Learning with Spring Eggs

Lots To Do With Plastic Spring Eggs

Every spring bags of plastic colorful eggs appear in stores.  They are inexpensive and appeal to kids of all ages.  Here are some springtime fun activities with the eggs which encourage discovery and learning.

  You will need about a dozen plastic assorted color eggs which come apart in the middle, various small items to fit inside the eggs like pretzels, jelly beans, popcorn, cotton balls, pebbles, pennies, nails, rubber eraser, and cheerios, toothpicks, and dental floss.

Patterns

   Spend some time just laying out eggs  halves on a soft 

Look for the Patterns

surface.  Count them together.  Group the eggs by color. Ask children a few questions. Can you make some patterns like yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, red?  Can you use the half eggs to make shapes like triangle, square, or a circle? 

   No bring out the little items and place some pieces in each egg.  Talk about what you are putting in each egg as you do it.  When each egg has something different inside, help children play a little guessing game by shaking the egg and guessing what is inside. How does our sense of hearing help  when we can’t see what is making the noise?  Does the sound suggest something soft or hard, big or little, rubbery? How many did you guess correctly? You can play the game lots of times or add new items.

  The eggs can also be used for a fun container for snacks for little fingers—cheerios, pretzels, small carrot sticks or peas. Younger children may need help to open the egg without spilling the contents.

   Let your child hide an egg and then play the hot (getting closer) cold (going away from) game as you try to find it.  In the bathtub, children can experiment with eggs that float or sink depending on what they put inside.

Hide and Seek With Eggs

Decorate Trees

 Older children can use the eggs to play simple math games with adding one more egg or taking away one or two eggs from the group.  Let them make up some problems for you. Use the eggs to show your answer. Your little ones will have fun using the eggs to decorate the dinner table to help celebrate the coming of springtime.

  You can also hang some colorful eggs in the trees. Tie a piece of a toothpick to some dental floss. Poke a hole through one end of the plastic egg with a large needle and poke the toothpick through the hole.  When you gently pull the floss back out the toothpick will hold the floss inside the egg.  Make a loop on the other end of the floss and use that to hang the eggs on a tree branch. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons, live and podcasts; Facebook, and Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

Windows Inspire Delightful Cookies

Observe Colors and Light and Reflections

Have you ever taken young children to admire the brilliant colors of stained glass windows close up and watched them touch the colors with wonder? They are delighted by the light reflecting on their hands and often like to stand in the colors on a bright day. Children also love to make these easy and edible stained glass cookies all winter long.

Cookie Recipe

  Here are the Ingredients:  2/3 cup butter, 1  1/4 cup white sugar,1 teaspoon vanilla extract,2 eggs,3 cups all-purpose flour,2 teaspoons baking powder,1/2 teaspoon salt,3 Tablespoons  milk,40 fruit flavored hard candies (Life Savers or Jolly Ranchers melt well.)Directions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cover baking sheets with tin foil sprayed with cooking oil. Cream together butter and sugar in a large bowl. Stir in vanilla and eggs.In another bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. 

Make Stained Glass Cookies

Add to egg mixture alternately with milk. Chill the dough and take out only what you need for a few cookies at a time. It will be easier to form cookies. On a well-floured surface, roll the dough 1/4 inch thick. To make window frames, cut into 1/4 to 1/2inch-wide strips.  Form into stained glass window frames with geometric designs inside. You can also make stained glass cut- out cookies. Cut out large cookies and take out dough in small areas and replace with candy.

 Keep colors separate, place candy in double plastic bags and a thick grocery bag. Help children carefully crush into smaller pieces with a hammer. Place candy pieces in the holes. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Ten -minute cookies will be crunchier. Check on them often as they bake, however. Cool well on baking sheet until candy is hard. Carefully lift cookies off the baking sheet with a pancake turner and by curling the tin foil slightly. 

Stained Glass Drawings

  To makestained glass style paper windows fold a black 

Make Stained Glass Drawings

piece of construction paper about 5”X 8” in half. Think of how you wish the window to look when the fold is open. Draw guidelines for groups of triangles, circles, rectangles, or a picture on the folded paper and help children cut out the shapes.  When you open the folded paper both sides will be symmetrical. Glue wax paper one side covering the holes you made. Paint one waxed paper section at a time with white glue and cover with one-inch square pieces of different colored tissue paper. You may overlap colors to make a stained glass look more realistic. If you want a shine, paint on Modge Podge. When dry, hang in a window. For more fun with children see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com, wnmufm.org/Learning through the Seasons live and podcasts; Facebook and Pinterest.