Easter Activities for Primary School Classrooms

Easter Activities for Australian Primary Schools

Easter falls during Term 1 in Australia — typically in March or April — making it one of the last big classroom moments before the autumn holidays. For many teachers, Easter week is a chance to wrap up the term with engaging, cross-curricular activities that bring together writing, maths, art, and science.

Because Easter often lands just before or just after the school holidays (depending on your state), it's worth planning activities in advance so you're not scrambling in a short week. The good news is that Easter themes lend themselves to every learning area — from procedural writing (how to make an Easter basket) to data collection (favourite Easter treats) to craft and visual arts.

Keeping It Inclusive

Not all families celebrate Easter, and it's important to be mindful of the diverse cultural and religious backgrounds in your classroom. Some practical approaches:

• Frame activities around seasonal or cultural themes rather than religious content — autumn, chocolate, animals, and giving are all inclusive angles
• Offer choice — let students select from Easter-themed or non-Easter alternatives
• Check your school's policy — some schools have guidelines on how religious holidays are acknowledged

The Easter Bilby — A Uniquely Australian Connection

In many Australian schools, the Easter Bilby has replaced the Easter Bunny as the classroom mascot of the season. The greater bilby is a vulnerable Australian marsupial, and promoting the Easter Bilby raises awareness about native wildlife conservation. It's also a natural entry point for science lessons on habitats, threatened species, and the impact of introduced animals like rabbits on Australian ecosystems. You can find more on this in our Australian Animals resources.

Easter provides a motivating context for literacy work across all primary year levels. When students are genuinely interested in the topic, writing feels less like a chore — and Easter delivers plenty of material to work with.

Foundation to Year 2

• Easter word lists and vocabulary walls — build topic-specific vocabulary (bunny, bilby, basket, egg, hunt, chocolate, autumn) and use it for spelling, handwriting, and sentence writing
• Procedural writing — "How to Make an Easter Basket" or "How to Decorate an Easter Egg" are perfect introductions to sequencing and instructional text
• Imaginative stories — write about what the Easter Bilby does at night, or where the chocolate eggs come from
• Acrostic poems — spell out EASTER, BILBY, or AUTUMN and write a line for each letter
• Descriptive writing — describe an Easter egg using the five senses (What does it look like? How does it feel? What does it smell like?)

Year 3 to Year 6

• Persuasive writing — "Should Australia use the Easter Bilby instead of the Easter Bunny?" is an excellent persuasive text topic with real-world relevance
• Information reports — research and write about Easter traditions in different countries, or write a report on the greater bilby as an endangered species
• Narrative writing prompts — "You find a golden egg that hatches something unexpected" or "The Easter Bilby needs your help to save Easter" (see our Narrative Writing Prompts page for more ideas)
• Procedural texts — Easter recipes are ideal for practising instructional writing — hot cross buns, Easter nests, or chocolate crackles

Curriculum link: These activities support English outcomes in the Literacy and Language strands of the Australian Curriculum v9 — particularly creating imaginative, informative, and persuasive texts, and using vocabulary appropriate to topic and audience.

Easter themes work surprisingly well for maths activities. Eggs, baskets, and chocolate are natural manipulatives — and students are far more engaged with maths when it's wrapped in a context they care about.

Foundation to Year 2

• Counting and number recognition — count Easter eggs, match numbers to groups, or fill baskets with the right number of eggs
• Patterns — create repeating patterns with coloured eggs (e.g. pink, blue, pink, blue) or extend pattern sequences
• Addition and subtraction — simple word problems using bunnies, eggs, and baskets ("You have 7 eggs and eat 3 — how many are left?")
• Shape eggs — draw or decorate Easter eggs using specific 2D shapes — circles, triangles, rectangles — and identify them
• Sorting and classifying — sort Easter items by colour, size, shape, or type

Year 3 to Year 6

• Measurement and mapping — plan an Easter egg hunt using a grid map, measure distances, and give directions using compass points
• Fractions — divide chocolate eggs into halves, quarters, and thirds; compare fractions using chocolate bars
• Data collection and graphing — survey the class on their favourite Easter treat and create column graphs, picture graphs, or pie charts
• Budgeting and money — give students a budget to plan Easter shopping — calculate totals, change, and best value
• Symmetry — explore lines of symmetry in Easter egg designs, then create symmetrical patterns

Easter craft is one of the highlights of Term 1 for many students. The key to making it work in a busy classroom is keeping projects manageable — simple materials, clear steps, and achievable in one or two sessions.

Classic Easter Crafts

• Paper plate bunnies or bilbies — a staple for Foundation to Year 2. Paint, cut, and assemble with cotton balls and googly eyes
• Egg decorating — use paint, textas, stickers, collage materials, or tissue paper to create decorated eggs on card templates
• Easter cards — fold, cut, and decorate cards to take home. Combine with a writing activity (message inside) for a literacy connection
• Easter basket making — paper or cardboard baskets that students can decorate and use for an egg hunt

Australian-Themed Easter Crafts

• Easter Bilby craft — templates, colouring pages, and 3D bilby models using cardboard tubes or paper bags
• Native animal eggs — design eggs featuring Australian animals (platypus, echidna, wombat) — a creative twist that ties into science
• Autumn-themed Easter — unlike the Northern Hemisphere, Easter in Australia falls in autumn. Use autumn colours (red, orange, brown, gold) and autumn leaves in your craft activities for a uniquely Australian seasonal feel

Cross-curriculum opportunity: Don't treat craft as a standalone — pair it with literacy (procedural writing: "How I Made My Easter Basket"), maths (measuring and cutting materials), or science (Australian animals, habitats). This turns a fun activity into genuine learning time.

The Easter Bilby campaign began in the 1990s as a way to raise awareness about the greater bilby (Macrotis lagotis), one of Australia's most endangered marsupials. The idea was simple: replace the European rabbit — an introduced species that has caused enormous environmental damage in Australia — with a native animal that actually needs our help.

Why It Matters for Schools

The Easter Bilby isn't just a cute alternative to the Easter Bunny — it opens up genuinely valuable learning across multiple curriculum areas:

• Science (Biological Sciences) — habitats, adaptations, food chains, and the impact of introduced species on native ecosystems. The bilby's story is a real-world case study in conservation biology
• Science (Threatened Species) — the greater bilby is listed as vulnerable under Australian law. Students can research why bilby numbers are declining and what conservation programs are doing to help
• HASS (Australian Identity) — the Easter Bilby is part of a broader conversation about Australian identity, environmental responsibility, and how communities can take action on issues they care about
• HASS (Sustainability) — links to sustainability as a cross-curriculum priority in the Australian Curriculum

Classroom Ideas

• Read a picture book about the Easter Bilby and compare the bilby to the rabbit (Venn diagram, comparison chart)
• Research the greater bilby and write an information report
• Hold a class debate: "Should the Easter Bilby replace the Easter Bunny?"
• Create a conservation poster or awareness campaign for the bilby
• Connect to your Australian Animals unit by studying other threatened native species

The Easter Bilby gives students something meaningful to think about during the Easter season — and it makes for a much richer learning experience than chocolate eggs alone.