April Kiddie Crafts - E is for Easter

And a Happy Easter to all!

We've finally been unpacking our family photos, so I put our crafts on a different wall this month.  I still put a few up high, but he's started requesting they be lower.  I've agreed, though I do often have to remind him not to remove them from the wall.  Here's the new craft wall.

My son kept wanting to play with his icky, dried-out play doh at the beginning of April, so I finally decided to make some new stuff.  (Bleah!  The cut-out shapes were nearly permanent, it was so unworkable!)

I made him several Easter colors while he played with the yucky stuff one last time, and then I traded them out for him.  Much nicer!

I introduced him to the letter "E" in preparation for Easter, but also because there were some other "E" projects I wanted to do.  I got this first idea from this blog.  We read the book Green Eggs and Ham while eating these green eggs.  Now, my son is allergic to real eggs, so we couldn't make a green egg breakfast.  What I did was melt white chocolate chips and place dollops of it on waxed paper, and then had my son place green m&ms in the middle for the yolks.  He resisted this project at first, but then had a blast and requested Green Eggs and Ham for a bedtime story for several days--and "green eggs" for dessert for, well, he still asks for them, even though they're all gone!

Next we did "E" is for "eyes and ears."  I made the face with hair, a nose, and mouth, and had him attach the rest.  I thought he did a great job of getting the placement of them.

I got the idea for this next project from my friend Sela.  We used a balloon and gray paint to paint an elephant, with the idea that the balloon would leave a wrinkled pattern resembling elephant skin.  It sort of worked (though the wrinkles flattened out as it dried.)

After that, we plunged into Easter crafts.  I found this bunny online, which is made entirely of hearts.  My son decided to swap the ears and feet, though, so it looks a little strange.

Since Valentine's Day, we've been lacing a garland to hang across our breakfast bar.  For Easter, I cut out eggs and bunnies for him to lace.

Then we decorated a giant Easter egg by putting tape across it, painting it, and then removing the tape.

I also found this idea online and hadn't decided whether I wanted to use it for Easter or save it for the letter N, but after we read an Easter book () in which a bunny gives up his basket for a robin to use as a nest, my son declared he wanted to make a nest.  So we did, using strips of paper and watered-down glue.  Messy!

I decided we would decorate another giant egg, this time painting bubble wrap and pressing the egg onto it to get little colored circles.  My son liked this so much, we put paint on all the extra eggs and bunnies left over from our garland, too.

Then I helped him make a bunny ear headband (he loved the stapler once again.)

And then, borrowing once again from my friend Sela (I love that my son is old enough to do some projects from her archives) we made sheep from a handprint, cotton balls, and googly eyes.

The last craft we did before Easter was to take some letters I cut from one of his extra paintings and make a garland saying "Happy Easter," which is on our door to welcome our guests.

We also did a new Easter themed sensory bin.

It's essentially a large Easter basket.  Easter grass, a small basket, eggs, porcupine balls, tiny chicks and bunny erasers.  He loved hunting for the erasers.  I discovered that four bags of Easter grass was far too much.  It's been so long since I actually purchased any, I didn't realize it expanded so much!

Next week we're going to do the letter "B," which will lead us into lots of baby projects to help our son get used to the idea of a baby coming.  Seven weeks and counting!!

Once again I'm linking up at Tot School.