Peek-a-BOO Ghost Match

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We are right in the middle of moving to a new house. With all of the craziness that comes with buying, selling, packing, and moving with two little ones, I haven't been making a lot of activities for Skyler and we have been relying more on finding new ways to play with all of our toys. That got a little harder when we started packing up as many toys as possible in preparation for our move. When trying to think of some simple activities we could do with what we still have at home, this match game came to mind.

We have been reading and playing a lot with the theme of Halloween and Skyler is very interested in ghosts lately. I decided to have a fun little number match and scavenger hunt. This could easily be done after Halloween with pumpkins for fall, ornaments for a Christmas tree, Easter eggs, etc.

I had already packed up all of our construction paper, contact paper, and other crafty items I usually use to make games for Skyler, but then I remembered we had our easel still. To make this craft game, I cut out one ghost shape and then traced and cut ten ghosts out of one piece of easel paper, then traced ten more onto a new piece.

I happened to make each one a different color, but this was definitely more of a number match for Skyler. If your little one is younger, you could use less numbers or just have it as a color match!

I hid the ten ghosts around our living room with pieces of tape and Skyler had so much fun running around and collecting his ghosts. I thought he would have to work a little harder to match the numbers, but he would look at it while he ran to the easel and by the time he made it there, he already knew exactly where to put it. I might have to go up to 15 or 20 on our next number match!

This face when he found the last one hiding behind the couch just makes me smile!

Even though I just used tape, we have been able to use the ghosts a few times! To make the game last longer, you could laminate or cover the ghosts in contact paper, or use velcro in place of tape.

Easter Craft and Activities Roundup

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Skyler and I had a lot of fun with Easter crafts and activities the past several weeks. From pom-poms to painting, and thanks to the perfectly colored plastic eggs, a lot of fun color themed play! Here is a roundup of all the Easter themed fun we had at Minne-Mama!

Pom-Pom Easter Eggs

Mirrored Easter Egg Painting

Easter Egg Bubble Bath 

Easter Egg Color Sort

Peek-a-boo Eggs Sensory Bin

Easter Egg Hunt Contact Paper Play

Frozen Watercolor Easter Egg Paints

Easter Basket Color Match

I am sure this is not the last of plastic Easter egg play for us this year! There are so many fun things to be done with those eggs! We have also enjoyed using them with play dough and "washing" them in the sink with a ton of bubbles and a dish scrubber :)

To see more Easter crafts and activities, check out my Easter Pinterest board! 

 

Easter Egg Basket Match Game

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It's no secret we like color sorting activities at our house (Ahem...like here, here, here, here, and here). Skyler is all about colors right now. It is so fun to hear him describing the colors of everything he sees. In our ECFE class yesterday he grabbed two blocks for a song we sing and as he chose his blocks, he said "blue...green!" and was so proud as he ran back to me with his blocks. Walking along the street now that everything is not winter white, I get to hear him talk on and on about what he sees. It is just the best. Here is another fun and simple Easter inspired color activity (those plastic eggs are so wonderful for color sorting!)

To create this color match activity, I used a piece of white poster board, plastic eggs, Velcro, and crayons to match the eggs plus shades of brown for the basket.

I loosely drew the shape of a basket, made sure that the six eggs would fit in the opening, and then colored the line in more darkly. I colored the basket in and added some lines to give it a woven look. I stuck the soft half of the Velcro to the egg, matched up the pieces of Velcro, and stuck them to the paper still attached to the egg so I knew they would be spaced well.

To draw the colored egg on the paper, I just traced around the egg as it was stuck to the paper.

After cutting out the basket, I taped it to the wall with double sided tape on the back, but when I tried to pull off the eggs the paper started to come off, so even though it isn't quite as pretty, I taped all of the edges down from the front. That basket is not going anywhere, not even with tiny toddler hands pulling at it :)

Skyler was so excited to see this set up and enjoyed sticking the eggs onto their color match, ripping them off (maybe his favorite part because the sound is so fun!) and then doing it all over again. He stood there and filled the basket for so long! After he was finished playing, he quietly said "All done Easter eggs" and pulled them off the basket one by one, "pick up, pick up, pick up" It was so funny.

Double handed! For just a minute or so when he started playing, Skyler would just press the egg onto the paper and let go, and sometimes it would fall. It didn't take him long to realize that the Velcro had to match up on the egg and the paper.

He also loved feeling the "bumpy" texture of the Velcro on the paper, and the "soft" textured Velcro on the eggs. I made sure to put the same side of the Velcro on either all of the eggs or all on the paper so that he didn't have to match the colors if he didn't want to.

This fun match game only took me about five minutes to make and set up, and provided us with an entire afternoon of fun! I know Skyler will enjoy using this color activity a lot in the next few days!

 

Easter Egg Color Sort

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I saw these craft sticks and randomly bought them at the same time I got the wooden rounds for our color sorter, Fish Eyes activity, and shape sorting play. I had planned on making a little fine motor game with a can, punching little holes in the plastic lid, like I have seen all over lately. I never ended up making one, but as I was getting some plastic eggs for our mirrored Easter egg painting, I saw the little holes and immediately thought of doing a fine motor color sort with the eggs and these sticks. 

Since we used the sticks as a color sorting activity, first we had to dye them. I ran painting them and coloring them with markers through my head, and then remembered a post I saw about water color and wooden blocks. I couldn't find the post I originally saw, but then when searching found this one from Fun and Home with Kids, and I just love her, so here was my inspiration.

I broke the sticks in half as they were too long to fit in the plastic eggs, we divided the craft sticks into plastic cups and Skyler added liquid water color with an eye dropper until we had pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Since we only have primary colors, we have fun mixing colors until we got the right shade. Skyler loved swishing the cups around to cover the sticks with color.

The small holes already on the eggs were too small for the wooden sticks, I tried using a screw at first, but it was still too small. When looking around for something else that would make a big enough hole, my eyes landed on a set of chop sticks and they worked PERFECT! I had an egg crack when I pushed the chop stick in too quickly, so it has to be done pretty slowly.

Ready to go!! I was a little worried the red water color would not match well enough, but they did end up pink enough to distinguish from orange and match the pink egg.

Also, I put a little dot of hot glue under each egg, just so they wouldn't move around and to discourage the eggs being pulled out from the carton immediately.

At first, Skyler loved putting his hand into the bowl to just feel all of the wooden sticks. He told me what colors he saw, and then he started sorting after awhile. I was so proud of my little guy! This activity was perfect for him because he is so interested right now in colors and fine motor games like this. He was excited to see the eggs as well (and said, "paint?" a few times. Hoping for some more mirror painting!) Skyler did all of this sorting without prompting, but when he named what color he was sorting, I would repeat it to him.

After he had been sorting the sticks for awhile, I showed Skyler that they made a noise when you shake them, so he picked up the carton to shake it for awhile :)

This activity was so much fun! I loved being able to incorporate our seasonal Easter eggs with a color and fine motor activity to encourage these skills! We had all of the materials on hand already, so it was a great, simple activity for me to put together with/for Skyler.

It also makes a great busy bag activity, since the eggs are already stored in the carton, I just threw the sticks into a little baggie inside! This fine motor and color sort will get so much use in the next few weeks, as well as after the Easter holiday!

 

Mirrored Easter Egg Painting

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Oooh, this was a fun one!

Yesterday, we had a very busy morning with story time and errands, and Skyler ended up falling asleep in the car for about five minutes on the way home. I gave him some lunch and put him down right away for a nap...but for the first time ever he did not nap. I kept thinking, "oh, he laid down, maybe he will fall asleep," but nope, he would be right back up, doing laps around his crib. I knew it would be the perfect afternoon to whip out this painting activity.

I admitted on Facebook last night that I ended up taking around 500 pictures of this activity. Well, the entire activity. For this post, I narrowed it down from 245 to 28, and boy, was it hard! Skyler was so into this activity and I couldn't help but take picture after picture! Anyone else do this?!

For this simple Easter inspired painting activity, I cut some egg shapes out of white poster board and taped them onto a mirror that is in Skyler's room (he spent a lot of time in front of it as a baby!) I gathered some egg shaped painting tools including various colored plastic eggs and a cookie cutter.

When I got Skyler up from his non-nap I put some blue, red, yellow, and green paint into plastic cups and added white to each cup as well. Skyler helped me by stirring all of the colors, making our plain finger paints into beautiful spring pastel colors!

We did a little color match and put the pink, pale yellow, green, and blue eggs into the corresponding paint cup and it was time to create! Skyler immediately started by cracking an egg open and making some circle prints!

He quickly switched colors and tried painting with the entire egg.

And he was hooked! He moved from pink to yellow and then green quickly (as he typically will do - he has to try everything to figure out what is best)! For awhile he switched between the four paints, making prints with the eggs and cookie cutter and using the eggs to smear the paint around.

After awhile he noticed that his hands were covered with paint. At first it was a little bit of a shock, and then he thought it was funny. Once he saw his paint covered hands, he really got into it.

Skyler's favorite method was using the eggs to coat his hand in paint and then raising his arm above his head, throwing it forward and making hand prints all over the paper (and sometimes the mirror). It was so fun to watch him. He would add a little paint, make a bunch of prints quickly, check out his hand to see if he had enough paint, and then repeat the process!

He also liked to place his hand down and then smear the paint before lifting his hand up.

He ended up with a pink cheek and blue hair!!

A side smear :)

This is what Skyler did over and over. Paint, smack, smack, smack, repeat.

I have never seen Skyler get so involved with a "messy" activity. Even with the muddy track painting we did. He really loved that, painting the entire poster board, but he was more timid and seemed more uncomfortable when the paint ended up all over him. By the end of this mirror painting, his arms, face, hair, legs, and obviously hands, were completely coated and he thought it was great!

This painting activity was the perfect way to spend our afternoon. It kept my sleepy guy very entertained and we spent at least an hour painting, talking about the shapes of the eggs, the colors he was using, where the paint was on his body, and his methods of painting.

Skyler didn't care as much about the mirror part of the activity as I thought he would, but it was still nice - something different to try!

And in the end, we have these beautiful finished eggs. It is fun for me to look at them because I remember so vividly how each one was decorated. I see the egg he used the plastic eggs and cookie cutter for, the egg he made by slapping his hand down, the egg with the up smears, and then egg with the side smears. I also love how he used every color.

I never thought I would be so happy to have a day without Skyler napping ;)

The inspiration for this activity came from a mix of these two posts:
The Reflection Table by Teach Preschool
Painting the Night by Twodaloo