Spring Is Here! Literacy and Math Centers Using Plastic Easter Eggs

I love Spring!

I have found that kids love plastic easter eggs, so I use them often during this time of the year.

I find most of my props at the dollar store and Oriental Trading.  Here are some of my favorite egg activities:

Beginning Sound Egg Sort

It's easy to make!  Get 26 plastic eggs and with a black sharpie marker write an uppercase/lowercase letter on each one.  If you like, you can put the lowercase on one part and the uppercase on the other and you have a nice letter recognition activity.  Next find an object that begins with each letter sound.

Here is what I use:

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A   apple

B   baseball

C   coin

D  dolphin

E easter egg

F fly

G ghost

H heart

I igloo

J jack o lantern

K kite

L ladybug

M marble

N nickel

O octopus

P pumpkin

Q quarter

R rat

S snake

T tooth

U umbrella

V vulture

W wagon

X xylophone

Y yoyo

Z zebra

I try to use as many actual objects as I can. Mini erasers and the plastic toys you find at the dollar shop work well or you can use clipart.  I found the container at the dollar store.  This is a fun activity.  Perfect for home or school.  Place the objects in a bowl and have your child put each object in the correct egg. Another fun activity is mixing the eggs up and putting them in alphabetical order.  Or lay eggs out in ABC order and randomly remove 8 of them.  Find the missing eggs and put in the correct spot.  

Five Little Eggs Interactive Book

Children love this book!  I found the large plastic egg at the dollar store and filled each one with a fuzzy chick.  As you read the book, student will find the correct color egg and "hatch" the chick!  This is always a hit!

Egg, Egg, What Will You Be?

This book is part of my Extraordinary Egg Unit.  Skills: science - what hatches from eggs?, days of the week, sequencing, color recognition, and more!  On each day, an egg hatches - what will it be?  Hands On Learning Fun!

What are your favorite egg activities?  I'd love to hear from you!
Enjoy!
Pam

Friday Freebie: Spring Bingo

Hi all!
Today I'm sending all of my followers a really cute Spring Bingo Game featuring awesome graphics from Scrappin Doodles Creative clip art, web sets, printables, and more!

For the love of computer crafting. Be sure and check out her great website.

I love bingo and even more importantly KIDS LOVE bingo!

So enjoy this great holiday weekend and have fun playing my Spring Bingo.

If you are a follower and do not receive your bingo game, please email me at handsonlearningfun@live.com and I will add your email to my mailing list. Please let me know what name you are following under.

Thanks,

Pam

Freebie Friday is Here!

Good Morning!
Freebie Friday is here! Tonight, I will send all of my followers an Spring Activity via email.
If your email is not accessible in your profile please email me at: handsonlearningfun@live.com
It's not too late to sign up and there is still time to enter my Ladybug Literacy Bag Giveaway - CLICK HERE

I love your comments! Please comment away and if you have any suggestions or special requests, let me know.
Enjoy your Friday!
Pam

Thrifty Thursday: Recycle Your Egg Cartons into Spring Crafts

I love using egg cartons for art projects. Here are a few of my favorite Spring Easter Egg Carton Crafts. The first one is the most complicated, but sooooo cute!

Bunnies and Chicks

By Robin Rivers

Here's what you need:

1 cardboard egg carton cut up into individual egg cups (leave the backs and the sides on so that you have a place to attach ribbon)

Cotton balls or pompoms in pink, white, yellow or whatever color

sounds fun (enough for two on each creature) plus little ones for

the bunny’s nose and tail.

Ribbon in Spring colors (I used 7 to 10 inches on each side of the cup to tie together. So, it’s a fair bit of ribbon. Thrifting is a great way to score this)

Google eyes (two per creature)

A hole punch

Craft Glue (a hot glue gun works best for attaching the eyes if you are making these for a toddler or preschooler since they are a choking hazard and you want them attached as solidly as possible. DON’T use the glue gun with a toddler or preschooler around.)

Craft paper for bunny ears and the chick’s beak.

Scissors

Egg Carton Caterpillar

By Enchanted Learning

Separate 4, 5, or 6 cups from an egg carton.
Using the point of a scissors, an adult should make 2 small holes at one end for the antennae.
Insert pipe cleaners for the antennae.
Add eyes, a mouth, and decorate.

Egg Carton Ladybug
By Enchanted Learning

Separate one cup from an egg carton.
Using markers or tempera paint, children can color or paint the egg carton cup red. Then, using black marker or paint, color in the head, and make spots on the body.
Using the point of a scissors, an adult should make 6 small holes (3 on each side) at the base of the cup (these will be for the legs). Make 2 small holes (for antennae) where the top of the head will be.

Insert a black pipe cleaner into each a side hole and out the other side for the legs. Use half a pipe cleaner for the antennae.
Glue on googly eyes or paint on white eyes.

Have fun!

Let me know how they turn out!
Pam

Kids Spring Crafts and Cooking: Caterpillar Craft and Kite in the Clouds Recipe

Caterpillar Craft

From Kids Craft.com

Here's what you'll need...
• Construction paper

• Scissors
• Pipe cleaner

• Marker

• Pen or pencil

Here's how you make it...
1. Cut different colored circles out of construction paper. Cut as many as you'd like, the more you cut the more colorful and long your caterpillar will be.

2. Using a pen or pencil, punch holes in the center of each circle and

tread onto a pipe cleaner.

Repeat until you have made your caterpillar as long as

you would like it.

3. Fold the pipe cleaner on either end to secure the circles and draw on two eyes.

My kids love this craft! It's a fun way to talk about patterns.
I make 3 samples:

random colored caterpillar

AB pattern caterpillar ( green yellow green yellow)
ABC pattern caterpillar (green yellow orange green yellow orange)

Kite in the Clouds Recipe

Ingredients:

1 box of blue jello - already prepared

1 can of whipped cream
1/2 fruit roll up per child cut into the shape of a kite

clear cup

straw

Directions:
Fill up cup 2/3 full with your jello. What color is the jello?
Look outside - what does the color of the jello remind you of?

The blue jello represents the sky.

I usually sneak in a math lesson - Put 6 spoonfuls of jello in your cup

Then the best part of this recipe - Fill the cup up with whipped cream.

WOW! What a hit!
My kids loved squirting the whipped cream!

Place your straw with your kite in your clouds and Voila!
You have a beautiful kite flying high in the sky in the clouds!

Best of all - it's quite tasty!

I love cooking with kids. I've never met a child that didn't like to measure, stir, and eat!
I always make sure that I have everything handy and ready to go, I usually cook with 8 - 10 children at a time and if you have to go look for an item - it can get really messy! When choosing recipes, I try to pick ingredients that the majority will like - I hate to waste food.

Most importantly, keep it simple!

I hope you enjoy these activities, click on comments and let me know!
Pam