Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Easter Egg Hunt Contact Paper Play

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When planning this contact paper Easter basket activity, I knew I wanted Skyler to decorate his own "eggs." I spotted this textured foam and thought it would be perfect for print making. To make our egg shapes, I used a cookie cutter to press the shape into the foam and then cut them out.




Skyler had so much fun making the different printed eggs. He would tell me which egg he wanted to make and then pick the color. I was so impressed with how he filled the paper with prints! After he made several prints of each texture, he used the extra paint to finger paint (and it later turned into our newest countdown for daddy!)




Once the paint had dried, I cut out the prints and we had a ton of brightly colored eggs with different textures! I was going to just set them by the basket, but after reading one of Skyler's current favorite books, (Here Comes Easter by Caroline Jayne Church, which focuses on an Easter egg hunt) I decided to make this activity into a little egg hunt for baby boy! I scattered the eggs around our living room, not too hard, but still fun to search for!





To go along with our eggs, of course we needed a basket! Skyler loves anything with contact paper (A new play activity for an upcoming holiday seems to be our schedule. Here are the ones we made for Christmas, Valentine's Day, and St. Patrick's Day), and I knew that this basket would be our next way to play. To make the basket, I just hand painted the general shape of the basket and handle with paint onto the non-stick side of the contact paper, then added horizontal and vertical stripes to give our basket a woven look.


I taped the non-stick side to our glass door and when we were ready to play, peeled off the paper. 


I told Skyler I was going to find a blue egg, walked into the living room and then back to the basket and he knew exactly what to do. He helped me stick on the blue egg and then he was off to the living room to find his own egg! I loved the gross motor aspect of this game, Skyler did a lot of laps!! Here are some action shots. :)



I especially love this next one - he was so focused and excited to run around collecting eggs! That is almost the exact face I see when watching my hubby play soccer/when I see him crossing the finish line at a race he is running. My little mini-Joe, it just makes me smile :)


Skyler found two eggs on his rocking horse's head, so spent some time stacking a bunch of eggs on top! He thought that was pretty funny.


I thought it was interesting that Skyler really tried to fill in the opening of the basket, he didn't put any outside of that area until they absolutely could not fit!


He really wanted a handful to stick at once, but couldn't get them all to stick. 


Skyler's filled Easter basket!

We talked about many different topics while Skyler searched and played. We talked about the colors and textures of the eggs, we talked about ways that the eggs could or could not stick to the contact paper basket. We compared where the eggs were hidden in our book and where we found eggs at our house. Eventually, when Skyler brought more than one egg in a trip, we talked about the number of eggs he held. So many ways to play and learn!


Our newest contact paper play was a lot of fun. The thick paper we made the eggs with are easy to peel off, and I know this egg hunt will be a popular play choice for Skyler in the next few weeks!

 

8 comments:

  1. Eek! Another adorable idea, Hayley!

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  2. That is adorable! And I love how it works on fine motor as well as gross motor skills. I can see why it's so much fun!

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    1. Thank you, Tiffiny! This one was a win all around - Skyler loved it and I loved all the skills he was working :)

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  3. Love this Easter activity! What a great way to combine art, sensory play and gross motor movements! Thanks for linking up at the Hands-On Play Party! Hope to see you again next week!

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    1. Thank you Samantha!! I will definitely be back to the Hands-On Play Party next week :)

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  4. Super idee !!!!! réalisé aujourd'hui et ma fille a adoré !!!!!

    (great idea !!!! make it today, and my daughter love it !!!) excuse me i'm french and my english is so bad ^^

    Great job !!!!

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    1. Thank you! I am so happy to hear that your daughter loved it!! :)

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