Another Fun Yarn Easter Egg Project

(4 Years)

We had so much left-over yarn from the Yarn Easter Eggs, that we made another Yarn Easter Egg craft this time by cutting out an egg shape from a paint chip card, making random notches around the perimeter and then wrapping yarn around the egg.  This project is SO easy!

They each chose which colored yarn they wanted to begin with.  I had them tape the end to the back of the paint chip and then they began wrapping.  

This would have been much easier using rainbow yarn, but since we had do much yarn left over, I decided to use those skeins instead.  They wrapped about three feet of each color.

Do you notice their finger grips?  They are practicing holding a pencil.

Little Miss was busy creating a checkerboard pattern.  She loves patterns.

Wild One liked the idea of chunking colors together.

The entire project only took about ten minutes.  When they finished, they asked if they could wrap a balloon in yarn again.  It's a good thing we STILL have so much yarn left over.

Yarn Easter Eggs

(4 Years)

I've always loved the look of those starched yarn decorations.  I thought it would be a great Easter project.  Glue + mixing + goopy hands = Fun!  Right?

Well... this was a bit harder for us than I thought it would be.  I didn't take into consideration the fine dexterity that is needed.  The ballon is very slippery, due to the glue and water solution, and you need one hand to hold and rotate the balloon while the other hand wraps the saturated yarn in various directions.  It probably is not the best project for a newly-turned four-year old, but he did it (with help).  Would I do it again?  Yes, but we'll wait a few months.

Here's how you do it:

Empty one bottle of glue into a medium bowl.  Fill the empty glue bottle with water and pour that into the same bowl.  This solution was just enough to make three large Easter eggs.

 Stir to combine.

 Add the yarn to the solution.

 I wouldn't recommend using a fork to mix the yarn into the solution, it tangled the yarn.

 Wrap the wet yarn around the balloon.

Wrap in different directions. Remember to leave a little opening to get the popped balloon out.

Wild One's wrapped balloon.  You don't need to saturate the yarn that much.  Wild One liked the goopy feeling and insisted that it "needed" that much glue.

Let dry on waxed paper, turning the balloon over after the top side is dry.  It took two days for our balloons to dry completely.  All that's left to do is to pop the balloon and pull it through one of the openings.  Ta da!  I don't know who was more amazed with the results of this project, the kiddos or my husband!  "Wow, can we do that again?!"

Minion Easter Eggs

(4 Years)

It's the Minions!!!!  I saw an image of Minion Easter eggs on Pinterest and knew we would be making these this year.  They just look so much fun!  The kidabunks had a great time decorating these.

I set out the plastic eggs, three sizes of googly eyes, school glue and a black permanent marker.  The kids went straight to work designing their Minions.

I love watching them work, their faces alternate from serious looks of concentration to big, toothy grins!  I know he's mine, but isn't Wild One just the cutest little guy?

We made a Minion with a pink bottom for Little Miss.  She jumped up and down when she saw the yellow and pink Minion.  She's so adorable!

After she finished her Minion, she asked to decorate a solid green egg.  I already had out the colored glue (left over from this project- see here).  She went straight to work decorating.

When they finished they called their Minions "The Minion Family" and introduced each Minion to their daddy.  So CUTE!

Swirled Art - Cutting on the Line

(4 Years)

We made swirled Easter Egg decorations (see here) and then we took the scraps of that beautifully marbled paper and turned them into more art!  I couldn't bear to toss the paper, it was so pretty.

First we practiced cutting on a line to make a flower.  Wild One has been in a cutting and pasting mood lately.

He worked hard at trying to cut on the line.

Then he glued down the pieces.  He decided to smear the glue on the paper and then place the pieces of the flower.  It's always interesting to me how they decide to work.

 I love how proud he is of his work.

 

Rainbows without Boarders

(4 Years)

I love freestyle kiddie art.  I love the uninhibited expression, the broad strokes, the carefree choice of colors.  I didn't always love freestyle kiddie art.  When they were younger, I would become so frustrated that they didn't create the art like the beautiful ones that I saw on those creative mommy blogs and the ones my nephew brings home from daycare.  Why can't I have handprints turned into a flower?  Then, I just accepted the fact that they are going to paint what they want to paint and if they are painting my ideas, I might as well do the painting myself.

Today we made rainbows, using cotton balls instead of paint brushes (holding the clothes pin with the cotton ball attached helps to train their hands to use a tripod grasp - perfect muscle memory training for holding a pencil correctly).  I was going to draw a rainbow and then invite them to paint it with the respective colors, but then I decided to see what it would look like if THEY created their own rainbow.  My idea, was to have them cover the entire page in color.  Paint straight across with the colors slightly overlapping.  However, I just asked them to paint a rainbow.  I didn't give any other instruction.  They both decided on painting a traditional arc rainbow.

I love the results.

After we finished our rainbows, they asked to keep painting.  Now for completely unstructured painting.  Wild One painted picture after picture, asking for sheet after sheet of paper.  Little Miss made sure she filled in every bit of white space available.

Now we are just waiting for them to dry so that I can hang them up!