Another spring/egg decorating craft for pre-school kids. Ok, Einstein E and Power P are first-graders, and they wouldn't be thrilled to know that I called this activity "for pre-school kids". After all, they are not six anymore. They are six AND MORE THAN A HALF!!
If you read the post about decorating eggs with flowers, you'll learn some interesting facts about eggs. And this paper weaving craft is an excellent opportunity to revise those facts.
You can expand this egg topic to so much more. First, have a look at some of the activities we did before we got to the weaving part.
One of the facts we learned is that the extinct Madagascan elephant bird (Aepyornis maximus) laid eggs measuring 33 cm long and with a liquid capacity of 8.5 litres. The latter measurement is the equivalent of 7 ostrich, 183 chicken or more than 12,000 hummingbird eggs! The Elephant bird became extinct about 1,000 years ago and lived on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. Its eggs were the largest ever single cell to have existed on Earth.
Maths
How much is 33 cm?
Start with estimation.
Show me with your hands. Is your arm longer or shorter than 33 cm? Find something that might be 33cm long. Draw a 33cm long line.
Then, use a measuring tape. Were your estimations accurate?
Of course, the boys had to measure everything around the flat. And the balcony. And the basement.
Roommates. This practice in addition is an idea I "stole" from their teachers. Simply draw a building with several "flats". Each flat has two roommates. The result is written inside the roof, and there is one number in each flat. When you add the two numbers (roommates) you get the result. Then, Einstein E got a bit carried away and made several more buildings. The whole family had to look for the roommates :) Geography
Where is Madagascar? Looking for it.... looking.... getting warmer... somewhere in the Indian Ocean... approximately 400 kilometres off the coast of East Africa....Found it!!
Finally, we got to the crafting part. Honestly, the boys liked the previous activities much better. But, they made the eggs as a gift for their auntie.
Materials:
heavier print paper
some kind of colourful paper (regular print paper works although construction paper may be easier for younger kids to weave)
scissors
glue
Step 1.
Outline and cut an egg out of the print paper. Fold along the middle.
Step 2.
Draw and cut along the lines. Unfold.Step 3.
Cut out several stripes. For this one, we used an old magazine. It was pretty colourful. You can keep it simple and use just two colours.Step 4.
Weave the strips between the strips on the egg.Step 5.
Once you have them all woven in, glue them to the egg at the ends.Step 6.
Cut the excess paper.And there you have it :) Your sprig/easter eggs are ready. You can place them around the flat, go easter egg hunting or give them as a present to your family.