Easter Egg Tree (by The Artful Parent)
The tree is inspired by the wonderful Easter egg tree in Tasha Tudor’s A Time to Keep.
The tree is a branch, blown down in our backyard, stuck in a bucket of rocks, sand, and dirt. The eggs are the lightweight, blown-out Easter eggs we just decorated. I used a glue gun to attach a ribbon loop to each for hanging purposes.
These eggs were blown out first and then oil pastels were used to draw on them before dipping into dye. To get Spring images onto the eggs, you can cut out images from paper napkins and water down Elmer’s glue and paint the glue mixture over the image onto the eggs.
This can also work with hard boiled eggs instead of blowing the egg yolks out. You just might want to wait until it’s closer to Easter so they don’t start to rot too soon!
Carrots for the Rabbit Play Dough Mats (from PreKinders Blog)
I have made a new set of math play dough mats for the spring season. These will work whether you are doing an Easter theme or a Plants/Garden theme.
The top of each mat says “Plant [#] carrots for the rabbit to eat.” Children will identify the numeral, and count out that amount of carrots to plant in the dirt. Children can create the carrots with bits of orange play dough to place on the mat. If you prefer to use something other than play dough, you could cut out simple carrot shapes from orange craft foam or felt (or even pieces of orange construction paper!).
I also made a mat that does not have a number, but simply says, “Plant some carrots for the rabbit to eat.” This mat is for toddlers who are not ready for counting yet, but need to practice fine motor skills with play dough.
Click these images to download the play dough mats:
Take the egg shells from hardboiled eggs that were dyed and organize them by color (if you wish).
Draw butterfly or dragonfly shapes on black construction paper. Your students can draw their own shapes, or no shapes at all. The egg shells are so pretty in their own right that they don’t need a design.
Fill the design with glue, and start putting down the tiny shell bits.
A variation of this craft could be:
Spring Craft
It takes just a flit and a flutter to make these shimmering showstoppers! Using templates like those shown, trace a butterfly body onto construction paper. Then trace the wing shapes onto folded construction paper, being sure to align the straight edge of each template with the fold. Cut out the tracings and unfold each set of wings. Spread glue in the center area of each wing, sprinkle foil confetti atop the glue, and set the wings aside to dry. Add crayon details and construction paper antennae to the body. To assemble the showstopper, shake excess confetti from the wings and then glue the wing cutouts together so one slightly overlaps the other. Glue the butterfly body in place, and the flamboyant flyer is ready to soar.
Fabric Collage Easter Baskets (from I Can Teach My Child)
Here’s what you’ll need: pinking shears (or scissors), scrap fabric cut into 1-2 inch squares (using the pinking shears), a balloon, glue, a hole punch, and wired ribbon.
1. Blow up the balloon and draw a line about 1/3 of the way up the balloon. |
2. Pour out a bunch of glue on a covered surface. Be prepared to use about 1/2 a bottle of glue on one basket. |
3. Dip each individual piece in the glue (so that the backside is nicely coated) and place below the line on your balloon. |
Continue, making sure to stagger the fabric pieces on top of each other so as not to leave any holes. |
See? |
6. Once it is completely dry (overnight or longer) and there are no sticky areas, use a needle to pop the balloon. |
The balloon will separate itself from the basket as it deflates… |
But you might have to help it along a bit, especially if it is not completely dry. |
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Take the balloon out and toss it. |
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7. Use a hole punch to make a hole on each end of the basket. |
8. Cut a long piece of your wide wired ribbon and twist one end. |
9. From the outside in, tie a couple knots in the ribbon until big enough to not slip through the hole. Repeat on the other side. |
Easter Egg Tree Paper Craft (from DLTK’s Growing Together)In Germany and Austria, it’s customary to celebrate Easter by hanging hollow eggs from the branches of trees — hollowing out real eggs is a bit much for the preschool set, but this craft is a great substitute! The craft is simple enough for young kids to contribute (especially if you make it for the bulletin board) but still fun for even mom to make! |
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There are a number of variations on this craft depending on which templates you print and how messy you want to get. You can either:
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Materials:
- printer,
- paper,
- scissors,
- glue,
- something to colour with.
Instructions:
- Print out the template of choice.
- Colour pieces, as necessary. (For a change of pace, try using different mediums than you typically do, such as paints or pastels).
- We colored the details (dots, flowers, etc) with pencil crayon and then colored the whole egg (right over the pencil crayon) in wax crayon.
- I think it turned out well and it made the coloring go a bit quicker
- The bottom row of the “individual size” template has 5 “blank” eggs that the kids will enjoy decorating their own way.
- Cut out the eggs. This step may require adult assistance. We didn’t cut out our trunk.
- Glue template pieces together
- You can glue the entire tree to a decorated background (blue construction paper, with green tissue paper for grass and white cotton balls for clouds works very nicely!)
Templates:
- Close the template window after printing to return to this screen.
- Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP in most browsers).
INDIVIDUAL SIZE
Eggs Template (25 eggs) (color) or (B&W)
Tree Trunk Template (color) or (B&W)
BULLETIN BOARD
Egg Template 1 – regular design (color) or (B&W)
Egg Template 2 – daisy design (color) or (B&W)
Egg Template 3 – no design – “blank” (color) or (B&W)
Natural Egg Dyes
- Total Time Needed:
- 1 Hour
First, hard-boil your white eggs. Second, allow them to cool. Third, follow the simple formulas below. Tip: If you’re going to make the basket too, save the egg dyes – – they may be used over and over.
- Materials
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- Hard-boiled white eggs
- Large boiling pan
- Strainer
- White vinegar
- Bowls for dyes
- Canned beets
- Grape juice (purple)
- Yellow onion skins (the papery part)
- Red cabbage
- Turmeric
- Cellulose egg cartons to hold drying eggs (Styrofoam makes the dyes puddle too much)
- Instructions
-
Cold Dyes – Pink:Mix 1 cup strained juice from canned beets,
½ teaspoon vinegar, and 3 cups water.
Soak cooled eggs in the dye for ½ hour.Purple:Mix 1 cup purple grape juice, ½ teaspoon
vinegar, and 3 cups water. Soak
cooled eggs in the dye for ½ hour.Boiled Dyes – Orange:In a pot, mix 1 cup yellow onion skin (about 2 onions’ worth), packed loosely, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and 3 cups water.
Boil mixture for ½ hour, cool to room temperature, strain out the onion skins, then add cooled eggs and soak them in the dye for ½ hour.
Light Blue:In a pot, mix 1 cup red cabbage leaves, torn and loosely packed, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and 3 cups water.
Boil mixture for ½ hour, cool to room temperature, strain out the cabbage leaves, then add cooled eggs and soak them in
the dye for ½ hour.Yellow:In a pot, mix 1 teaspoon turmeric, 1 teaspoon vinegar, and 3 cups water.
Boil mixture for ½ hour, cool to room temperature, strain out stray turmeric grains, then add cooled eggs and soak them in the dye for ½ hour.
Plastic Easter Egg Tea Cups (from Creativity In Progress)
I used the rounder eggs to make mini Play-Doh cupcakes, and the pointy ones for the tea cups.
I used buttons to stabilize the bottom. I didn’t have the patience to wait for the craft glue to dry, so I ended up using hot glue.
For the tea cups handles, I used butterfly and heart punch outs, ribbons, and buttons.
(Shown Stampin’ Up! Heart to Heart Extra-Large punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die, and Butterfly Extra-Large punch)
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