Easter Egg Necklaces and Such

This activity provides a use for extra Easter eggs so they don't simply end up in the trash.

I am in a constant state of moving holiday decorations around. I try to change them monthly, but often fail - my front door is empty right now. I rotate them in my basement - all of them, the door signs, the kid toys, the candles - and I do get behind. I just forget to put them in the correct container or I just get distracted. Either way, Ty and Za came up to me the other day with handfuls of Easter eggs from the basement, which were (probably) not put away.

Sorting, always sorting.

They know they will have to share, so they began to divvy up their found loot. Ty, the oldest, was bossy about the specifics.

Creating a game.

I suggested we play together with the eggs without my oldest in charge, which led to the creation of a game.

The gaming mastermind. 

Ty established the rules, but like all five-year old game-makers, he didn't think it all the way through. He wanted to throw cars at the eggs, which he had sorted into a racetrack, but that became dangerous. Then "bugs" kept coming up as we played. For instance, one step in the game was removing knocked over eggs from the playing field. What about partially toppled eggs? It was a serious discussion for Ty, but Za soon wandered off and Ty got discouraged. We decided to take a break from game-making.

Trying again.

For our next adventure with the eggs, we lined them up and brainstormed ideas.

Stringing them together.

We noticed that the eggs have small holes, and decided to string them together. I didn't think little hands could use regular thread well and yarn was too thick for the holes, so I ultimately ran upstairs and grabbed dental floss. The kids began stringing them together.

Za, patiently trying.

Za is only three, and the holes were very tiny - think what a needle would fit through. She tried, but I ended up stringing hers, while she decided the pattern and talked to me about her favorite colors. Ty is five, and he did his own. Za wanted to string hers in the basement playroom, and we did. Ty asked me to tie his into a necklace.

The finished product! Bonus: they smell minty. 

Blue-pink-yellow-purple: The lovely necklace, only using plastic Easter eggs and dental floss. The project took about an hour, and the kids practiced their patience, colors, pattern skills, and sharing. And their mom stopped worrying about putting the Easter eggs away in the basement.

We Addressed the 8 Intelligences! 

Bodily- kinesthetic, spatial, logical- mathematical.