Easter Egg Games

Last Easter (pre-blog) M was 2 1/2 and crazy about opening and closing plastic Easter eggs.  He could not stop playing with them.  He was also obsessed with trucks at the time and the idea of flat tires.  Every day he hoped out loud that we would get a flat tire.  Nothing would have made him happier. :)

Well, these loves/obsessions/fantasies of his all came together in my mind one day and I put together a little game for him, which we have been playing all year long.  Seriously.  Our plastic eggs were never put away, and my husband and I now groan whenever M mentions the “flat tire game”.  It is actually pretty fun…  at first.  52 weeks later, it can get a little old. ;)

It has been such a hit that I’ve thought about posting about it before now, but decided to wait until it’s kind of normal to have plastic eggs out and about.  And I’ve changed it up a bit too, with new clip art, which makes it into a brand new game in the mind of a now 3 1/2 old.  (I wish I could share the trucks and flat tires clip art, but I have no idea where I found it!)

This is what the game pieces look like:

And here’s a color cube (with playing instructions) to go with them: (If  your plastic eggs are not these particular colors, there’s a black and white version that you can color in.)

Put the game pieces in the eggs; there are 20 chicks and 5 other animals.  The other 5 animals (cow, elephant, giraffe, zebra, and lion) each get their own egg.  You can give each chick its own egg too, or put several in one egg and just a couple in another, etc.   It depends on how long you want the game to last and how many eggs you have on hand.  Place the filled eggs in a basket and mix them around.

To play, each person takes a turn rolling the color cube then selecting an egg of that color.  Open the egg and see what you have.  If it’s a chick, yay!  You get another turn.  Put the chick in front of you and discard the opened egg.  If it’s an animal whose life doesn’t really begin in an egg, your turn is over and it’s the next person’s turn.

Count the chicks at the end and see who has the most!

We’ve played some variations of this, which are just as much fun.  Those variations are explained in the .pdf file.

It's a good game for counting, learning to take turns, and learning that some animals hatch from eggs and others  are born from mamas.

Click here for the printables.

Have a beautiful and fun day! :)

The Art Box – March 15, 2010

There’s no photo of the art box this week.  I had *someone* standing beside me waiting, not-very-patiently, for me to fill it up.  It had all the usual stuff, plus some little sparkly gel pens from Target’s dollar spot, and a rock.

The rock was the cause of all the excitement surrounding the filling of the art box.  He found this rock last summer and gave it to me (I know, I’m a lucky girl!), and it’s been sitting on the kitchen windowsill ever since.  Someone (if it was your child, let me know!) made some pet rocks for The Art Box not long ago, and it looked like a lot of fun.  M definitely agreed.

 

Then he made a pretty picture with his gel pens.  You can’t see it very well here, but it’s very sparkly.  And we discovered that each one smells like a fruit!  The yummiest is the purple – it smells like grapes. :)

 

  He painted a picture for Daddy: 

 

One for Mommy that was made with his little spiky balls from Walmart:

 

And one for “all of us” (including M):

We are still enjoying the art box, although some weeks are more interesting than others.  I find that if we have a slow week where he’s not feeling artsy, the following week he more than makes up for it.

If your child did any self-directed art, link it up below!  I love seeing all their creations, and all the great supply ideas you moms come up with!

Have a beautiful day! :)