Learning French Through Play During the Easter Holidays!

5 Simple and fun ideas to try at home or in the garden 🌼

Hello lovely families,

Easter break is here and that's the perfect time to enjoy some special moments with your children while keeping a gentle connection to French at home. Just Play, Joy and a bit of vocabulary woven into everyday fun.

1. Bilingual Easter Egg Hunt 🥚

I don’t know about your chidlren but my daughter loves celebrating Easter early by hunting for eggs all around the house. Let's use this love for egg hunting to introduce words in French.

Set up an Easter egg hunt indoors or in the garden with:

• Colourful eggs (ceramic, wooden or plastic)

• Pictures or secret words hidden inside the eggs or If you are an creative person, let's paint numbers, flowers, animals on the ceramic or wooden eggs that you buy.

➡️ For toddlers:

Pictures hidden inside are the great way to encourage your child to speak more in French.

Encourage them with simple sentence or question in French and introduce new vocabulary (colours, numbers, animals) through this game :

"Qu'est ce que tu as trouvé ? Un lapin ! Est ce que tu as trouvé un oeuf jaune ? Oh regarde il y a le chiffre 2 sur celui ci !Peux tu compter d'oeufs tu as dans ton panier ?"

➡️ For older kids:

If they start to read in French, you have to know that children love reading secret words. By adding some in the plastic eggs you encourage them in their reading learning through Play.

• write Letter to practice the sound of letters in French

• write secret words with 2, 3 or 4 letters depending their level as AS, SAC, BAC

2. Nature Workshop: Let’s Create an Nest 

Let’s head outside and learn with our hands, eyes, and all our senses. Invite your child on a little nature walk (park, garden, forest) to gather natural materials while introducing French words:

• Twigs/Bâton

• moss/mousse

• small branches/ branches,

• leaves/feuilles

• feathers/plumes

• fallen flowers/fleurs, etc.

At home, use a support such as a beautiful illustrated book about Easter or birds and nests to start the conversation and boost their vocabulary. It doesn’t need to be in French!  What matters is using the book to talk about it together in French:

"C'est un nid/It's a nest, Est ce que tu entends le chant d'un oiseau/ Do you hear a bird sing ? Combien d'oeufs vois tu ?/How many egg do you see?"

After collecting your treasure and introduce few words by reading a book about birds, invite your children to create a nest by using these treasures at home with playdough as a base. Kids can also place small eggs (paper, plastic, or modeled) and play with birds figures.

During the activity, introduce or revisit words like:

• Le nid (nest), l’œuf (egg), la branche (branch), la mousse (moss), le panier (basket)

• L’oiseau (bird), le poussin (chick), le lapin (bunny), le terrier (burrow)

Add simple science facts as "L'oiseau ponds des oeufs dans le nid/ Birds lay eggs in nests." or " Les lapins donnent naissance dans les terriers/ Rabiits have babies in burrows."

💡 For parents : Please remember that the most important thing is the game, the process and not the result at this age.

💡 Older children Tip: Take a picture of their creation, and write a simple sentence in French. It strengthens memory and creates a sweet keepsake. Then keep it in a special French notebook or folder that your child can look at it when he want. Maybe in your french corner !

 3. Easter Memory Game

Find few pictures of rabbit, chick, lamb, Easter basket, Easter eggs, bells and make your own cards with an Easter memory game.

You can play:

• As memory (match identical pairs)

• With riddles: “I’m looking for the picture of chick/ Poussin !” to introduce simple words to your child if your are not a french speaker parent.

  
  

4. Easter story during a quiet time.

The day can be long, and quiet time is a time of revitalization and enjoyment for both adults and children. Connect with French books on the theme of Easter or the cycle of life. Here are some book titles to inspire you:

•  Pierre Lapin : la chasse aux oeufs de Pâques (1+)

• Mon imagier de Pâques (2+)

• Mon imagier nature (2+)

• Fenouil - Joyeuses Pâques ! de Brigitte Weninger (3+)

• Le petit oiseau pour découvrir le cycle de vie des oiseaux (3+)

•  La véritable histoire du lapin de Pâques de Violaine Troffigué (4+)

5. Easter-Themed Coloring at the Farm 🎨

Print or trace simple Easter-themed images on few pages :

• An egg, a rabbit, a chick, a basket, a bell, a lamb

Then Plan a trip to the farm nearest you. Observe the animals and find a place where you can color while watching the animals. This is the best way to connect with words in French. While your child colors, repeat words together:

" Tu colories un oeuf / You paint the egg, C'est un lapin/ It's a rabbit, C'est le panier où on met les oeufs. /It's the basket where we put the eggs"

💡 Bonus idea: turn finished drawings into labels or decorations for the house to remember this beautiful day spent together on the farm !

💛 Tips for a Positive Language Experience:

• Don’t aim for perfection — it’s about discovery and fun!

• Repeat words in context, often and gently

• Celebrate every effort ("You said lapin, bravo!" 🐰)

• Mix languages when needed, especially to explain instructions

• Keep a simple daily ritual in French, even 5 to 15 minutes counts!

Looking for more support?

👉 Join one of our French playgroups in Bath or Bristol.

👉 Or book a private tutoring session for gentle, personalized language support