Easter
Going to the grocery store while pregnant can be dangerous, I left the store yesterday not with 1 but 2 bags of mini marshmallows. Buyers regret stepped in but then I thought I could make a fun Easter craft with them too. So glad I got both bags because my son loved this and I think the Easter egg is adorable. Whenever I do crafts with tempting treats like marshmallows I give my son a number he needs to add to it before he can pop one in his mouth! So we limit gorging and practice counting.
- Gather your materials. You will need some white and colored mini marshmallows, construction paper, glue and a marker.
- Start by drawing an Easter egg on your paper.
- Add glue along the line.
- Add your white marshmallows along the edge. We did 15 then ate one, 21 then ate one , and 17 and ate one. Yes I did help too. My son said ” Mommy I will share my activity with you and tell daddy we shared.”
- Next ask your child how many stripes they want. I caution you perhaps give them a range, my son said 8 and wouldn’t budge. I ended up doing 3 rows because 8 is a lot for a 3 year old to do.
- Add your colored marshmallows. We decided to add a sorting element by saying the lines can be any color, but it must be all one color. So my son was forced to sort the colors when adding them. Worked great! With younger toddlers I’d just let them go for it. Older children can add a patterning lesson in too.
- Keep going!
- Let dry.
I want to know YOUR favorite Easter books!
Leave a short review of your favorite Easter book in the comments and I will feature it ( and a link to you) in a reader’s favorites section of an upcoming post.
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Painting on toast and even rice cakes have been featured on two of my favorite blogs Make and Takes and Mom Tried It but I had never tried the fun craft until today. My son only wants one thing for breakfast these days, waffles. When I was looking at them today I thought, I wonder if I could paint on them too? Oh and if I used a cookie cutter they could be Easter eggs! It was such a hit we used up all our waffles.
- Gather your materials. You will need some food coloring, milk, a paint brush, waffles ( lightly toasted), and an Easter egg cookie cutter.
- Mix your food coloring with a splash of milk, you don’t need much!
- Cut the waffle into the shape of the egg.
- Start painting.
- I made stripes. My son was more free form.
- Toast and serve!
- Eat.
- I have to show you what a hit this was, after he ate the first two he made a third – and ate it too. My kid doesn’t eat that much, this was a feast for him!
Egg Books
The Golden Egg Book 
First the Egg 
Recycle your plastic eggs after the chocolate and jelly beans have been consumed and make something fun ! These crafts are fast and fun and let your kids create while they learn.
- Gather your materials. You will need some plastic eggs that have pre made holes in them ( most do) , some pipe cleaners, label stickers and markers.
- Start by drawing on your label stickers ( they are matte so you can color them and it will stick). I was shocked with how much my son liked this step, glad I added it in.
- Next stick them onto the egg.
- Use two labels to act as eyes and draw some eyes on them with a marker!
- Pick out a pipe cleaner or 2 if you are a toddler and like to always say “Two?” whenever anything is offered. Thread them through the holes.
Egg Blossoms!
- Gather your materials. You will need some tissue paper, pipe cleaners, scissors and eggs.
- Cut your tissue paper into a flower shape. I used multiple layers for each egg.
- Break the egg into 2 pieces if it has a connector, and thread the bottom piece onto the pipe cleaner.
- Add the tissue paper by making a small hole int the middle and threading it on.
- Add the top piece.
Thread your pipe cleaner through and then gently tug, some eggs have one hole only, in this case make a little knot and tug, if there are 2 holes simply thread it back in.
I have done this activity for years and never once called the eggs Easter eggs, they were polka dots with surprises inside. Obviously if you celebrate Easter there is no reason to call them anything else but if you don’t celebrate Easter you can still jump on the polka dot bandwagon and use them to have fun learning.- Gather your materials. You will need some plastic eggs that open with room to hide things inside, you can also use small gift boxes. Some paper, a marker, some scissors and basket or bag.
- The great thing about this activity is that it’s versatile. If you are learning about shapes you can pop shapes in the eggs, if you are doing letters you stuff them with letters etc… So this next step is where you decide what to stuff them with and using a marker and paper make the surprises.
- Stuff the eggs and either hide them for a hunt, or place them in a basket for your child to choose from.
- When you child finds the egg make sure to ask them what color the outside is, and encourage them to open it up and find what’s inside.
- If your child is a young toddlers you can simply put fun toys in and they will be kept busy finding them. Just opening the eggs are great fine motor skills practice!
- One last note if you have an older sibling who is working on sight words at grade school you can pop those in some eggs for them too!
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I have to confess, as much as I adore Easter, and all thing messy usually, I can’t stand dyeing eggs. There I said it. I don’t know why I dislike it so much, I just do. Instead of hard boiling we used glitter and foam to make these easy magnets !
- Gather your materials. You will need some foam sheets, we used 2 colors but use as many as you have or want, some glue, a few colors of glitter glue , scissors and magnetic tape.
* word of caution when doing things with magnets and your children. Magnets can be really dangerous if swallowed so I always use these large pieces and make sure they are far too big to fit in a child’s mouth. Even when you think they are over the stick it all in my mouth stage, they will surprise you and it’s not worth the risk. - Start by drawing an oval or two on a sheet of foam with a marker.
- Have your child use the glitter glue to decorate, they don’t need to be exact or careful. A lot of glitter glue is tough to squeeze but if your child is anything like mine they will insist on doing it themselves.
- While they exert their independence and get glitter all over the egg and themselves, draw some lines and zig zags on a second sheet of foam.
- Rub the glitter around to spread it, not only will this look cool , it cuts the drying time.
- Decorate the 2nd sheet with glitter as well.
- Let dry
- Cut out the stripes and zig zags
- I added the glue in strips, I asked my son how many he wanted , but did the glue myself.
- Add the stripes and zig zags and let dry.
- Cut out the eggs
- Add the magnets
- Use them to display your other artwork!
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- Gather your materials. You will need some orange paper and tissue paper, some heavy paper or a discarded cereal box, a marker, scissors, glue and a handful of green Easter grass.
- Start by drawing a basic carrot on your cardboard/ heavy paper with the marker.
- Next hand the paper already ripped in long strips to your child to rip into smaller pieces. my son needed some guidance here but got it after a few tries. He wanted to ball them up first.
- While they are ripping, cut some orange tissue paper into small squares.
- Time to add the glue. If you are apprehensive about allowing your little ones to handle the glue this is a great project to let them try since they don’t need to be precise at all.
- Add the paper and tissue paper.
- Add more glue if needed
- Add more paper.
- Glue the Easter grass on the top , let dry.
- Cut out and enjoy. We’ve been feeding a stuffed bunny our finished carrot all day.
