Got Plastic Eggs? Try these fun ideas.

WoW! Lets just say when I started this Got Plastic Eggs, Try these crafty ideas post I had no idea there would be so many plastic egg ideas out there. I found a few different collection other people have done too but have really tried to find unique ideas or ones that I didn't notice being published in every plastic egg collection. I hope you fine some of these ideas useful as I think some of them are supper fun!!!

As usual with every Got Series post, just click on the picture to go straight to the source of the picture and the DIY to try.

Pipe cleaner ear bunny eggs...the cotton tail is too cute

Make cupcakes

Make Easter Chicks

Make teacups for a special tea party

Make Egg-Animals (and egg monsters and Minions)

Abstract and gold leaf eggs

Easter egg rings

Plastic Egg Creations

Make fire flies

Yarn bunnies...could make chicks too

Egg garland

Use them as snack containers

This is a fun way to turn clear eggs into pretty colours and learn about colour mixing

Make realistic robins eggs

Lorax egg and trees

Use the eggs to shape Rice Krispie egg snack

Make spiders for Halloween or as a bug craft

or other bugs

I love these flowers made with plastic eggs

Make a secret message necklace

Send them in the mail full of sweet treats for a loved one far away

Washi Tape eggs

Doodle on plastic eggs

Have a glow in the dark Easter Egg hunt

Matching coloured chicks to their coloured egg game

Make bugs from your eggs

Make eggsicles

Make wobbly egg friends

Use the eggs to contain hints for a scavenger hunt. We used these ones for a starwberry themed party

Make Maracas

Matryoshka nesting eggs!!!

How about a string of Easter egg lights

Easter action figures (has a neat milkjug basket that uses eggs too)

Save some eggs for the fall and make turkeys

Bejewel them with gem stones

Ohhh make a microphone and stand

Make a Marionette

Make a Faux-Berge egg

Make wet felted eggs using plastic eggs as the base form

Make a fairy ring of mushrooms

Make a paddle ball catch game (a bit down the post)

Make egg bumble bees

Try making an Easter egg wind chime

Or a nest full of blue birds

Paint with half eggs

Make plastic egg jockeys...or any people would be fun in the block or sand area

Here are 15 simple games you can play with plastic eggs.

And if you are still looking for ideas...here are 50+ activities for Math, Science, language, games and much more that use plastic eggs. I didn't check out a lot of the ideas so I hope there aren't too many duplicates for the crafts. I liked this post though because it gave lots of other learning areas other than art to use plastic eggs for.

So do you Got Plastic Eggs? If you do what are you going to make? Remember to check back every Friday to see the  newest Got? Series post.

Easter Egg Tangram Fun

We had so much fun with out Valentine Tangrams set that I knew we would be making the Easter Egg set this year too.

SOURCE

For valentines day we made a  heart tangrams for the light table. The same place I got the idea for the heart pattern also has this egg pattern sheet.

Source

I planned on just enlarging the pattern to make a set myself for the light table as I did for Valentines but the girls found it very hard to visualize the other shapes because the print out was so small when we did that for Valentine's Day.

So I was super excited when I found this set on teachers pay teachers for only $2.50.

***I received a copy for free in exchange for my honest review of this product***

Source and where to buy it

This download has 21 pages. It is an easy and fun activity to do with you kids and the bonus of this download is if you are a teacher, or have multiple children it comes with multiple pattern sizes. There are 22 different shapes (including a few birds, bunnies, shell, cat, dinosaur, flower and more) included that your children can make with just this simple egg shape. This download also comes with both a colour set and a black set which makes the activity easier or harder depending on the ages of your children.

First I made a set to use on the table by printing off the black egg shape (it has white lines so you know where to cut the pieces). I cut them out but the photocopy paper was too flimsy to use as is. I considered laminating them but because my printer is running out of ink they were not worth the laminating sheet. Instead I glued the pieces to an empty box and cut them out again.

 This gave the pieces more than enough firmness to use easily. I then printed off a couple of the black shadow like patterns. Pick a pattern piece or allow your child to pick a pattern picture and try to recreate it.

The egg was fairly easy to do but it did take a bit of thought even for me.

I chose a bunny pattern next and gave it a try.

I kept trying and trying different ways and I have to admit I gave up and cheated. I pulled out the colour card to match the pieces as I was beginning to think it was a mistake and could't be done!

In the end it could be done but one of the pieces needed to be flipped over (obviously my problem solving is a little rusty and I need more practice with these).

FYI: I think next time I will print the pieces out on construction paper (yes you can print on construction paper you just need to cut it first to 8 1/2 X 11 size). That way both side will be the same colour and laminating construction paper is easy too.

I knew these would be too hard to do for my 6 and 7 year old girls so I didn't even offer it to them to try.

Aayla did use the coloured paper set as is to fill in the egg shape while I started to make the pieces for the light table.

To make the light table set you need the following:

-Transparent index dividers (I got mine at the dollar store)
-Marker
-Scissors
-Tangram Egg Pattern (can be purchased HERE)

First lay a transparent index card over your egg pattern. NOTE The smallest triangle on the bottom is supposed to be one single triangle and I cut it into two and had to redo them. The puzzle should have 9 pieces in total.

Next cut carefully along each line. DO NOT cut it as shown in this picture by cutting the egg in half. This is how I ended up with 10 pieces instead of 9. That small triangle just above my scissors should be double in size. I cut all my transparencies though and couldn't retake the picture sorry.

I cut out 7 different colours of eggs so we could make both solid coloured pictures and also ones that colour corresponded to the pattern picture. See the below picture...it shows the proper pattern piece without a line through that small triangle.

These pieces can be used on the table as is but we headed straight to the light table with them. Aayla started out with all one colour for the pieces and with a pattern sheet to add them to. She finished it with no trouble at all.

Next I gave her a bunch of the coloured pattern pictures and she chose a bunny pattern first. She had a hard time using all one colour so I picked out corresponding colour pieces for her to match more easily. We had to use orange instead of grey. As you can see in the picture my printer is running out of ink so I didn't laminate the pattern cards. In the future I will make another set of cards and laminate them for durability.

The pieces can be a bit slippery at times and move all over easily but she figured it out with the colour coded shapes in time.

Next she picked a cat and this one was even easier for her to do now that she had the hang of it.

I must say I really enjoyed watching Aayla create her shapes with the colour coordinated pieces and I am so happy I created pieces from all the different colour divider sheets. For her age and ability these pattern pieces were awesome! The light table adds another dimension to the learning as well. She did a couple more pictures and then moved onto just creating freestyle shapes with all the pieces. In this first picture she made a pine tree, then added the side pieces to become an owl. She was quite amazed with herself.

 Then she made a blue picture frame.

She played around with mixing colours and over lapping pieces, which led to making a kaleidoscope of colours with all the pieces.

Overall I was very happy with the download from ZisforZebra. My only concern is I wish there was an outline shape for the pattern cards. If the outlines were the correct sized pieces to make the puzzle by covering the outline with the actual puzzle pieces it would make it easier for even younger children (at the age of 2 or 3) to be able play with it it too.

I also found a neat video on YouTube for an APP available called the Magic Egg. It looks like it would be a great puzzle game but it's $.99 and I almost never buy apps (there are so many free ones) so I can't tell you if it's actually good or not but it looks like fun if you or your kids like puzzles.

I also found this site which gives you detailed instructions on how to create an egg tangram with a ruler and a pair of compasses that older children might enjoy.

SOURCE

And how fun would snack be with a batch of these cookies? The cookie cutter egg tangram would be a sweet treat that would be fun to play with and eat. The shop is sold out at the moment but perhaps you could get a custom order?

SOURCE and for sale on Etsy

This next activity uses a regular tangram square shape to make Easter eggs which I thought were kind of cool and appropriate since Easter is only a couple weeks away. This blog is not in English so you will need to have it translated or guess through the DIY photos.

SOURCE with directions

Have you played with an Egg Tangram? If not give this download a try from ZisforZebra on TPT. I found it very helpful myself and would love to hear what you thought of it too.

Awesome Advocates pin and post card giveaway

Have you heard about The Awesome Advocates? Take a look and I am sure you will love the idea as much as I do.

Pop on over to our facebook page and find out how to enter the giveaway which will be open for 1 week and will close on April 9th, 2014.

Good luck!!!

DIY Easter Chicks Diorama in Mason Jars

Spring is finally starting to appear...snow is melting as the sun tries to shine. With the warm sun comes thoughts of Easter and bright and cheerful decorating ideas.

Today we made Easter Chick Diorama's in Mason Jars. The idea was inspired by THESE but we changed them to make with items we had on hand.

As a note before you start...this craft is doable with younger children but they will need a fair amount of help as it requires a lot of glue gun use. Sierra at 7 1/2 was able to do hers mainly by herself but the younger girls needed a lot of help.

To make yours you will need:

-Mason jars with complete lids (you can also reuse any glass so long as it has a lid)
-Playdough
-Yellow/orange pipe cleaners
-Two sizes of yellow pom poms (small & medium)
-Googly eyes (small)
-Green tissue paper squares
-Flowers (we used fake flowers so our dioramas can be saved for years to come)
-Ribbon (and scissors to cut it)
-Glue (tacky glue is pictured but a glue gun works MUCH better)

You also need some fallen twigs which I forgot to put in the picture.

To make:

1) Take a clump of playdough and press it into the underside of the Mason Jar lid as pictured. Be careful not to let the playdough touch the rubber rim or the jar will not close properly in the end.

2) Take your twig and press it into the centre of your playdough clump. Make sure that the twig is short enough to not interfere with the jar when you screw the lid on at the end. If any of the branches are too long just snip them off with your fingers or a pair of scissors.

3) Using a glue gun, glue a selection of flowers directly onto the twig.

4) Next take a square of tissue paper and wrap it around the end of a pencil. Poke the tissue paper into the playdough to resemble grass growing.

5) Make a little chick from Pom poms and pipe cleaners. Glue a small pom pom to a medium pom pom to be the head and body of your chick. Next using the picture below as a guide, shape and cut an orange pipe cleaner into feet and a beak. Also use the yellow pipe cleaner to make two wings. Glue these and two googly eyes onto the pom pom chick body shape.

6) Glue your chick to the grass at the base of your tree.

7) Carefully slip the jar over your tree base ensuring you do not break your tree branches.

8) Screw the lid to the jar and decorate the lid with some ribbon. You can tie it on in a bow or glue it on as we did.

Voila! A super sweet little decoration for Easter.