Jelly Bean Poem Baskets

We host a playgroup and Bible study at our house on Thursdays, so we wanted a little treat for the kids to take home!  The baskets ended up being a fun little project.  The girls were excited about making them and sharing them with friends.  It also became a good math activity.

1)  We used a small paper cup and pipe cleaner to make our "basket" (things I had on hand!).  A hole punch works great, but an adult could also just push the ends through the cup.  Then, I found the poem and printed it to place on the handle (The poem is here, and a larger pdf printable is here).

2)  Open a bag of jellybeans and place each color in a pile (colors, sorting).  When you have them sorted, you might as well do a graph (graphing)!  Then place one of each color in each cup (one-to-one correspondence).

 (Update)  Princess was very happy to pass these out to her friends.  After lunch, I let the girls have their baskets.  I had each girl find the correctly-colored jellybean and eat it as we went through the poem.

Recycled Laundry Detergent Paint Cups

I know it's weird -- a post about paint cups in the middle of all my Easter projects!  But we had a detergent bottle empty, and I was so excited to try this out!!  I love to find ways to reuse or recyle!

1)  Rinse out an empty detergent bottle.  With the cap off, heat it in the microwave for about two minutes (to loosen the glue - I didn't try to pry it off beforehand, so I don't know if it would work without softening it).

2)  Pry off the lid with a knife or screwdriver.

3)  Screw the lid back into the cap.

4)  Voila!!  An almost spill-proof paint cup with the inside perfect for wiping off excess paint.

It was easy!  I think this project is a keeper!

Crumpled Tissue Paper Eggs

I wanted a very simple Easter craft that even a toddler could do! 

Supplies:

Paper

Tissue paper

Glue

Scissors

1)  Cut out an egg shape from construction, cardstock, or copy paper.  Cut squares of tissue paper (about 4" x 4").  (I always save tissue paper from birthday presents, so we have lots of pink and other Easter colors!!)

2)  Crumple the tissue paper, dip the bottom in glue, and press it on the egg.

*For a variation, use a gluestick and glue the pieces flat onto the egg.  Older children might enjoy using scissors to cut the pieces of tissue paper.

More Easter Egg Activities

Here's one more enrichment activity with eggs!  Egg cartons can be used for many games and activities for preschoolers, so add some to your craft scrap collection!

Supplies:

Empty egg carton

Markers or crayons

Plastic eggs

1)  Using markers or crayons, mark the bottom of each cup with a color.  Place corresponding eggs into the carton.

2)  Have your child dump out the eggs.  Show her how to match the colored egg with the correctly-colored cup.  You could also have your child sort jellybeans by color into each cup.

Another Easter Egg Activity

You have the eggs out already, right?!!  So, you might as well have an egg hunt!  The girls love to hide eggs for each other and have their own hunts.  They usually just hide empty eggs, but I had a few ideas...

1)  Fill the eggs with pairs of letters -- capitals and lowercase.  Hide them and let the hunt begin!

2)  Empty the eggs.  Then make some matches!

You could use almost any idea -- color matches, sticker matches, animal matches, etc.  

Easter Egg Activities

One simple activity you can do with Easter Eggs is to make a sound matching game.

1)  Fill pairs of eggs with items to make different sounds (beans, sugar, jingle bells, screws, peanuts, pom-poms, etc.).  Eight to ten eggs seems to work well.

2)  Place in a basket and allow your child to shake each egg.  See if she can make some matches!!  Please make sure you supervise so no little pieces are swallowed!

I had my eggs filled with peanuts, gum-drops, a small piece of a pretzel, and pom-poms -- so we had a little snack afterwards (excluding pom-poms, of course!).

Rainbow Cupcakes

I found these rainbow cupcakes for our rainbow-themed tea party.  Instructions for making them are here.

Circle Rainbow

Here's a simple way to make a rainbow.

1)  Trace circles onto construction paper starting with red.  Make red your biggest circle with the colors after smaller and smaller circles (I used a compass).

2)  Cut out the circles.  Using a gluestick or school glue, paste the orange circle in the middle of the red circle, the yellow circle in the middle of the orange circle, and so on.

3)  Draw a line across the middle of the circles.  Cut.

The girls had a rainbow-themed tea party, so we used our rainbows for crafts.  We put a magnet on one half, and used the other rainbow to decorate a tambourine!

Coffee Filter Shamrock

This one might get a little messy!  Make sure you have on paint clothes!

1)  Trace a shamrock onto a coffee filter.

2)  We used a dab of yellow finger paint with a dab of blue on top.  Finger paint away!

3)  Allow to dry (you can speed up the process with a hairdryer), cut out, and hang in the window.

  

A Simple Way to Wear Green on St. Patrick's Day

Make a St. Patrick's Day necklace so you don't get pinched!

1)  Dye your noodles green using the method here.

2) String your noodles on a piece of yarn.

3) Cut out two identical shamrocks from felt or craft foam.  Find the middle of your necklace and glue the pieces together with the string in the middle.  We found hot glue worked the best.

St. Patrick's Day Button Shamrock

Here's a really easy, but cute craft that could make a great present for any grandparent!

1)  Find a pattern for a shamrock or make your own template using three hearts.  (You can find a free one here).

2) Trace (or print) your shamrock onto construction paper or cardstock.  Cut out your shamrock.

3) Glue a mix of buttons around the edges of your shamrock.

You can make these large or small.  We used our bigger ones as door decorations.  We fastened a pin to the back of the smaller one for a button to wear on St. Paddy's!

Welcome!

With three little girls in the house, I am constantly looking for activities to do -- especially fun activities for preschoolers.  Each week I will pick a theme.  Then, each day, we will pick a craft, cooking, or other enrichment project to do and post about the process.

When my oldest was little she made a statement about how her mimi's car was "an amazing mess."  That collision of words has stuck with me.  Life with three preschoolers is amazing.  Life with three preschoolers is also a mess!  Let's see what amazing messes we can make together!