I don’t know about you, but February seemed to last about 98 days and March has now flown by in the blink of an eye! Here we are in April, the snow is melting and Easter is just around the corner! Easter is the time to celebrate Spring, indulge in way too much chocolate and to revel in the two extra days off. It is a really egg-cellent time of year.
Stay on the sunny-side up of sugar overload by integrating some Munchy Math into your Easter long weekend. Here are three Egg-squisite ideas to get brains working before the onset of chocolate delirium.
Hoppy Easter Lunch 
Make some-bunny feel special with this cute and healthy Roll ’N Eat activity. Not only will it help to balance out all that early morning candy, but also boost energy in a positive way by incorporating protein, veggies and grains. Hard boiled eggs are one of the only proteins that all three of my picky eaters can agree on, which makes them a staple in our kitchen. I used two eggs to create this fun plate and some favourite veggies and grains to round it out. Roll’N Eat activities are a favourite activity at our house as it greatly reduces the negativity associated with eating undesirable foods (when I say my kids are picky eaters, I mean REALLY picky!) while at the same time building number sense and mental math skills.
Egg-stra Easter Fun 
The Easter egg hunt is over and it’s only 8:08 AM...surely they can’t eat all that chocolate yet? Stall the chocolate coma with patterning, counting and graphing. Have your children decide on the criteria they want to use to sort the eggs - will it be by colour, patterns, shiny or opaque? Critically thinking about the attributes that distinguish one thing from the next is an excellent way to strengthen math minds. Once they have decided, sort the eggs and create a graph of their treasure hunt findings. Even the little mathematicians can participate by repeating the names and colours as you sort and count. Patterning with the eggs is also a great activity for every developmental level!
24 Karat Counting 
If you can’t beat’em, join’em! Just like Halloween, Easter often starts with a candy or two and ends with sugar laced lips and glazed over eyes. By turning it into a math activity, we are not only engaging children in important mental math concepts, but also building self-regulation by teaching them to not eat ALL the candy in one breathless gulp. Have your children roll the pair of dice and identify the number of dots on each one. Then they will count out that number of jelly beans (or candy of their choice) to add the sum before snacking. To modify for more developed mathematicians, have them write the numbers and do the equations on paper before munching. Less developed mathematicians can repeat the numbers as you count together developing math vocabulary and a solid foundation of math concepts.
Have an egg-cellent Easter and and a hoppin’ good Spring!
Shayna Ghattas is an elementary school teacher and mom of three children under 7. She founded SnackSize to help parents engage their children in at-home learning activities that are educational, playful and (often) yummy! Follow her on instagram at @_snacksize for more literacy, numeracy, and sensory activities for young children.
