March Activities for Kids -Seasonal Play

I feel like we’ve blinked and February has gone. The seasonal shift from winter to spring has started in the past week or so. There are pops of colour appearing around the muddy patches of our lawns and buds on the trees. This year more than ever, the sign of new life is ever so welcome. This brings me to write this months March activities for kids.

This month just like February seems to have several celebrations to theme around with St David’s Day, St Patricks Day, World Book Day, Mothers Day and the start of the Easter Holidays leading into April. I will include some ideas around all of these celebrations whilst adding in a few other seasonal play ideas. I’m going to kick this month’s edition off with some seasonal painting ideas.

March Activities for Kids

Painting

St Patricks Day Painting

I like to keep painting simple. Last time we did potato stamping we used relatively no mess paint sticks. Due to the pepper being wetter than a potato stamp we used regular non toxic kids paint. You could make up some taste safe paint if you have a toddler who like to explore everything with their mouth.

We sliced off the pointy base of a paper and then sliced again to get a good shape. They can then place down in paint and make some effective shamrocks. We will be sending this to our Irish relative to brighten up their St Patricks day.

Spring Egg Box Wreath Painting

This is a great one that could be tweaked to be painted all yellow for St David’s day. We have some spare yellow painted flowers that we might just pop on lolly sticks to mark St David’s Day.

Simply squeeze the paint into the box side of the egg box and paint the egg sectioned side with your desired colours. Once dry cut them out and place on a ring of cardboard. We used an old Amazon box and painted it green to extend the activity into 2 different paint sessions over 2 days. I love how effective these wreaths are. We made a red poppy Remembrance wreath the past 2 years, so this one is a nice spring twist to our original design. Hang it on a play house, front door or use it as table decoration.

Mountain Egg Box

This is one we found online on social media. I absolutely loved the simplicity of it and the fact it could be used for role playing with our Schleich animal collection. You could also tweak this to have different designs.

We started by painting the shaped egg box a light brown clay colour. Once dry we dripped some white paint for snow onto the mountains, painted one side like the ocean and the other green for land. We have a very mossy garden and it came in handy to fill up the mountainside. You could go one step further and grow some cress in the grassy side with some cotton wool lining.

Now we’re moving onto some ideas for kids to get with in the kitchen.

Baking

Welsh cakes

This was such an easy yet wholesome baking session with my littles. They were very capable at making up the dough leaving the frying part to me and then handing back over to them for the decoration side of things.

• 250g Self raising flour
• 125g Soft butter or baking margarine
• 80g Caster sugar 
• 1 tsp Cinammon 
• 1 pinch nutmeg
• 100g Currants
• 1 whole egg
• 1 tbsp milk to bind
• 2-3 tbsp Caster sugar for dusting

• Place flour in the bowl, add the butter and work the butter through to resemble breadcrumbs 
• Add the sugar, spices and currants and stir through 
• Add in the egg and the milk to bind the mixture together to make a sticky dough ball
• Flour a work surface and roll out the dough to about 2.5 – 3mm thick. Take a kitchen cutter and cut out cake rounds
• Heat a large frying pan with butter and fry batches of 4-5 cakes at a time for at least 3 minutes each side. 
• Place on a rack for a few minutes and then transfer to a plate and dust with caster sugar on both sides of the cakes.

Bunny biscuits

I love these Jazzie button tail bunnies! These were so much fun to create with our two youngest bakers. They also got creative with egg shapes and chicks.

This recipe is my foolproof biscuit recipe and I think the addition of semolina gives it the perfect texture.

250g butter, softened

140g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

250g plain flour

Sensory Play

This month we’re going with some muddy outdoors play! With all the mud still hanging around from a wet winter it makes sense to get earthy and enjoy it. It may sound a bit daunting to let your little loose with mud but cover them in overalls and what’s the harm? It also means a nice long bath afterwards will be really welcome!

If you’re looking for a different kind of sensory play than mud then I have just launched my play dough business, Bear and Boo, with some Bear and Easter themed kits in my Etsy shop which are just perfect for March activities for kids.

Mud Oobleck

Often you will see Oobleck made with cocoa powder and cornflour (cornstarch for our US readers). I actually find cocoa powder messier and trickier to clean up than mud, so we used mud!

We put 6 small spade scoops of mud in a bowl and a whole heap of cornflour and poured water in until we got a really good thick gloop of mud oobleck.

I’m not being precise with measurements as that is part of the fun! I was guided by our littles and we just thickened or loosened it as we went along. They loved working it all out. Just make sure you get a large box of cornflour for the activity!

We threw in some Schleich animals to make tracks and role play with. They then enjoyed washing them in a soapy bowl of water afterwards.

Mud Potato Planting

Using a tray and some mud all you need to do is hide some potatoes inside the mud and provide your child with a rake / scoops / spade / plant pots and a watering can if you’re feeling brave!

Outdoor Play

I would say that the sensory play ideas definitely came under outdoor play this month although you can also bring the tuff tray indoors if the weather isn’t behaving where you live!

We have also added in a free printable scavenger hunt to download. I find that some days it might take a little more persuasion to get the kids outdoors. Scavenger hunts are a perfect piece of encouragement especially if there is a small treat such as chocolate to be won at the end of the walk to aid motivation!

Click to access Springscavengerhunt.pdf

Mother’s Day

I thought I would add a small mention of some useful crafts for Mother’s Day. This post provides some simple ideas for kids and tweens to make for gifts this year. Mothers day crafts – here which are perfect for March activities for kids.

World Book Day

I know that for many, world book day will be different this year with home education. I thought I would include an old post of mine in case you have younger ones at preschool and nursery to dress up. Alternatively you may wish to celebrate it at home with a themed day!

World Book Day over 100 costume Ideas