Easter Egg Creation Station

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This fun toddler-friendly craft results in a beautiful Easter bunting to hang for the holiday! To start, you’ll need to paint several sheets of thick white paper. I wanted to paint these in pretty pastels, so mixed a little white paint into pink, light blue, and light green for an even softer spring effect.

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Invite your toddler to come paint! Veronika wanted to use a sponge like a stamp, delighting in the oval she made with each press down onto the paper. Between her stamping and my help with a paintbrush, we soon had three pretty painted pages.

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Of course there needed to be some exploratory hand-dipping in the paint, too! I left the pages to dry overnight, then traced an egg shape onto them in the morning and cut 4 eggs from each color.

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I set the egg shapes out on a tray along with a few bits to decorate them (a.k.a. a “creation station”). Choices included cut up Easter-themed cupcake liners, squares of yellow tissue paper, and pieces of pink construction paper. Lace doilies would be pretty too, whether cut into strips or small pieces.

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It’s up to your toddler to decide how to decorate! I set out a plate of glue that Veronika could smear liberally over each egg so that any scrap pieces she pressed down would stick.

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She also liked trying to brush the glue directly onto the decorative bits, or otherwise exploring the materials in a sensory way. She tired out from decorating about halfway through the eggs.

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That meant our final bunting alternated a plain painted egg with a decorated one, which actually was a nice effect.

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Once the glue dried, I attached the eggs to a string and suspended the bunting above the kids’ table.

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Tin Foil Easter Egg

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Here’s a simple and lovely way for toddlers to make Easter egg art, with the extra thrill of getting to use permanent markers!

You’ll need a cardboard base as the backing for each “egg”, and I find that thin cereal box cardboard is much easier to work with than cutting through old boxes. Cover each egg shape with aluminum foil, making sure it is flat and smooth on the side you’ll be decorating.

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I set out sharpie markers, and Veronika and I each took an egg. She surprised me at first by making quite a few perfect circles! I hadn’t even known she could do that.

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Then she began scribbling and drawing quite earnestly, telling me all about the colors she was using.

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Meanwhile, I made designs on my foil egg with patterns in alternating colors, to show her how decorated Easter eggs can look. As with a recent “animal portrait” craft, I loved that one of these eggs was my grown-up example and one was purely her own toddler creation.

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Coffee Filter Bunny

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Easter comes early this year (April 4), which means Veronika and I are turning our attention to all things Easter crafts even though it’s still March. This adorable bunny craft was a great one to make as we talked about the Easter bunny.

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To start, set out white coffee filters and let your toddler decorate with dot markers. These are perfect for toddlers because the bright bold colors appear with just a little tap.

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While she was dotting, I traced bunny shapes onto brown cardstock. You’ll need a circle with two long ears for the bunny’s head, as well as four ovals for paws.

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Veronika loved seeing the design once it was laid out against white paper. “He has paws!” she said with delight. She helped use a glue stick to secure the little bunny down.

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Draw on a few final features and your Easter bunny is ready to hop! I did this part for Veronika, but preschoolers can use markers to make color on the faces and ears by themselves.

4 Ways to Use Plastic Eggs

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Now that the Easter egg hunts are done, we’re left with lots of plastic eggs! Here are four ways to put them to use before packing them away until next Easter.

First, there’s the classic plastic egg maraca. Fill an egg with a little bit of uncooked rice and secure with tape around the middle to avoid any spills.

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Then shake shake shake!

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Next we made them into an afternoon snack holder. This delighted Veronika, who found cereal puffs inside hers…

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…and Travis who wanted to fill his own (with leftover Easter candy of course).

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Then we made creatures! We got crafty with wiggle eyes and pom pom legs for “creepy crawlies” that had both kids giggling.

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You can add pipe cleaners as antennae if you have them on hand, or get really detailed with one type of bug or animal.

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Finally, have one last hunt before bed, but make it a glow-in-the-dark hunt! After dark, hide some of the eggs again for older kids with lights inside.

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Mini glow sticks work well for this, as do small balloon lights.

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Travis loved discovering a few just before bed!

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Bunny Ears Craft for Easter

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If your baby or toddler will tolerate wearing these little bunny ears, it’s pretty much the cutest way to get a young child into the Easter spirit, long before they know who the Easter Bunny is!

To involve Veronika in the craft, I sat her down with construction paper and chalk to decorate the headband portion. Drawing on paper with chalk was novel!

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Meanwhile, I traced two bunny ear shapes on a separate piece of construction paper, and glued down cotton balls. Stretch the cotton out slightly for a softer look.

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Older toddlers may want to help with this step, too!

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Cut your child’s chalk drawing in half to make two strips, then measure around your child’s head and secure to the right circumference with double-sided tape or a stapler. I originally hoped to avoid staples, but they were definitely more durable than the double-sided tape, which gave out pretty quickly.

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Attach the bunny ears to the sides with additional staples. Next time I would make smaller ears, so they weren’t so heavy and floppy. But my little bunny loved it!

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Chicken Littles

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Here’s an adorable craft for your Easter table, even if your gathering is smaller than usual this year due to social distancing. Kids can get involved with several steps, including painting, cutting out shapes for the face, or helping arrange the flowers.

To start, paint empty baby food jars with several coats of yellow acrylic paint. Let dry completely.

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Cut out triangles for beaks and wedges for feet, whether from felt or construction paper. I would have preferred felt, but paper worked in a pinch!

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Use a black sharpie to add eyes.

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Now your chicks just need feathers in their caps, care of little white flowers, of course! These turned out so cute.Chicken Littles (4)

Easy Easter Eggs

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For Veronika’s final contribution to Easter decorations this year, I gave her wooden eggs to paint instead of egg-shaped paper. To set up, simply squirt pastel colors into a paint tray, then give your toddler q-tips and cotton balls to paint with rather than a regular paint brush!

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Of the two, Veronika definitely preferred the q-tips. She loved delicately dipping them into the paint and then dotting onto the egg. The little spots she produced seemed to fascinate her!

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I showed her how to dip a cotton ball in the paint, too, and press it against an egg for a larger smear, but she wasn’t as interested.

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She did, though, discover that she could dip a little fingertip into the paint and make a similar dot against the eggs. She so carefully repeated this several times, smearing the paint lightly.

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I didn’t help her out with the paint at all, aside from rotating the eggs. The resulting speckled and spotted eggs were decidedly her project, and she looked so proud.

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They looked so pretty gathered together in a glass bowl for a little Easter centerpiece!

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Carrot Footprints

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This cute little craft feels just right for springtime, particularly close to Easter as we’re thinking about bunnies! The resulting footprints make a sweet memento, too.

I sat Veronika down and painted the bottom of one foot orange with washable paint. She loved the way this felt, eagerly saying “foot” and imitating me with a second clean paintbrush.

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Firmly press your child’s foot to paper. Wipe clean, then repeat with the other foot. I thought the orange paint might show up on orange construction paper as the background, but in retrospect I would have done this on white cardstock.

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As it was, I ended up cutting out the orange paper, drawing pen around the footprints to make them clearer, and then gluing them down to to white cardstock.

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For the fronds of the carrots, cut strips of green construction paper and tape them to the back so little fronds stick up.

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If you want the fronds to be sturdier, consider cutting up green paint chip samples! Still, these turned out to be quite adorable.

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Finger Paint Easter Egg

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On the heels of her first Easter craft, Veronika made an equally easy toddler-friendly Easter egg today. This one requires only poster board and finger paint.

I initially thought to set up the activity outside, given a nice day of sunshine. You’ll notice the pack of wipes on hand for easy clean-up, a must whenever you use finger paint!

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After cutting an egg shape from white poster board, I squirted a few colors of finger paint out onto at ray and briefly demonstrated how she could dip a finger in the paint, and then press on the egg.

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I also squirted some of the paint directly onto the egg shape, thinking she might want to swirl it around with her whole palm. But after a moment to check it out, the outdoors proved far too distracting!

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So we moved the activity inside, where she was able to pay more attention. This time she dipped her fingertips into the paint. I can’t say she loved the craft, but she did make enough markings on a full sheet of poster board that I could cut out a smaller egg shape around it.

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So we ended up with mommy-and-me Easter eggs, which I think are pretty cute! For preschoolers, have fun making deliberate lines or patterns with the finger paint, to add a little education into the mix.

Sticker Easter Egg

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It seems strange even to think about the upcoming Easter holiday, knowing we’ll be celebrating with family at a distance… but that’s all the more reason to decorate here at home! This simple-as-can be sticker project allows even little toddlers to have egg decorating fun.

I cut an egg shape from construction paper, choosing purple for the background. and then gave Veronika a sheet of stickers. Knowing we wanted a springtime feel, I chose stickers of butterflies and flowers.

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These were puffy stickers, which are the perfect type to help toddlers learn to peel stickers off the sheet. If I folded the sheet ever so slightly, the puffy edge of a butterfly would stick up and Veronika could pull it up.

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In the past, she’s loved just adorning herself with stickers, which I worried might be the case today.

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But when I said, “Veronika, can you put the sticker on the purple paper?” she followed directions perfectly!

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She had started to pile a lot of them in one place on the paper, which was just fine; it’s her art work!

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But when I pointed to other areas of the “egg”, she moved her stickers over to that area. Again, this project turned out to be great for following directions.

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If big siblings want to join in on the project, challenge them to be more deliberate with their stickers, making rows or patterns.