Little Explorers: Easter Egg Piñata

Who among us – pre-schoolers, children, teenagers and adults – doesn’t benefit from letting go of a little pent-up aggression from time to time? Here’s a seasonal way to reduce everyone’s stress levels – by calmly creating and then crazily demolishing an Easter Egg piñata!

You will need:-

• A balloon
• Flour
• Water
• Newspaper
• Paints or wrapping paper
• Chocolate eggs and treats
• Garden string
• A BIG stick
• Blindfold

First to make your glue. We all remember the lumpy greyish paste made from flour and water at school. To make it smoother, and so it dries almost clear, we highly recommend boiling it.

Ask your Little Explorers to measure out two tablespoons of flour and a cup of water, and pour into a saucepan. Heat this mixture slowly, whisking all the time until you get a thickish paste which will be your glue. Thin this down with water until it’s the consistency you prefer.

Blow up the balloon. The next task is ‘peak messy’. Help your Little Explorers tear or cut your newspaper into strips. Then dip your newspaper in the glue, thoroughly soaking it, and slather it all over the balloon. You will all get very sticky and mucky, so we think this is a perfect pre-bathtime activity! Cover the balloon in its entirety and leave to dry out overnight.

Repeat this process over the next few nights so you get a hard, strong outer shell to your ‘egg’.

Once fully dried and ready, you can use a sharp knife to saw a small door in the back of the piñata, popping the balloon as you do. While you have access to the inside of the shell, tie a strong loop of string through the tip of the egg, for hanging it with.

Here’s a temptation test – ask your Little Explorers to push all the chocolates and sweets through the little door into the piñata! I’m sure several handfuls will go missing en route, so buy plenty! Close the door and seal it shut with tape or paper.

Your Little Explorers can now be as avant garde or as literal or modernist as they like with their decoration of the egg. Paint it, splatter it, glitter bomb it, decoupage it. Whatever they like. The important thing is not to let anyone become too precious over their design. It will be smashed to smithereens before long.

String up your piñata somewhere out of reach! Perhaps it could be the final stop on an Easter egg hunt on Easter day? You could set clues on a trail for the Little Explorers to solve, then discover the egg as the ultimate prize!

Depending on the ages of the children involved, let them take it in turns to try and smash the piñata with a huge stick, wearing a blindfold, and after being twizzled around several times for good, dizzy, measure! We used a mask with holes to give them a fighting chance before the adults got involved…

Let us know how you get on – we’d love to see your photos!

Expert Explorers: An old legend says that the Easter bunny lays, decorates and hides eggs as a symbol of new life. But in Germany, a fox distributes the eggs, and in Switzerland, a cuckoo delivers the eggs. And also - did you know bunny rabbits actually have kittens? Rabbits give birth to huge litters of babies and these are called kittens!