MINI MONDAY

Potato Easter Eggs

You can create your own fun, colourful easter eggs right at home! Potatoes create easy to use stamps that are tons of fun for everyone!

(Source: craftymorning.com)

Materials

• Potatoes
• Knife (for use by an adult in prepping the activity only!)
• Paint
• Plates
• Paintbrush
• White Paper
• Scissors (optional)

Directions:

• Prior to beginning the activity, slice a potato in half. Use the knife to cut deep, wide lines in your potato to create a design. These can be straight lines, jagged lines, or squiggly lines, it’s up to you!
  • NOTE: This step should be completed by an adult!
• Pour some paint onto plates. Use one plate per colour 
• Show your little one the cut potato. Depending on their age, encourage them to either dip the entire potato into the paint on a plate (this creates an egg that is all one colour), or encourage them to use a paintbrush to paint each section of the potato a different colour (this requires more fine motor control, but allows for a multi-coloured egg!)
• Once your potato is covered in paint, stamp it onto the paper
• Lift the potato up to reveal your fantastic egg!
• Repeat the steps as many times as desired to create a multitude of eggs!

Keep the fun and learning going! Can you…

• Identify the different colours you used to paint your potato?
• Count how many times you stamped the potato on the paper?
• Go on a hunt for your eggs? Cut out each egg once they’ve dried, and hide them around your house for others to find! For little ones, place these cut out eggs under bowls, cups, pillows, or other items, and lift these items up to create your own egg-tastic reveal during tummy time!

Essential Learning Experiences

Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor skills are developed when children learn to use their smaller muscles, like the ones in their hands, fingers, and wrists. Fine motor skills are used for everything from picking up a utensil to eat, buttoning clothing, and holding a pencil when learning to write.

This craft helps to support the development of fine motor skills by inviting children to use the paintbrush to carefully paint each section of the potato a different colour. If your child is not quite able to grasp a paintbrush yet, the potato offers a larger surface for them to hold and dip in the paint as they continue to develop these smaller muscles!

Recognizing Attributes and Characteristics

Did you know that sorting and classifying are important parts of early math development? By practicing recognizing the attributes and characteristics of objects, children will be able to use this information to later help them sort these objects into groups!

This craft helps children practice to recognize the attributes and characteristics of different objects by identifying the colours they’ve used to paint their potato. Create eggs of many different colours, and continue developing this skill by sorting them into groups after you’ve finished your egg hunt!

Stay tuned for more resources to help spark kids’ creative learning!

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