The Easter Egg

This week's activities were inspired by Jan Brett's book The Easter Egg. 

This was our Easter party, so things are a little different and more “special” than usual.   We met at a local park, and our big siblings joined in on the fun!

Gathering Activity: Bunny Hats

 

I bought these adorable Bunny Hat kits at Target.  The moms and little ones decorated these together.  The children had a fun time making theirs and quite quickly got into character.  If you don't want to buy these at Target, you can click here  DLKTK KIDS to find instructions on making one out of paper.  

Our little ones had NO PROBLEM getting into character. 

Story Time: The Easter Egg by Jan Brett 

 
 

We sat on blankets together and read the story The Easter Egg by Jan Brett.  It is a MUCH longer story than we usually read with our kids. Luckily, the novelty of being outside on the blankets kept them seated much longer than usual.  We did not press our luck with any songs though.

  The Easter Egg is story very similar to Horton Hatches an Egg.  Hoppi Bunny is trying very hard to create a beautiful Easter Egg to share with the Easter Rabbit.  He visits all of the other rabbits and admires their unique creations.  He tries each of their talents, but none are a good fit for him.  Then he finds an egg that has fallen out of its nest.  Hoppi helps the mother bird out by sitting on the egg for several days and nights until it hatches.   When the Easter Rabbit arrives to choose his favorite egg, Hoppi is not there with the other rabbits.  The Easter Rabbit finds Hoppi in the woods and takes the now hatched egg and places it atop all of the other eggs in the wagon.  The Easter Rabbit loves Hoppi's gift of love and sacrifice best of all.  The artwork is lovely, in true Jan Brett fashion, very detailed. 

Art: Bunny Brownie Gift Jars 

In the book, the main character, a bunny, sits on an egg that has fallen out of tree and waits for it to hatch.  I saw these adorable Bunny Brownie Jars and thought it would be fun for us to assemble together at the park.  To me they look like little bunnies sitting on eggs.

 

 

We set up all the materials needed on the picnic tables and let the mom and child make these together and attached labels.

  I definitely recommend the little bags she suggests for the graham crackers.  

 

I thought the children could choose someone to share the Bunny Jar with and then go with their mommies to deliver it.  But if you decide to keep them for yourselves, I will never tell.  :) 

If you want to make these adorable Bunny Gift Jars you can get all the directions including printables for labels here at The Tip Junkie.

Snack: Rice Krispies Chocolate Dipped Eggs 

 

We ate these yummy dipped and decorated Rice Krispy Eggs.  We found the directions at Food Family Finds.   The mom in our group who made these, suggested just using your hands to shape the eggs.  She felt like using the plastic eggs as a mold was an unnecessary and difficult step.

***While half  of the moms hid eggs, the other half played these games with the children. 

Egg and Spoon Balancing 

We gave each child her own plastic blue egg (not the ones we were hiding) and large spoon.  We let them practice walking from one line to a finish line balancing the egg on the spoon.  No competition, just balancing practice and fun.  We told them they were keeping the baby birds inside safe.  This little girl made sure she held her tongue just right.

 

Birdie, Birdie, who has the Birdie 

This is played like "button, button, who has the button."   Have one blue egg.  Let a child “sit” on the egg like the rabbit in the story.  

The guesser closes his eyes while the egg is hidden and then asks “Birdie, Birdie, Who has the Birdie.”  Let them guess until they find the egg. 

 Play until everyone gets to hide and guess.  This game was a little complicated for some of our little ones.  When we asked "Who has the birdie?"  the child holding it would gleefully shout, "I do!" It took a little bit of the guessing part out of the game.  But they still had fun hiding it and "guessing."  


Very Special Easter Egg Hunt

 Each family brought 12 filled eggs per child, along with an Easter Basket.  We  let the children pretend to be the Easter bunny looking for beautiful eggs! 

 

 

****In addition, we hid a special egg for each child with his/her name on it.  This egg had a baby bird inside, like the one that the bunny takes care of in the story.  

 They loved searching for their own special eggs.   Then after they found the egg with their name on it, they loved playing with the little birds inside. 

We ended the morning with free play, a fun picnic and these yummy Apple Cider Jigglers.   

We are participating in Toddler Approved's Virtual Book Club.  Please check out all of these other fun ideas inspired by Jan Brett's book, The Easter Egg.  Feel free to add one of your own, too! 

Good Night, Gorilla

Our activities this week were inspired by the book, Goodnight, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann. 

Gathering: Zoo Animal Toys and Books

The children played with the Fisher Price Zoo Animals and Zoo Train.  We also read zoo books with mommies and played with zoo animal masks and puppets.

Circle Time:
 

We read Good Night Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann.  I love this story.  There are very few words, but all that needs to be said is conveyed through the pictures.  As a zookeeper closes his zoo for the night, he says "goodnight" to each animal.  A gorilla sneaks behind him and unlocks each cage with the zookeeper's OWN KEYS!  They all silently parade behind him into his house and into his bed!  When the animals are discovered in the bedroom, he brings them all back to the zoo.  All, that is, except the gorilla.  A cute mouse is on each page pulling a banana on a string.  The little ones had a fun time searching for him every time I turned the page.  They giggled as each animal escaped. 

We sang Raffi’s “Going to the Zoo”

and 

The Animals at the Zoo Tune: The Wheels on the Bus
(sing with the animals in the book)

The snake at the zoo goes Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss Hiss
The Snake at the zoo goes Hiss Hiss Hiss
All day long
The lion at the zoo goes Roar Roar Roar Roar Roar Roar
The lion at the zoo goes Roar Roar Roar
All day long (Add other animals)

Art: Gorilla Paper Plate Art

We found this adorable gorilla craft at Creativity Takes Flight. 

Snack: Bananas and Animal Crackers

 

We enjoyed bananas (In honor of the little banana being pulled by a mouse on each page) and animal crackers.

Activities: Zoo Cages and Good Night Gorilla Games

1-)Zoo Cages Guessing Game:

  We made 3 zoo cages out of baskets.   The creative mommy who made these, added the most adorable signs on the cages. 

 We had one child leave the room with Mom.  While they were gone,  we hide a toy zoo animal in one of the cages.   When they came back, they opened each of  the three cages until they found the hidden animal.  

2-) Goodnight Gorilla:

We had  the children pretend to be each of the 7 animals, one at a time.   We said "Goodnight, Hyena". Then they pretended to go to sleep.  

One child pretended to be the zookeeper and would rattle a set of keys and say “Wake up!”   

Then of course, the kids would all jump up.  

Why is it that pretending to sleep is such a fun game for 2 and 3 year olds?  It is one of their favorites!

The Three Little Pigs

Gathering Activity: Pink Pig Cotton Ball Masks
 

I have been in love with these adorable masks since I first saw these over a year ago here at  A Bushel and A Peck. 

We made sure to spray paint cotton balls pink and to cut out all the pieces BEFORE class.   Then we assembled them together as the kids arrived.

 



Circle Time

 

 Inspired by a wonderful article on Imagination Soup about the importance of sharing Fairy Tales with kids, we read a favorite Golden Book version of The Three Little Pigs.  (Yes, I do recognize the irony of being inspired by her wonderful article and then using a Disney version of the fairy tale.  However, in this instance, I felt like the essential lessons of hard work were still taught without the need of the wolf devouring the first 2 pigs.  My older sons have heard that version, but I spared my 2 year old...for now). 

We used these great flannel board story pieces to retell the story. I bought ours at Kaplan's Learning Company.   

However if you don't already have your own, I found a link for characters here at Preschool Printables.
http://www.preschoolprintables.com/felt/3pigs/feltpig.shtml

Fingerplays:
We sang "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" and "This Little Piggy Went to Market."


Art: Piggy Pudding Painting
 

We printed a picture of a pig onto pink construction paper for each child.  Then we gave each child a small cup of chocolate pudding to finger paint their piggy with “mud.”   

This was so funny to watch.  We didn't tell them it was chocolate at first.  Then when we did, they hesitantly tasted it, then dove in whole heartedly.

Except for one little guy.  We couldn't convince him to try the "mud."  He gave us this great "You have got to be kidding me!" look.  He also opted to use a paintbrush over his fingers.    I share this to show that it is important to let each child to control his or her own experiences on their own terms.   We want the children to enjoy themselves and we want to expose them to opportunities to try new things.  However we do not want to make any little ones to feel pressured . 

Snack: Piggy Bagel
I searched the internet and I think I found the absolute cutest piggy snack out there at I Heart Crafty Things. 

It was also very yummy and fairly healthy.  The only thing we did differently was to use 100% Fruit strips cut into thin slices in place of the licorice.   

Activities

1-One of our moms made this adorable 3 sided house.  (inspired by an idea found here).   The kids had fun acting out the story of the three little pigs with the house, pigs, and wolf.  

 

2-We brought out several different building materials and allowed the children and their moms to build their own house and to blow their own house down like the wolf.  We provided Duplo blocks, Lincoln Logs, wooden blocks, and Magnatiles.