Some Egg-Cellent Ideas

Kids love love all things Easter egg, the chocolate ones, jelly beans, hiding and searching for them over and over, and dyeing and decorating them. Below are some decorating ideas that may be fun, though they would have been more fun with my grandchildren!

MESSAGE EGGS
After you hardball eggs and they have cooled, an easy way to decorate is to use markers. Children old enough to write can pen messages, younger children can just color and make designs. They may take a little time to dry - I actually had to blot them carefully with a paper towel before refrigerating them.
                                         

NATURALLY DYED EGGS
Using natural dyes to color your Easter eggs is easier than you think and uses common foods.
To make your homemade dyes, place any of these ingredients into separate pots with 2 cups of water and 1 tsp. salt. (This can take some time, but we seem to have a lot of that right now):
1 C blueberries
2 C red onion skins
2 C yellow onion skins
2 Tbsp. paprika
1 C chopped beets
2 C red cabbage
1 - 2 Tbsp. turmeric
 2 C strongly brewed coffee
Bring water to a boil and boil for 15 minutes.
Strain into jars or ny vessel that will hold 2 C of liquid and add 1 Tbsp. vinegar to each one.
Let cool.
Pour into smaller cups with a plastic spoon in each so children can lower eggs carefully into cups.
Watch your children be amazed!

TIE-DYE EGGS
This is an easy variation on dyeing eggs whether with homemade dyes or store bought ones. Place rubber bands around the eggs in different directions before you dye them. Let the eggs dry before removing them.

DECORATING DRAWN PAPER EGGS
Younger children will decorate eggs you draw for them on a pieces of paper. They can be cut out by the child or not at all. Crayons, paint, stamps, stickers, yarn, small craft jewels, glitter. Let your imagination go wild and decide how much mess you want.

STEM ACTIVITIES WITH EGGS
Build towers with plastic egg halves. How tall can it go?

Use plastic egg halves and play dough to stick them together and actually create structures.

Get Creative with Jelly Beans

By now,  I am sure you have bought or ordered as the case may be this Easter season, your jelly beans. They are fun to hide in eggs and put on top of homemade sugar cookies, but you can exercise your brain with them. Really!

The cool thing about STEM activities is that there is no right or wrong and you do not have to give your child a lot of guidelines. Problem solving and imagination just come together.

Here is a wonderful STEM idea that uses jelly beans and toothpicks or small wooden skewers:
After gathering the above items, have the child use the jelly beans to connect the toothpicks and make any structure they want to. Little hands may need some parental help poking the toothpicks into the jelly beans, so you can help them get the hole started. You may find a similar easier activity would be to substitute marshmallows for the jelly beans. For older children, you could ask them to build something specific, like a bridge that would hold something (light). This activity can be repeated over and over, just like hiding Easter eggs. Note: I wouldn't eat the jelly beans you use because there may be small wooden pieces left by the toothpicks. Just have a cup nearby of edible ones!
                                                      

JELLY  BEAN MATH:
Because of the many colors of jelly beans, they lend themselves well to sorting. Have the child find the matching colored jelly beans and group them into piles. Just picking them up with their little pincer fingers is a great strengthening exercise which they need to have a proper pencil or crayon        grip.
                                                        
After your child has grouped their jelly beans, have them group like colors into specific number groups. For example, Group the greens into two's, the blacks into three's, and the red into five's.
You could make a chart for them if they recognize their numbers, otherwise sit with them and either tell them how you are going to group a color, or let them decide. They love to feel like they are important, and these are easy ways to 'let them be in charge!" After they are grouped, the older children can count the groups, and even do some addition with the piles. Make it fun and remember, some of your children will need help with some of these concepts.
                                                                                                                                      

Magic Easter Eggs

Today's Easter art project is simple, but brings a wow with it. Easter eggs remind us birth and rebirth which is an essential lesson of Easter, so let's do some more egg art. This is a crayon resist project, but mostly it is just fun!

Draw and/or cut out plenty of oval eggs, as large or small as you like, as it is fun to do lots of these.   Using a white crayon, drawn designs on the eggs, squiggles, zigzags, lines, circles or just about anything your talent allows. Your artwork will be invisible at this point.
                                                        
Your children won't be able to see the crayon, but your designs will show up when they paint the egg with water colors. It is like magic! If your children are old enough, they can use the crayon to make some designs (if they are frustrated with using white, they could use yellow so they will have a hint of what they are drawing). Invite them to secretly draw on an egg for you, and you can paint and bring the decorated egg to life.
                                                       

And, as we face some more rain this week, I invite you to check out the blog from March 23rd, Rainy Days and Mondays for some good ideas for those kind of days.

Easter Art

Easter is such a beautiful time of year. Flowers are blooming, the birds are returning to our yards, baby animals are being born at the zoo. As we think about Holy Week and what the Celebration is about, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, let us allow ourselves to feel the rebirth within ourselves.

Here are a few art projects that you can spread out over the week and even repeat. Be sure to hang all your art work in your windows so your neighbors can enjoy them when they are out walking.

EASTER CROSS
Gather what you will need:
Piece of white paper
Painters Tape
Paint and a paint brush or Crayons

Place two pieces of painters tape centered on your paper to make a cross.
Put paint in cups or on a painter's palette or plastic plate.
Have child paint or color all over the paper.
                           
When it is covered, let dry if it has been painted and then carefully remove the tape. If your child used crayons, you can do this immediately. And voila! You have a beautiful Easter Cross!
                           

STAMPING WITH PLASTIC EGGS
Gather what you will need: paper, plastic eggs separated into halves, and paint.
Put paint on something flat like a paper plate or wax paper.
Let the child grip the bigger half of an egg and dip edges into a paint color then "stamp" on paper.
This is also a fun opportunity to do some paint mixing and talk about what colors when result when you mix the primary colors in different combinations.
Your child can create whatever picture they like - totally a creative endeavor.
                           

BUNNY EARS
Bunnies are not necessarily religious symbols of Easter, but they remind of us spring and rebirth. These are cute ears you and your child, depending on age, can help make and wear.

Gather what you will need: either white or gray and pink construction paper, a pencil, scissors, glue and a small piece of poster board (or sweatband).
Draw 2 large ears on the white or gray paper.
Draw 2 smaller similar shapes on the pink paper.
If the child can cut, have them cut out all 4 pieces. If not, you can do it for them.
Have the child glue a pink piece inside each gray ear.
Measure your child's head and cut a piece of poster board to fit.
Glue or staple the ears to the band.
                             

It's Palm Sunday

It is really hard to believe it is Palm Sunday and we are entering Holy Week. I will miss being in church today and getting my palm cross pinned on. And the somber Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services. Never the less, we will be celebrating Christ's resurrection next Sunday, but let's start with today's celebration. Visit You Tube IPC Birmingham to join our Sunday morning service, an adult Sunday school class, a youth Sunday school, and a lesson in our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd atriums.

Today, talk to your children about the parade the people of Jerusalem had when they heard Jesus was coming to town to celebrate Passover, a religious celebration . They laid down palm branches and cloaks for the donkey carrying Jesus and they waved palm branches with excitement at seeing this wonderful, amazing man who loved all he met, healed the sick, shared everything he had with the poor, and performed miracles. They sang "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! " Who wouldn't be excited? Weren't they lucky? And, I bet that donkey felt so important. We try to talk about the good parts of Holy Week with young children, so don't worry about all the details you think they won't understand.

NOTE: These are easy, fun activities, but both will help develop fine motor skills.
To help your child correctly hold scissors and cut,  remind them "thumb goes on top" and they have to hold the paper with their other hand. If they still try to cut from the top headed toward themselves, help them reposition the paper. If that is still difficult, put a cotton ball in their little armpit and tell them to keep their arm down while they cut so they do not lose their cotton ball.

LEAF RUBBING ACTIVITY
Collect a leaf from outside
Secure the leaf to a table with tape underneath
Position the leaf over the leaf
Gently rub over the leaf with the side of a crayon (with paper removed) until the outline of the leaf appears on the paper (This is great practice for little fingers because they cannot "fist" the crayon or the rubbing won't work. Rather they have to hold the crayon with their thumb and next 2 fingers.)
You can get as creative as you want with the types of numbers of leaves you rub on one piece of paper
Or you can rub each different leaf on different pieces of paper and learn what tree they come from.

PALM LEAF CUTTING ACTIVITY
What you will need:
One piece of green construction paper or a piece of printer paper
Green crayon if using white paper
Marker
Scissors
Craft stick and glue optional

Instructions:
Draw a big leaf on the construction paper with the marker so there are dark lines for the child to see.
If you draw it on white paper, let child color the leaf green.
Have child cut out the leaf.
The adult then needs to draw diagonal lines from the center going up and out with the marker.
Have the child cut each diagonal line and stop in center, but not continuously across leaf. If it seems that this might be difficult, draw a center line with the marker.
When they have finished cutting, "fluff" the fronds.
If you have a craft stick, glue the leaf onto the stick.
Have a parade and wave all the leaves you and your children have made and shout Hosanna!

                                             

Dinosaur Fun

Dinosaurs are intriguing no matter how old we are. Is it they were so gigantic? Or that some have scary scales or sharp horns or massive wings? I have no idea why they are so interesting, but we will just celebrate them today with a variety of activities.

For older kids, this would lend itself to a great chart, a good skill to learn (for years from now when they are comparing colleges they get admitted to!). For younger children, just handling any dinosaurs you have at home or looking at a book or online and talking about these things will definitely work. We are always surprised by how much the kids know and remember and love to share about dinosaurs.

Let's Learn About Dinosaurs
Learn the names of some dinosaurs.
Learn which ones ate plants and which ones ate other dinosaurs.
Talk about their different sizes and talk about bigger, smaller, taller, shorter.
Learn about how they move

Dinosaur Shadow Drawings
What you will need:
plastic dinosaurs
white paper
pencil or crayon

Instructions:
Go outside
Set the dinosaurs on the driveway or sidewalk so that you can see their shadows
Set the paper down so that the shadows are cast on it
                                                
Have the child trace around the shadows
Tracings can then be colored and decorated!
                   
Check out these links for Crayola's Free Dinosaur Activities - They are providing weekly activities so check them out every week.

Crayola DIY Dinosaur Eggs

Roar-able Coloring Page

Dinosaur Detectives They'll Dig It!

Our Favorite PEP Songs

One of our favorite songs to move to in PEP is Tony Chestnut. This version is sung by the gang from The. Learning Station. It has a catchy tune and words that correspond to body parts to really get a body moving. Just think of Tony and what it takes to point to those two body parts repeatedly. The real fun is that you sing it faster each time through, so you will surely be laughing by the end.

                            http://tonychestnut.com/

            Some more of the kids' favorites can be found on Apple Music and You Tube: 

                                 Slow and Fast by Hap Palmer

                                 The Elephant by Hap Palmer

                                 We are the Dinosaurs by the Laurie Berkner Band 

                                 The Party Freeze Dance Song by the Kiboomers.
     
              Check out GoNoodle - here are some titles to view, but lots of other great ones we use:
                                  Get Yo Body Movin'
                                  Popsicle
                                  Milkshake
                                  Koo Koo Kanga Roo