30 Things to Do With Bay Area Kids in April

This year's April will be very different from the past years as we shelter in place to flatten the curve of COVID-19 spread. We put together fun, family activities you can enjoy in the comfort of your home.

April Fools! Play gentle pranks on your kids. Ideas via Buzzfeed >
Hug a giant bowl of popcorn and watch Onward (streaming now or see on Disney+ 4/3)
Spot adorable teddy bears looking at you walking by as part of the Oakland/Berkeley Bear Hunt.
Picnic in your backyard for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
Pick a new activity to do at home with toddlers from items you have in the house.
Print a scavenger hunt and discover ordinary things in a new way.
Become a scientist for a day and experiment and discover something amazing.
Ride scooters to get some speed around the block.
Stretch together for family yoga.
Visit a museum for a virtual tour:
- Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose
- California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco)
- The British Museum (London, England)
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Washington, D.C.)
- Roald Dahl Museum (Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, UK)
- NASA Glenn Research Center (Cleveland, OH)

**Super easy homemade volcano:** Build the mountain from modeling dough (homemade if you have it handy) and add a small plastic cup as the cone of the volcano (I use a kid's medicine measuring cup), then put baking soda in the cup along with a little dish soap and some drops of whatever food coloring you want to try. Use a small pipette or straw/finger to drip some vinegar into it. | Photo: Julie Herson

Make a colorful volcano out of vinegar, dish soap, food coloring, and baking soda.
Look for houses with rainbows on their windows/sidewalk on your walk.
Dance and sing with Alphabet Rockers.
Join for a celebrity storytime with lots of kids' stories read by different actors.
Hike behind the Oakland Zoo. Did you know there are paths and fields around Knowland Park's zoo area? Keep your eyes open and you'll see the Zoo's bears and other wonderful creatures on the other side of the fence.
Watch adorable animals roam around the human-free zoo @sanfranciscozoo Instagram and via life cam at Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Workout with your kids led by Joe Wicks, a fitness guru from the UK.
Create and learn with Imagineering in a Box, interactive lessons in theme park design, animation, and engineering, created by Disney and Kahn Academy (best for kids 11+).
Bake your favorite cookies or cupcakes. Look at that, we're learning math!
Go out and search for May flowers. Where to play outside with your kids >

Ideas for Celebrating Easter at home

Easter egg hunt in the house or backyard (or both!) with good eggs filled with treats and bad eggs filled with jokes (or chore to-dos).
Easter egg dying with toddlers.
Make sock bunnies.
Cut out bunny ears and tape them onto stuffies for a “bunny” parade.
Download free Easter-themed coloring pages.