Abide with me; fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day; earth's joys grow dim; its glories pass away; change and decay in all around I see; O thou who changest not, abide with me.

I need thy presence every passing hour. What but thy grace can foil the tempter's power? Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless; ills have no weight, and tears not bitterness. Where is death's sting? Where, grave, thy victory? I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes; shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee; in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

This morning we had another go of Easter Bingo and then, while Monkey Girl did some cognitive development work, Ballet Girl made Humpty Dumpty!

Panda Girl felt very important this morning as she had first go at painting an egg!

Ballet Girl painting her egg.

Monkey Girl's turn.

Monkey Girl showing Panda Girl how to do the Easter jigsaws.

Spot the children.... Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl played outside for about an hour and a half this afternoon. It was so windy. Ballet Girl flew her kite which she made a few months ago. She created it herself - paper kite with string tied and rolled onto a pencil. She unravels the string as the wind takes it.

Ballet Girl wrote and illustrated a beautiful Easter book about a chick leaving his egg. I love it!!

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl made lovely rabbit bookmarks - a little less fiddly than yesterday's ones.

Easter activity books.

Ballet Girl's vocabulary for the week. Monkey Girl is doing well with them too and Panda Girl has somehow managed to recognise the word 'egg'...!

Rest of the day's work.

To finish off the day (and because Ally arrived to give me some moral support) the girls did some cooking. They made...

...chocolate peppermint cakes!

We started off bright and early this morning with a game of Easter bingo!

Panda Girl had great fun with counters and little dominoes.

Ballet Girl's Easter poster for our window display

Monkey Girl's

The Resurrection. Monkey Girl made this jigsaw over and over again.

The beginning of a very hysterical egg and spoon race around the house.

The girls worked really carefully to make these Easter egg bookmarks - very fiddly but they were really chuffed with the outcome :)

The girls had their first look at a bar graph today, and answered some observational questions. Monkey Girl did her first word search and Ballet Girl did subtractions where she already knew the answer but had to work out the missing number in the sum.

Monkey Girl and Ballet Girl sewing Easter animals.

Ballet Girl's rabbit :)

Monkey Girl's chick :) They played with them all afternoon and took them to gymnastics so they could 'watch'. :)

Making things with boxes and paint....,
I have started our Easter project a little early this year but hopefully it will mean we will have time to fit it all in and have a little holiday at the end of it.
I have been 'uum-ing and aahh-ing' about this project and how much to include for my sensitive Monkey Girl and deep-thinking Ballet Girl. Eventually I came to the conclusion that we would base our work around the fact that Jesus died because he loves us and that is wonderful! We will do lots of craft, happy bunny and chick things, gentle pictures about Jesus, Palm Sunday, The Last Supper, a little about Good Friday and then lots of fun and love on Easter Sunday. We can increase our depth each year, so hopefully they will develop a fuller understanding as they grow.

Rainbow scratch Easter eggs. These were great fun to do - you use a wooden stick to carve away the black surface revealing a rainbow pattern underneath. Monkey Girl especially, was fascinated.

My busy painters this afternoon.

Paintings

Ballet Girl and Monkey Girl made chicks while Panda Girl was napping :)

Panda Girl made her chick this evening with a little help from Ally :)

So proud!

Our Lady window display