Plastic Easter Egg Sensory Bin

This Easter sensory bin is such a simple idea, yet it has provided HOURS of fun for all three of my girls.  As I have mentioned before we have a HUGE collection of plastic Easter Eggs and I am always looking for new and different ways to use them.  This sensory bin was a spur of the moment attempt to keep Clara (11 months old) occupied while we decorated the house for Easter. I filled our sensory bin, which is just a large under the bed storage bin that I picked up at A.C. Moore, with all of our plastic Easter Eggs and the Bunny Egg Dipper Tongs that we use when we color Easter Eggs.  (I was excited that they get to use that more than once during the season too!)  Later I added an Egg Carton that they enjoyed filling up with eggs. 

Since there are a variety of sizes of eggs Juliette especially liked putting the little egg in the medium egg inside the large egg and surprising Emily with it. 
I thought it was pretty amazing that this bin kept a 7 year old, 4 year old and 11 month old busy and playing with each other.  These pictures make me smile every time I see them!

After a few days Clara discovered that is is also a lot of fun to climb into the sensory bin of eggs!!

Check out some of our other SENSORY FUN activities.

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Hopping Clothespin Bunny Puppet Craft For Easter

I just have to say I think this Hopping Clothespin Bunny Puppet  is one of my favorite bunny craft projects ever and is the perfect project to get ready for Easter!! I host a toddler/preschool art group at my house once a week and I was browsing Pinterest looking for some ideas.  I was planning on doing some Easter  Bunny themed projects and then I found this adorable Hatching Egg Craft and the inspiration for this project.  I thought if I attached the bunny on to the clothes pin it would move up and down like it was hopping.  I made a quick sample and it worked perfectly, both Emily and Juliette thought it was the cutest thing ever and I couldn’t wait for the girls to make their own!

To make this project we used a Clothespin , 4 Jumbo Craft Sticks , card stock, wiggly eyes, pom poms, markers, craft foam, green construction paper, glue and a hot glue gun.

First I cut out a bunny shape for each of the girls to decorate.  Juliette decided to color the ears and draw the face with markers.  She also used various other craft supplies to decorate it.  She used a cotton ball for the tail, wiggly eyes and craft foam for the teeth and nose.  She also cut out a carrot from scraps of construction paper.  I loved just watching to see what she created.

Once they were finished with the bunnies, they cut fringe on a strip of green construction paper to use as the grass.

Finally I used hot glue to put everything together.  I glued two of the jumbo craft sticks together to make one longer craft stick.   I did this 2 times so that I had one for the top and one for the bottom.  Then I hot glued these onto the clothespin as you can see in the picture above.  Next, I glued the grass onto the bottom craft stick being careful not to let it stick to the top one.  Then I glued the bunny onto the top craft stick making sure that it didn’t touch the grass.  Finally I trimmed the top craft stick with a scissor so that it ended with the bunny.    We found that the hot glue holds everything together much better and I like that it dries so quickly. They were able to play with their bunny crafts right away!

Juliette was so excited to test out her hopping bunny puppet and she was able to entertain Clara with it for quiet a while!!

Also check out our cute Hand Print Bunny Napkin Rings

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Tic-Tac-Toe with an Egg Carton and Plastic Easter Eggs

My girls love playing Tic-Tac-Toe!!  It is definitely a stand by waiting game for restaurants, waiting in Dr. Offices or in the car or just for fun at home.  We usually play with paper and pencil or as on a board that came with a set of princess games.  The other day though as I used the last egg in a carton of 18 eggs I realized that if I cut it up it would make the perfect Tic-Tac-Toe board.   

So after a little cutting I gathered up some of our plastic colored Easter Eggs and showed our new Tic-Tac-Toe board to the girls.

I played a couple of rounds with each of the girls.  It was different to have to place the egg into the container than to draw and X or an O, which made it a fun twist.

The girls also had a great time playing against each other!

This was a fun new way to play and a great way to recycle our old egg carton!

For more fun with Plastic Easter Eggs Check out our Plastic Easter Egg Chicks and Bunnies

 

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Creative Challenge: Plastic Easter Egg Chicks and Bunnies

When I read about  the Creative Challenge from Tinkerlab I knew it was for us and something we would want to join in.  Emily and Juliette love to work on projects and I loved the idea that it was open ended and up to them to figure out what to do, which fosters their creativity and problem solving skills

This month’s challenge is EGGS, so we could do anything we want with any type of egg.

I explained to the girls that we had to come up with a project that has to do with eggs.  We conveniently decided to decorate our house for Easter which meant we had a huge bag of Plastic Easter Eggs (I’m talking like easily 75-100 eggs) just sitting waiting to be used in some fun and creative way.

Emily suggested the idea of turning a plastic yellow egg into a chick, she thought our bin of pipe cleaners would be perfect for his feet and Juliette totally agreed and added that we needed to make a bunny too.  They picked out yellow eggs for the chicks and pink eggs for the bunnies. Then I helped them gather whichever art supplies they thought they needed to create their projects.

Our supplies included plastic eggs, pipe cleaners, beads, craft foam, sharpie markers,feathers, construction paper, pom poms, wiggly eyes and our hot Glue Gun .

The girls noticed that there were holes in the top and bottom of each part of the egg which was perfect for adding the feet. 

After they added the feet they figured out worked on adding all the other details.  Daddy got in the fun to and decided to create a party egg :)      Emily’s Princess Chick!

 

Check out our cute Handprint Bunny Craft and Hatching Chick Craft for some more Bunny and Chick Fun!!

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Soda Bottle Easter Basket

Juliette made this adorable Easter Basket at school and I had to share it I thought it was so cute!

To make it they cut the top off of a soda bottle then covered the cut edge with duct tape so no little fingers would get cut.  The kids decorated the feet and head with crayons, a pom pom for the nose and foam stickers for the pink of the ears.  There are also pipe cleaners for the whiskers.  The arms are attached with a brad across the top on either side to make the handle, which can move back and forth.  Finally there is a white pom pom glued on the back for the cotton tail.

I don't have a template for the pieces but they are pretty simple you can use white construction paper and free hand the shape of the arms and feet.  The head is a simple circle with a little extra at the bottom so that it sticks up from the bottle.  Then you can get creative and make the ears any shape you want.

**If you try this I would love t hear about it send me a link to any pictures so I can see how they came out!!

Paper Plate Easter Basket

 

Emily’s Basket ~ I love the Empty Tomb that she decided to draw all on her own!

We made these cute paper plate Easter Baskets with Emily and Juliette’s Sunday School Class for their Easter Party.  We wanted something that was easy to make and that would hold the treats that they found inside their Easter Eggs after the Easter Egg Hunt.

Juliette’s Basket ~ She loved the stickers and Emily was very proud of how she blended the colors at the bottom to make a great design :)

To make them I cut out all of the paper plates ahead of time.  You will need 2 paper plates per child.  Cut one paper plate in half.  Then cut a half circle out of the inside of the second paper plate, this will be the handle.

We gave the kids crayons, markers and stickers for them to decorate the paper plates with.   Make sure they decorate the back(side that would normally touch the table) of the half paper plate because you are going to staple it to the second paper plate so that they are facing each other.  We had a few kids decorate the front (side that the food goes on) so we couldn’t see their design.    Then staple the half paper plate onto the bottom of the other paper plate to make a pouch.  This was a perfect little Easter Basket for the kids to hold all the candy they found after our Easter Egg Hunt!

stART ~ What is Easter?

Welcome to stART!  I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. 

We read What Is Easter?, by Michelle Medlock Adams last year and really enjoyed it again this year.  I love how it talks about all the fun things that kids enjoy doing for Easter, like going on Easter Egg Hunts, getting Easter candy, but then  explains what Easter is really about! 

This year I read this book to my Sunday School class, and it captured their attention the whole time I was reading it.  Each page asks a question like,“Is Easter all about Jelly Beans and Chocolate bunnies?” and they would shout “NO!!!”  It was so much fun to read to them.

The last page is my favorite part of this book:

Okay, now I get it.
The Easter Bunny is okay,
And Easter eggs are fun.
But Easter's not about that stuff.
It's all about God's son.

I read the last line slowly and by the time I got to “It’s all about…” they finished the last line for me.  Even though this is a board book a group of 2 year olds to 10 year olds loved it!

(Juliette’s Cross)

To go with this book Emily and Juliette made marbled crosses.  When I think of Easter my favorite tradition is the Living Cross that my church creates on Easter Sunday.  Every person in the congregation gets a fresh flower to stick into a huge cross that is covered in chicken wire.  Once we are finished, a dull wooden cross is blooming with new life!  Our marbled crosses reminded me of  the beautiful colors of the Living Cross we make on Easter Sunday!

(Emily’s Cross)

Unfortunately, I was not able to get pictures of the girls working on this project.  My nephew work up from his nap early and did not want to be put down.  So I had him in one arm and was helping them with the other.  No extra hands to take pictures :(

It was still very easy to do.  We sprayed some shaving cream into a layer onto a baking sheet.  Then the girls used droppers to add drops of liquid watercolors on top of the shaving cream. Next they used a craft stick to mix the colors into the shaving cream.  But, just a little bit, so that you can still see the individual colors.  Then they took the paper that I cut out in the shape of a cross and gently pressed it onto the shaving cream after a few seconds they pulled it up and used the craft stick to wipe off the extra shaving cream, this is the best part because it looks all white and plain and as you pull the craft stick down and the shaving cream comes of of the paper the vibrant swirls off color are revealed. 

Thing we learned while doing this:

Make sure you do not saturate the shaving cream.  The more shaving cream you use, the more paint you can use.  If you add to much paint the colors blend together and the liquid dissolves the shaving cream.

Do not mix to much, you just want to use the craft stick to swirl the colors around not mix them all together.

Have fun, and be sure to have an extra can of shaving cream the girls were really disappointed when we ran out!!!

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Easter Bunny Fun

We usually have simple Muffin Tin Monday meals each week even though I don’t always get to blog about them.  This week when I was getting ready to make lunch I thought I would make it a little more special and do a theme.  It has been so long since I have actually done something out of the ordinary with, so Emily and Juliette were beyond excited. 

I originally planned on making an ordinary peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the shape of a bunny, but after I spread the peanut butter on one side of the bread I remembered that we had a jar of fluff in the pantry.  I have never had a peanut butter and fluff sandwich, but thought the fluff would look perfect as the fur of the bunny.  Emily and Juliette were just excited to get to eat the fluff for lunch!  I spread the fluff over the peanut butter then we decided it needed an M&M eye, pink sugar ears  and a fluffy marshmallow tail.

In our muffin cups I put some crinkle cut cucumbers (these remind me of Easter since I usually make cucumber salad on Easter), Blueberry Yogurt with Easter Sprinkles and Julienned Carrots, since Easter bunnies love carrots. 

  This little Peanut Butter and Fluff Bunny was a big hit with the girls. I had to make them each another one after they finished everything else!

stART ~ Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs

Welcome to stART!  I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.  I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. 

 

This week we enjoyed reading Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs, by Janet Morgan Stoeke.  In this story, Minerva  finds an Easter Basket that she thinks is a hat for her to wear.  When she puts it on she notices an egg inside of it.  Minerva Louise does not want the egg to be cold so she sits on it to warm it with her fluffy feathers.  As she is looking for the egg’s mother she notices another egg and then another egg.  Soon she decided to tell her friends what is going on, when they come out all the eggs are gone.  They look for answers however the Chocolate Easter Bunny and Marshmallow Chicks are no help!  Finally they find one last colorful egg that is quickly snatched up by a little hand.  The other hens felt better that the “farmers” were doing a good job taking care of the eggs and left, but Minerva Louise, found a nice full Easer Basket for her nest.

The girls loved this book and especially how silly Minerva Louise is!  To go along with this book we made some of our own colorful eggs. When I saw the idea to use jell-o powder with glue like on Pinterest I knew that we had to try it and that it would work perfectly with this book.

I cut out egg shapes for each of the girls and placed them on a cookie sheet.  I also poured the powdered jell-o mix into  egg coloring cups, that I saved from last year, in corresponding colors.   The girls made designs with their glue and then spooned the jell-o over the glue like using glitter.  It was a lot of fun to watch the pale jell-o mix turn a vibrant color as it hit the glue. (The jell-o was a pale color, I picked up one great value one from Walmart and it was a dark red color to start so the effect was not as dramatic)  It also smelled amazing as they were working!

 

This project was fun for all of the kids!

 Emily’s Egg

Juliette’s Egg

stART ~ The Easter Egg

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week as we continue to get ready to celebrate Easter, we read The Easter Egg, by Jan Brett.  This is a beautifully illustrated story about a little bunny that wants to win the Easter Egg decorating contest so that he will be able to help the Easter Rabbit.  While trying to think of how he should decorate his egg he discovers a Robin that needs help caring for one of her eggs that fell out of her nest.  The bunny helps the Robin and is unable to decorate his own egg, but the Easter Rabbit knows what he did and how he helped the Robin and rewards him.  I liked that this book focuses on helping others and was not all about being the winner.  Right now Emily is very competitive and this book is  a great example of how you do not always have to win and the way you play the game or help others is more important!

To go along with this book we decorated our own paper Easter Eggs with our Art Group.  Last year we made Mosaics out of Egg Shells and the whole process was a big hit.  This year we used colored Egg Shells to decorate a construction paper eggs.  We dyed the egg shells and the crushed them into little pieces.  The girls were able to use the crushed egg shells like glitter to decorate their construction paper egg.  The bright colors of the egg shells look so pretty and all the children even the little ones  really had a great time working on this project!

     

First they added the glue in what ever design they wanted.

Next, they added the egg shell sprinkles.

They made some beautiful Easter Eggs!!

                 Juliette’s Egg Emily’s Egg

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stART ~ Pooh’s Easter Basket

 

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read Pooh's Easter Basket.  This is a simple board book that Emily and now Juliette really enjoy.  The different characters from Winnie the Pooh all find different colored Easter Eggs. 

After reading this book we made some cute Handprint Bunny and Easter Egg Pictures.  For this project I made a sample and then gave Emily all the pieces she would need and let her put it together however she wanted.

First I helped Emily trace her hand on a piece of white paper and then cut it out.  To make the rabbits face we folded down the thumb, middle finger and pinky finger.  Then Emily glued the handprint and an oval white piece onto the paper with some green grass.  She enjoyed cutting the fringe to make the grass.

Emily added the face, cotton ball tail, a construction paper sun (which she put together on her own) and then some foam Easter egg stickers.

  Emily’s finished Easter Bunny and Eggs