SALT DOUGH EGG ORNAMENTS

Brighten up your home and get busy baking with these adorable egg ornaments! 

(Source: designmom.com)

Materials

• 1 cup of flour
• ½ cup of salt
• ½ cup of water
• Bowl
• Spoon
• Rolling Pin
• Egg Shaped Cookie Cutter (if you don’t have one of these, other shapes can work too!)
• Spatula
• Straw
• Parchment Paper
• Baking Sheets
• Paint
• Ribbon

Directions:

• Before beginning, pre-heat your oven to 250 degrees
• Place the flour, salt, and water together in a bowl. Use the spoon to stir all the ingredients together
  • Teamwork makes the dream work! Take turns stirring with your child, swapping out whenever one of you gets tired. You can even turn this baking adventure into a challenge by seeing who can stir the dough the longest!
• Once the dough is ready, roll it out to approximately ¼ inch thickness
• Use the cookie cutter to cut out desired shapes
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
• Place the salt dough shapes on the parchment paper
• Use a straw to create a small hole at the top of each egg (you will use this hole to thread ribbon through later!)
• Place the salt dough eggs in the oven, and bake at 250F for 2 hours
  • Make sure you use oven mitts, and are very careful while inserting and removing the salt dough eggs from the oven
• Allow your salt dough eggs some time to cool
• Once they’re cooled, it’s time to paint! Put some paint on plates and grab your paintbrush
• Paint your salt dough eggs as desired. You can create solid coloured eggs or patterned eggs, it’s up to you!
• Once they’re dried, attach some ribbon through the hole
• Now you can hang your salt dough eggs up to decorate your home!

How does this spark creative learning?

Kindergarten: Explore colour mixing by mixing different colours of paint together. Start with the three primary colours and see which secondary colours you can create!

Grade 1: Put your senses to the test as you create your salt dough. Go over the five senses with your child and ask them which body part they are associated with. Use those body parts to safely explore the salt dough as you bake!

Grade 2: Matter comes in many different shapes and forms. Explore the different states of matter as you bake! Ask your child to help you identify whether each ingredient they’re using to make the salt dough is a solid, a liquid, or a gas? Do any of the ingredients have similar properties?

Grade 3: Two hours is a long time to wait, but there are many things you can do to pass the time! Try and think of some common activities that you do throughout the day, and time yourself doing those activities to see how long they take. How many times could you do each of those activities in a two hour period? Which takes the longest amount of time? Which takes the shortest amount of time?

Grade 4: Painted eggs don’t always have to be symmetrical – but yours can be! Combine art and math as you create a gorgeous gallery of painted eggs to showcase symmetry. Try painting some eggs to be symmetrical, while others are not. Later, challenge your family members to find the eggs that are an example of symmetry!

Grade 5: Matter is all around us, but that doesn’t mean it stays the same! Discuss the different ways that matter can change as you create your salt dough. Are you making physical, or chemical changes to the matter you’re using? Are these changes reversible, or non-reversible?

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

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