If you are hunting for new Easter activities to do with your kids, follow this rabbit trail and watch your children hip-hop with delight!
BUNNY STUFF
• 1 child-sized sock
• Scissors
• Yarn and yarn needle
• 2 pipe cleaners
• Cotton balls
• Wiggly eyes
• Felt
• Hole punch
• Glue gun (low setting)
• Black permanent marker
• 12-inch ribbon
1. Place sock on work surface with the heel facing up. Cut vertically down the center of the sock, starting from the toe to just above the base of the heel. (Sock halves will become ears.)
2. Thread yarn through needle and tie a knot at the opposite end.
3. Stitch the two open seams of each half sock together to create two ears.
4. Bend one pipe cleaner in a long, narrow arc, twisting open ends together and insert in one ear to give it shape.
5. Repeat step 4 for remaining ear.
6. Stuff cotton balls into the ears and the heel of the sock, which will form the bunny’s head. Continue stuffing the remainder of the sock with cotton balls.
7. Tuck the open end of the sock cuff in and stitch closed to secure cotton balls.
8. Glue on wiggly eyes to the front of the sock heel. Cut out a felt triangle nose and draw whiskers and a mouth to create the bunny’s face.
9. Glue cotton ball to the back side of the bunny for his tail and tie ribbon around his neck.
TERRA COTTA BUNNY POT
• 3 2.5-inch diameter terra cotta pots
• White craft paint
• Pink, white, and purple craft foam
• Ribbon
• Glitter, sequins, other embellishments
• Wiggly eyes
• Small pink and large white pompoms
• Cotton balls
• Glue gun (low setting)
• Scissors
• Black permanent marker
• Paintbrush
1. Put glue around the large rim of one terra cotta pot. While the glue is still hot, place a second pot upside down over the first one, so the open ends are facing one another. This will be the bunny’s body.
2. Place glue on the bottom side of the third pot then attach it to the top of the conjoined pots to create the bunny’s head.
3. Paint the entire surface of the bunny, inside and outside, with white paint. Let dry.
4. On craft foam, draw and cut out two pink ovals for ears and two slightly-large white ovals for outside of ears. Cut out two white ovals for arms and two smaller white ovals for feet.
5. Glue bunny ears to the inside of the top terra cotta pot.
6. Glue the top of the arms to the side of the bunny, leaving the bottom portion (paws) unglued.
7. Glue bunny feet to the bottom of the terra cotta pot.
8. Wrap ribbon around the joint between the bunny head and body and tie in a bow.
9. Cut a 2 1/2-inch Easter egg from purple craft foam, decorate with glitter and markers then glue it to the bunny hands to look like he is holding the egg.
10. Glue on wiggly eyes and a pompom nose. Draw mouth and whiskers with a marker.
11. Glue large white pompom to the base of the back side for the tail.
12. Fill with cotton balls or Easter treats.
PEEK-A-BOO BUNNY NAPKIN HOLDER
• Toilet paper roll
• White, pink, and green construction paper
• Scissors
• Tape
• Glue
• Small wiggly eyes
• Black permanent marker
• White napkin
1. Measure and cut one 6 by 4 ½-inch white rectangle to fit around the toilet paper. Secure with tape.
2. Measure and cut a 6 by 2 ½-inch green rectangle. To create blades of grass, fringe along one 6-inch side by cutting straight, narrow strips that are about 1-inch down.
3. Glue the uncut, long edge of paper to the base of the toilet paper so the fringed side is facing up.
4. On the white portion of the toilet paper roll, glue two wiggly eyes.
5. Cut a small, pink triangle from construction paper. Glue inverted triangle to create nose.
6. Use marker to create whiskers and a mouth. Try to make your bunny peeking above the grass.
7. Open napkin and refold into a long rectangle. Place center of napkin just inside the top of the toilet paper roll and separate napkin ends to create two bunny ears.
BUNNY MASK
• 2 white paper plates
• Pink construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue gun (low setting)
• Black pipe cleaners, cut in half
• Medium pink pompom
• Hole punch
• 2 12-inch ribbons
1. Cut a circle from construction paper, identical in size to the inner circle of one paper plate. Glue to the center of the plate.
2. Cut plate in half to create two ears. Set aside.
3. To make the bunny’s face, cut a pizza-shaped wedge from the second paper plate that measures approximately ¼ of the plate. Discard the wedge.
4. In the upper, center portion of the face, draw and cut out two 1 ¼-inch eye holes.
5. Glue pompom at the point of the wedge opening and just below the two eyes to create the nose.
6. Glue three pipe cleaner sections to each side of the wedge opening to create whiskers.
7. Glue ears to the top of the mask.
8. Place one hole punch on each side of the face. Loop a ribbon through each hole, secure with a knot, and attach mask to your face.
THE TRAIL OF PETER RABBIT
Peter Rabbit made his debut almost 100 years ago, and he’s been hopping along in history ever since. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was the imaginative genius of author and illustrator Beatrix Potter, who fashioned the story in 1893 for 5-year-old Noel Moore, son of Potter’s former governess, Annie Carter Moore. When Noel became sick, Potter sent him a series of written and illustrated story segments based on her childhood pet, Peter Piper. Moore realized how much her son loved the story, so she suggested Potter have the tale published. After several rejections, the story was finally accepted and printed by Frederick Warne & Company in 1902. It was an instant success, and by year’s end more than 28,000 copies had been printed! Two years later, the sequel The Tale of Benjamin Bunny was published, and within a decade the entire series became a best seller. Today The Tale of Peter Rabbit has sold more the 40 million copies worldwide, and the series has printed more the 151 million copies in more than three dozen languages.