Easter Egg Magnets

A while back, Eva went to a bug class at our science museum and made a cute lady bug magnet.  The shape of them reminded me of eggs so I decided to recreate the project to use as an Easter gift.  To begin we added water to some plaster of paris and then scooped it into plastic spoons.

Then Eva dropped a magnet into each spoon.  (Be careful if you are using strong magnets- they will attract each other if the spoons are too close.)

When the plaster was dry, I popped them out and rubbed the edges to get rid of any rough parts and then Eva painted them.

We let that dry and then Eva decided her eggs needed polkadots.  Using the opposite end of a paint brush, she dipped it in paint and dabbed onto the eggs.

Now we have a collection of Easter egg magnets to pass out on Easter Sunday to our family and friends!

Bunny Garland

Eva decided we needed a garland for on our fireplace and only bunnies would do!  I love the peeps garland that Dana at Made created last year and used her template for the bunny shape.  I traced the bunny onto pink, yellow and purple card stock and I thought it would be cute for Eva to use a cotton ball to paint a tail on each one but she has plans of her own.  She decide the bunnies needed to be completely covered in white paint and that only a paint brush would do the job.  This was her craft so I let her call the shots!

When they had all been covered in paint (notice how her method changed from painting individual bunnies to just covering the paper with paint!) we added some glitter and when everything was dry, I cut them out.  Eva then decided on the pattern (yellow, purple, pink) and laid them out on the floor.  I taped them to some ribbon and hung them up.  Now we have a festive Easter decoration that Eva can truly call her own!

Let the Planting Begin!

This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous so we spent a lot of time outside getting our gardens ready for planting.  Eva has been anxious to start growing her vegetables so I broke out some of the seed starters she has accumulated over the past few months and she went to ton making the dirt and planting the seeds.

We also direct sowed our carrot, lettuce and pea seeds.  We had so much fun building bamboo teepees for our pea plants (and later, green bean plants) to grow up.

(We live in the city so we take advantage of any bit tof garden space we can find!)

As soon as the seeds were in the ground, Eva began asking when they would grow.  We made a little chart to keep by the back door with our guesses as to what would sprout first.

Now everyday when we go outside, we check to see if anything has sprouted.  It is so exciting!

Fun with Plastic Easter Eggs

This year, instead of coming up with activities for Eva to do with plastic eggs, I gave her a basket full of them and let her creativity guide her.  Each day she has come up with something to do with them.  She has used eggs tongs to transfer them from the basket to a tray.

When she got bored with that, she dumped the eggs on the floor and then used the tongs to collect them again.

Here's a list of a few other Easter egg activities she came up with:
*  hide the eggs and then find them again (great training for Easter egg hunts!)
*  open the eggs and see what will fit inside (she's tried everything from dinosaurs to crayons to buttons)
*  put something in an egg and have someone else guess what it is by shaking it
*  sort eggs by color
*  sort eggs by size
*  roll eggs to see which ones will go the farthest
*  put small objects in two eggs and use as shakers to make music

Play Dough Planting

It's not quite planting season for us here yet but we still can have flowers!  I came upon this post at Teach Preschool and knew it would be a big hit.  I made a batch of play dough and added a mix of food coloring to turn it brown.  (I also sprinkled in some cocoa to make it smell nice!)  Using some flower pots and bunches of Dollar Store flowers, Eva started planting.

So much fun!  Eva was so into it, she climbed up onto the window seat to get comfy and played for half an hour arranging and rearranging to flowers.

Welcome to Australia!

(Image Source)

This month we are headed down under for lots of eco-friendly fun!  That's right, in honor of Earth Day later this month, we are going green for all of April (and beyond too!).  We'll be recycling, reusing, repurposing and more!

Rather than weekly themes, we will be incorporating crafts and activities that relate to spring, Easter and Earth Day into our exploration of Australia.  We hope you'll come along with us as we jump into the Outback!

Books: