Salt Painted Eggs

I found this idea for salt painting on Irresitable Ideas for Play-based Learning ( http://www.playbasedlearning.com.au/2010/11/painting-in-salt/ ) and adapted it to give it an Easter twist.  I gave the children large egg shaped templates and showed them how they could use glue sticks to make patterns on the eggs.  Luckily the glue sticks were purple so they could easily their patterns.  Okay, there weren't many patterns, it was more a case of smearing the glue mainly round the centre of the egg, but that was fine.

Next we had to cover our patterns is salt.  This part of the activity proved particularly popular and we became so absorbed that we often forgot others were waiting to use the salt!

 We then used the pippettes to transfer paint onto the salted parts of the egg to highlight our 'patterns'. I found these on ebay, you can get cheaper plastic ones but I have found they don't always stand up well to inexperienced users. The paint also needed to be watered down, otherwise it tended to sit on the salt, rather than spreading through it.

Using the pippettes proved more trickier for some.  One little boy was convinced that he had to leave the pipette standing in the paint for a short period so that it could fill up.

We created some fantastic designs, mainly due to the fact we were more interested in randomly squirting the paint on the eggs, which led to the pipette painting activity the following day)

And we couldn't resist exploring the salt further afterwards.

Links to EYFS:

PSED: Behaviour and Self-control - (sharing of resources)

PSED: Sense of Community - (awareness of cultures and beliefs arising from discussions of Easter - older children)

CLL: Writing

CLL: Handwriting

KUW: Exploration and Investigation (awareness of patterns eg zig zags, colour patterns)

PD: Using Equipment and Materials

Funky Chicks

For Easter we got busy making some funky chicks. 

I saw this idea for Thanksgiving Turkey's on Teacher Tom's blog and thought it would be fantastic to try.  ( http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/we-did-craft.html ) I enjoy doing crafts with the children but for me, they have to be the children's own work with minimal adult input.  This was just perfect, with the opportunities it provided  for developing minor motor skills. However in England we don't celebrate thanksgiving.  I did think about taking the children to the farm.  I could then justify providing the activity by linking it to this experience,  However, it occured to me at 5am that is was Easter the following week, doh! We could adapt the idea into funky chicks.  So I dug out the paper plates, made some eyes and beaks, brought a yellow feather boa for 99p and spent the weekend attaching feathers to wooden clothes pegs (Oh I also had to purchase a glue gun, been after an excuse to get one of these!  Found one in Wilkinson for £4.  After being inspired by Teacher Tom to let the children use it, I just need to find an opportunity now.)

We painted our plates yellow, stuck on our eyes and beaks and got to work trying to figure out how to attach those tricky clothes pegs. 

Coordinating the action of opening the clothes peg and positioning it so that it would attach to the edge of the plate proved more difficult for some.  But they all persevered and created some very funky chicks. 

Oh course there was the one featherless chick from the little boy who disliked the feel of the feathers!
Links to EYFS:
CD: Exploring Media and Materials - where children are engaged in conversations about the feel / texture of the feathers.
PD: Using Equipment and Materials - where children are able to attach the clothes pegs to their chick.
KUW: Communities - where there are conversations with children about Easter.
PSED Communities - where there are conversations with children about Easter

Jelly Good Fun!

I made some small pots of jelly for the children and as they were setting, put Easter confetti into the jelly.  The idea was that the children would use the giant tweezers to try to retrieve the confetti from the jelly.

I think next time I will use less water than the instruction suggested to make them a bit firmer.  The children eagerly gathered round the table as I got the equipment ready and quickly allocated themselves each a jelly.  Using the tweezers, they persevered in trying to remove the confetti with even the younger ones being keen to join in.

For some though, the temptation of exploring the jelly with their hands proved too great to resist!

Which is just fine as the children learn through exploring the texture of the jelly and their actions upon it.
Links to EYFS:
CLL: Handwriting - where children are able to use the tweezers to pick up the confetti
PSRN: Numbers as Labels and for Counting - where children count the pieces of confetti that they have retrieved.
PSRN: Calculating - where children make comparisons between their confetti, identifying who has more / less.
PD: Using Equipment and Materials - where children are able to use the tweezers to pick up the confetti.
CD: Exploring Media and Materials - exploring the jelly / describing the texture etc.