They also make an Easter craft, sing an Easter song, read a fun story and play lots of fun games, including an Easter egg hunt.

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This is a full course lesson plan.

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Age: 3-5 years
Time: 40 mins – 1 hour
Objectives: Have fun with Easter themes.
Structures: “Happy Easter”, “Where is the Easter egg?”, “Do you like …?”, ” Yes, I do”, “No, I don’t”, “Who’s this?”.
New vocabulary: Easter, Easter rabbit, hop, Easter egg, chocolate, basket, ears, tail.

Lesson materials

Flashcards:

Easter flashcard: Easter rabbit

Printables:

Find the Easter eggs worksheet
[hide_on_uk]Color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Colour[/hide_on_us] the Easter rabbit worksheet
Where are the chocolate eggs? reader worksheet
Pin the tail to the rabbit sheet

Songs:

Hello song
Goodbye song
The Easter song

Readers:

Where are the chocolate eggs?

Supplies:

name tags for each student
a glove puppet
[hide_on_uk]colored[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]coloured[/hide_on_us] crayons / pencils
lots of mini-Easter Eggs
baskets / paper boxes for collecting eggs (1 per student)
glue
construction paper / card (white and pink) cut into headbands and ears
felt
cotton balls` and tape
blindfold
cushions (1 per student)
device to play the songs on

Notes:

In this lesson, students are introduced to some common Easter vocabulary, make an Easter craft and, of course, play lots of fun games. During the lesson, students will collect mini-Easter eggs, so a good supply of mini-eggs and a basket to collect them in will be needed.

Lesson procedure:

Warm up and maintenance:

1. Greetings
Greet each student by name as they enter the classroom and say, “Happy Easter!” – try to get them to say this back to you.

Gesture for them to sit down (on cushions if you have them) in a fan-shape around you.

2. Name tags
Before class, prepare some blank name tags (stickers or pin-on tags) and some cards, each with a student’s name written on clearly – students will use them to copy their names onto their name tags. Sit down with your students and lay out the name cards in front of you. Pick up each card and encourage the student to recognize his/her name. Do this for everyone.

Finally, have everyone take out a crayon or pencil and copy their name on their tags and stick them on.

Introduce glove puppet - greetings and introductions activity

3. Glove puppet greetings
Bring out your glove puppet bag and have everyone shout “Hello!“ into the bag until he wakes up and jumps out of the bag. Then model talking to the glove puppet …

Teacher: “Hello”, What’s your name?”
Puppet: “My name is…”.
Puppet: “How are you?”
Teacher: “I’m fine, thank you”.

… and then have the puppet say hello to each student and ask them the same questions. Then have the puppet ask any other questions practiced in previous lessons. Finally, go around saying “Goodbye” and “See you” before going back into the bag and back to sleep.

4. Sing the “Hello song”
Sit in a circle and sing the song (clap along or pat knees).

Lyrics for the “Hello song”

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
Hello, hello,
How are you today?

I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Hello, hello,
How are you today?
I’m fine, thank you,
And how about you?

Gestures for the “Hello song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Hello, hello” parts.
Gesture to others as you sing, “How are you today?”
Point to yourself as you sing, “I’m fine, thank you”
Hand gesture towards another student as you sing, “And how about you?”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

5. Homework check
Check each student’s homework that you set in the last lesson. Ask each student some questions about their homework worksheet (e.g. “What’s this?”, etc.), give lots of praise, and then put some kind of mark on the homework sheet (e.g. a sticker, a stamp or draw a smiley face).

Finally, tell your students to put their homework back into their bags.

6. Do “Exercise routine” activity
Say the following and have the students follow your lead:

“Stand up” (Teacher stands and so does everyone else)
“Hands up / hands down” (do 4 or 5 times)
“Jump” (4 or 5 times)
“Kick” (4 or 5 times)
“Run! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Turn around! / Stop!” (4 or 5 times)
“Wiggle” (a few seconds)
finally “Sit down”.

New learning and practice:

1. Introduce the Easter rabbit
Tell your students that today is a special lesson – an Easter lesson! Show a picture of the Easter rabbit. Teach “Easter rabbit”.

Ask students to show you their Easter rabbit impression, and join in, hopping around the classroom (say “hop, hop, hop”).

2. Make craft: Easter bunny ears
Your students are going to make cute bunny ears headbands to wear in class!

Before class: prepare the shapes: cut a strip of card for the headband and two ear shapes (including pink inner ears) per student. Also make one for yourself so you can show your students.

In class: explain that we need some rabbit ears and take out the craft and put it on your head. Tell your students they are going to make the same craft. Give headband strips and ear shapes to your students and let them decorate them with crayons, paint, markers, glitter, etc. Finally, measure the headband on each student’s head and glue or staple in place and glue on the ears. Your students can now wear this for the duration of the lesson!

3. Sing “The Easter song”
Now that you have made your rabbit ears let’s have some fun being rabbits! First teach the two gestures: hopping around like a rabbit and looking for Easter eggs. Then play the song and have everyone hop around and have fun.

Lyrics for “The Easter song”

Chorus:
Easter rabbit, Easter rabbit,
Comes when I’m in bed,
Easter rabbit, Easter rabbit,
Hiding chocolate eggs.

Verse 1:
Look in the garden (garden)
Look in the living room (living room)
Look in the kitchen (kitchen)
Look everywhere!

Where are the chocolate eggs?

Chorus

Verse 2:
Look in the bedroom (bedroom)
Look in the dining room (dining room)
Look in the bathroom (bathroom)
Look everywhere!

Where are the chocolate eggs?

Verse 3:
I’ve found my chocolate eggs!
I’ve found my chocolate eggs!
Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! Yummy!
Chocolate eggs!

Gestures for “The Easter song”

The actions for this song are very simple, fun and energetic – lots of hopping around like a rabbit!

Everyone stands up for the song:

For the chorus, everyone hops around the classroom like a rabbit
For the verses, pretend to be looking for Easter eggs (gesture with palm of hand over eyes)

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

4. Teach new vocabulary: Easter egg, chocolate, basket
Take out the Easter bunny picture again. Point to the Easter eggs in the bunny’s basket and ask what they are and teach / elicit: “Easter egg”. Take out a mini-Easter egg (the type which is covered in [hide_on_uk]colorful[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colourful[/hide_on_us] foil).

Teach / elicit: “Easter egg” and “chocolate”.

Elicit the [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] of the foil. Take out a small basket (or even a paper box is fine) and teach “basket”. Put the egg in the basket.

5. Teach / Review “Do you like ~”, “Yes, I do”, “No, I don’t”
Take off the foil wrapper and show the chocolate egg. Say, “Yummy!”. Then say, “I like chocolate!”, and eat the Easter egg, all the time saying “yummy!”.

At this point your students will probably be clamoring for an egg. Give out a little basket (simple paper boxes are also fine) to each student. Pull out another egg (it is probably a good idea to have them hidden somewhere, e.g. in a large pocket) and ask one student, “Do you like chocolate?”.

Teach / Elicit, “Yes, I do” (or “No, I don’t” in the unlikely event that someone doesn’t like chocolate!). Continue with all the students – only giving the eggs to kids who answer correctly (come back to the ones who made a mistake later).

Don’t let your student eat the eggs – they have to collect and keep in their baskets to take home.

6. Do the “Easter egg hunt”
Now we’ve got our baskets, let’s hunt for some Easter eggs! Before class, hide 4 eggs per student all around the classroom – in drawers, on shelves, under cushions … anywhere you can think of (try to remember where they are!).

Model by looking around the classroom, in things, under things, etc., until you find an Easter egg. Say, “I found an Easter egg! Yummy!” and put it in your basket. Tell your students they are to find 4 each.

Let your students go off hunting – help out and encourage them to say, “I found an Easter egg! Yummy!”, each time they find one. When they find 4, have them sit down. At the end, get everyone count their eggs.

7. Do “Find the Easter eggs” worksheet
This is a nice worksheet which mirrors the Easter egg hunt activity your students just did. Give all the students the worksheet and have them follow the lines and [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] the Easter eggs.

As they are working, ask individual students questions (e.g. What’s this?, What [hide_on_uk]color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colour[/hide_on_us] is it?, etc.).

8. 5-minute play time
This is an optional segment that can be part of all your lessons at this level. Allow your students to play with any games or toys you have. If possible, use large tubs or boxes to hold the toys and bring them out for a few minutes each lesson. Tubs filled with animals, plastic fruit, building blocks, kitchen sets, plastic food, cars & vehicles, Mr. Potato Head dolls and so on.

9. Read classroom reader “Where are the chocolate eggs?”
This classroom readers ties in perfectly with the Easter egg hunt and worksheet your students have just finished.

Before class, download and print off the reader “Where are the chocolate eggs?”. At this stage your students won’t have the vocabulary to say where they are, but they can point and you can make lots of mistakes by pointing to the wrong places in the pictures, such as:

Teacher: Where is the chocolate egg? (with kitchen page open)
Students: (pointing) There!
Teacher: Where? Here? (pointing in the sink)
Students: No! There!
Teacher: (pointing) Here, in the cupboard?
Students: No! There!
Teacher: Oh, here! (pointing) In the oven?
Students: Yes!

Get the students really involved in the story by asking lots of questions (e.g. eliciting the objects and the [hide_on_uk]colors[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colours[/hide_on_us] of the eggs).

After reading the story, give out a reader worksheet to each student and have everyone complete the exercise. Then go through the answers as a class by reading the story quickly again.

Alternatively, watch our video version of the reader (Internet connection required).

10. Play “Pin the tail on the Easter rabbit”
Create the rabbit with our “Pin the tail to the rabbit” sheet. You’ll also need cotton balls and tape.

Put the sheet on the wall and blindfolded each student in turn – they have to pin the tail (cotton ball with tape) onto the rabbit. Mini-Easter Eggs can be prizes!

Wrap up:

1. Assign homework: “[hide_on_uk]Color[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]Colour[/hide_on_us] the Easter rabbit” worksheet
Hold up the homework worksheet – this is a fun [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] activity. Ask, “Who’s this?” and elicit “Easter rabbit”. Model what to do by choosing a crayon and [hide_on_uk]coloring[/hide_on_uk][hide_on_us]colouring[/hide_on_us] in part of the rabbit, then changing to another crayon for another part.

Give out the worksheets and say, “Put your homework in your bags” and help them to do so – this is important as they will probably want to start working on them right away.

2. Say goodbye to the glove puppet
Take out the bag again and get everyone to wake up the glove puppet by shouting its name into the bag (e.g. “Cookie Monster!”). Bring out the puppet and go through the same routine – go to each student and say hello, ask their name and the say goodbye / see you. Then put the puppet back in the bag (back to sleep).

3. Sing the “Goodbye song”
Sit together in a circle and sing and clap along.

Lyrics for the “Goodbye song”

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.

It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Goodbye, goodbye,
See you again.
It’s time to go,
See you next time.

Gestures for the “Goodbye song”

These are quite straight forward. First time you play the song do the gestures and encourage everyone to do them with you.

Wave as you sing the “Goodbye, goodbye” parts.
Hold your hand above your eyes (as you would when you are looking into the distance and keeping the sun out of your eyes) and look at another student as you sing, “See you again”.
Tap watch (or imaginary watch) and then point to the door as you sing, “It’s time to go”.
Point towards another student as you sing, “See you next time”.

[hide_on_uk]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_uk]

[hide_on_us]Short sample (members get full-length song):
 [/hide_on_us]

4. Do “Quick check” and say goodbye
Time to leave the class. Make sure everything is put away and the students have gathered their belongings. Have them line up at the door and place yourself between the door and the students.

As each student goes to the door to leave the classroom hold up a mini-Easter egg and ask, “Do you like chocolate?”.

If you receive a good answer, give the chocolate egg to the student and allow them to leave the room, otherwise they go back to the end of the line – they will have to try again once they reach the front!