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Engage your kids with playful sensory play ideas this spring


Engage your kids with playful sensory bins like this birds nest and eggs

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Many teachers and parents are incorporating sensory play into their kids activities and they are inviting kids to play in sensory bins and sensory tubs.  Engaging kids in learning through play activities encourages speech and language skills, fine motor skills as well as imaginary and cognitive thinking skills.  Originally I had bought the above nest to be used as a spring center piece on my table.  I had planned to add some decorative eggs or something and have it sit untouched solely as a decorative piece.  Yeah Right!  What was I thinking!  As soon as my kiddos saw this nest it was an immediate play object.  

Throughout the last couple of weeks they have added foam eggs, birds, little chicks, worms (pipe cleaners) and even a dinosaur!  The eggs started brand new, but over time some of them have been "eaten by dinosaurs" or started hatching. I was very happy to see that even the simplest of materials could create so much imaginative play.  

Watching them play with the nest made me think of all the sensory bins I have seen other bloggers create.  With only a couple of objects my kiddos were very engaged and played for long periods of time.  I can only imagine what fun they would have if they had a bin full of things.  A sensory tub can be made with buckets, plastic containers, sensory tables, drawers, sand and water tables, I have even seen them made with plastic pools.  

Below are some examples of some fabulous and engaging sensory bins to inspire you.  

spring sensory station digging in dirt activity

Growing a Jeweled Rose posted a bunch of spring sensory stations which I'm sure resulted in a ton of imaginative play.  She has pictures of a digging in dirt station, a frog pond station, a barnyard station and more!!

spring sensory bin with play dough and craft supplies


Nurture Store posted about their spring adventures with playdough.  Lots of fun playdough activities here.
spring sensory activity with grass and animals and flowers

Small Potatoes has a post about a wonderfully creative spring sensory activity that any kid in the room would be drawn to.
spring sensory activity using senses to smell flowers

The Good Long Road has a post about an Earth Day Scent-sory bin.  I can smell spring by just looking at her photos!
spring sensory play ideas digging in noodles for pretend worms

The Imagination Tree has a ton of sensory play ideas.  You've got to check these out, there is pulling, and stretching, and squishing, and pouring, and mixing, and digging, and painting and much more.
spring sensory garden made from play dough


famiglia&Seoul posted about a spring playdough garden that they made.  They planted seeds and let the imagination grow!


spring sensory tub using all kinds of textures like plastic grass and feathers

Make, do & friend posted about a springtime tub that they created using all kinds of textures and materials.  I don't know how a kid would be able to resist digging in!  Or an adult for that matter!


You might also be interested in:

Quick and easy outdoor art activities for young kids Learn to write your name activity booklet




I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

Create beautiful pictures by painting with rain

It has been raining so much lately.  So when I saw this post from Freshly planted during the weekly kids co-op, it quickly became one of my favorites.  They created beautiful pictures by painting with rain.  


Create beautiful pictures by painting with the rain

They used watercolor and then allowed the rain to mix the colors and make all kinds of gorgeous puddles of color.  Make sure to check out all the directions over at the original post.


weekly kids co-op and activities

Create butterflies with painted tissue like Eric Carle Make beautiful rainbows with shaving creamLearn to draw cartoons game




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Learn beginning letter sounds with toy animals in a hands on center

A while back I found this Alphabet poster at the dollarstore!  I wasn't sure at the time what I would use it for so I just tucked it away behind the bookshelf for someday when I would become inspired.  Well today the kids found it and created a fun way to learn beginning letter sounds with toy animals in a hands on center activity. 

Learn beginning letter sounds with toy animals and an abc poster


Each kid took a turn picking out an toy plastic animal from the basket and matching the animal to the poster based on the beginning letter sound of the animal.  This kept the kids busy for quite some time.  I have since used this activity with my kindergarten students many times and it is so great to see them making connections like "both cow and cat start with C" and "puppy starts with a P but dog starts with a D".  


You might also be interested in:

Learn to read with magnetic sight words    top 10 Pinterest boards that focus on learning the alphabet    Learn to read with sight word poetry pages


I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

Encouraging creative kids by making crafts with egg cartons

We eat a lot of eggs at our house so always have a few in our recycle bin so when Rachelle at Tinkerlab challenged us to get our creative juices flowing and create something out of an egg carton, we jumped at the challenge.  "The purpose of the challenge is to help children learn to trust their own ideas, build creative confidence, and envision new purposes for common objects".  So I took this challenge and tried to have the kids direct their own learning/idea. They created a dinosaur and a parrot. Using a Reggio approach to the activity I documented our craft below.

encourage kids to be creative and make egg carton crafts dinosaur and parrot


To begin the activity, I brought out 2 egg cartons, some paint, tape, glue, foam shapes, stickers, paper, and some feathers and set them in front of the kiddos. I asked them: "What do you think we could make"
J: "I don't know, what do we do?"
Me: "What would you like to make?"
J: " A dinosaur, ROOAAARRR!"
Me: "Ok, sure you can do that, here is your stuff, go ahead and make it"
J: "But how?"
Me:"Well where is his head?",(J points), "Where is his teeth?" (J opens it up, and points)"Where is his eyes?"
J: "I don't know, he needs eyes"
Me:"Ok, so can you make some eyes?"
J: "Yeah!"
So J cut out some eyes and then painted and added foam shapes to make his dinosaur!

Paint an egg carton to make a dinosaur


So once J got started I asked C "What do you want to make?"
C: "I want to make a parrot"
Me: "Ok go ahead"
And then off she went.  She started cutting and announced what each part was as she cut it out.  "This is the eyes", "This is his nose", etc. She laid it all out on the table.  And then I asked her " So how are we going to put this together?"
C:"I need paper"
Me:"ok here is some paper, how are you going to put it together?"
She tries to stand up the paper but it wouldn't stand up, she tries to bend the paper but soon starts to get frustrated.  So I suggested that we turn the paper into a tube and see if that works.  She likes that and continues on.
C: "I can do it, mom" (her favorite phrase right now!)
She then continues on and cuts "feathers" from paper and then glues them on, adds some real feathers and then pretty much finishes the rest independently (she needed a little help taping the eyes on so they would stick)

egg carton craft add glue and paint to make a parrot


C:"Look mom, it's like blue bird"
Me:"Oh, it's like the bird in RIO"
C:"Yeah it's RIO" (We've been watching the movie RIO, it's one of their favorites right now.)

egg carton craft make a dinosaur

make a craft with egg cartons make a parrot


And there you have it a parrot and a dinosaur (which both have tails, lol).  I'm so glad I let them guide the activity, as it was much more meaningful to them then if I would have come to them with a preconceived outcome and process.  They both saw the egg carton differently.  J saw it as a whole object (a dinosaur) that was missing parts, and C saw the egg carton solely as parts or pieces that she could deconstruct to make something with.  By allowing them to create their own plan for their craft I allowed them to trust and build confidence in their own ideas instead of just learning how to follow directions.  Man, they are getting so creative!!

Kids craft make a dinosaur and a parrot from an egg carton
Here the dinosaur is trying to eat the parrot...yikes!


So are you up for the challenge??  What can YOU make with egg cartons?
Link up below.


Craft for kids make a parrot and a dinosaur out of egg cartons


Tinkerlab egg carton challenge


Other participating bloggers:
Inspiration Laboratories,Kitchen Counter Chronicles,Living At The Whiteheads Zoo,Make, Do & Friend,Mama Mia's heart2heart,
Messy Kids,NurtureStore,PlayDrMom,Rainy Day Mum,Red Ted Art,Sun Hats & Wellie Boots,Teach Preschool,The Chocolate Muffin Tree ,The Educators' Spin On It ,The Golden Gleam,The Imagination Tree,Toddler Approved,Reading Confetti,Kindergarten & Preschool for Parents & Teachers,The Outlaw Mom Blog, HappyLittleMesses, RainbowsWithinReach,Mommy Labs,Child Central Station,Green Owl Art,
Reusecrafts,Experimenting-Mom,Duck Duck Octopus,PaintCutPaste,Train Up a Child,Growing A Jeweled Rose ,Coffee Cups and Crayons,Ready. Set. Read!,Scribble Doodle and Draw,Carrots Are Orange,JDaniel4's Mom, Quirky Momma,A Mom With A Lesson Plan,Good Long Road,Two2Read

14 fun literacy and math activities that use plastic eggs

14 fun learning activities that use plastic eggs


Every year I pull out bags and bags of those plastic eggs around Easter time.  And every year I discover more and more literacy and math activities that use these plastic eggs.   Plastic eggs are great for center activities or during guided learning lessons.  This year I decided to comply a list to share with you all.   

1. Match Upper and Lowercase letters.

Match uppercase and lowercase letters with plastic Easter eggs
Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to put uppercase letters on one half and lowercase letters on the other half.  Have kids match the two halves and put them together.

2. Review Beginning Letter sounds.

Match beginning letter sounds with plastic Easter eggs

Fill the plastic eggs with objects or animals.  Have kids open the egg, say the name of the object and match it's beginning sound with a magnet letter or letter card.

3. Spell CVC words

Make CVC words with plastic Easter eggs

Fill the plastic eggs with pictures of CVC words and letter tiles.  Have the kids open the egg, look at the picture and try to spell it using the letter tiles.  (I have included pictures and words for this center in my Easter unit that can be found in my TeachersPayTeachers store.)


4. Spell your name and your friends' names.

Practice writing your name with plastic Easter eggs

Fill the plastic eggs with a picture of your child or student and the letter tiles needed to spell their name.  Have students open the eggs and spell the name of the person in the picture. EXTENSION: Have kids glue the letters and pictures down on a recording sheet or write the names with special markers after they build the names with the letters tiles.

5. Review word families.

Make word families with plastic Easter eggs

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write word endings on one half of an egg and consonants on the other half.  Have kids turn one half of the egg reading the new words that they make.  EXTENSION:  Have students record the new words that they make.  They could also make a list of real words and nonsense(silly) words that they make.

6. Match Rhyming words.

Match rhyming words with plastic Easter eggs

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write rhyming word pairs on the top and bottom halves of eggs.  Break all the eggs apart and have kids match the words that rhyme and connect the two pieces back together.

7. Make compound words.

Make compound words with plastic Easter eggs

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write compound words.  Break all the eggs apart and have kids make compound words by putting two halves together to make a new word.  EXTENSION:  Have kids write out their new words.

8. Practice counting seeds.

Practice counting and matching numerals with plastic Easter eggs and seeds

Fill 12 eggs with popcorn seeds (chicken feed).  Have children open each egg and count the seeds inside and then store them in the corresponding egg cup in the egg carton.

9. Read number words and symbols

Match numbers centers with plastic Easter eggs

Read number words with plastic Easter eggs

Write number words or use dots on one half of an egg and have children find the matching number symbol and put the egg back together.

10. Make patterns.

Create patterns with plastic Easter eggs

Have children use 1/2 of the plastic egg and create patterns with them.  EXTENSION:  Have children represent the patterns they create on paper.  Build a pattern and have children extend your pattern.  Give children instructions like build me a AB pattern and have them create it.  

11. Build Fine motor skills

Build fine motor skills by using tongs and plastic Easter eggs

Take 2 baskets and fill one basket with plastic eggs and have child sit directly in the middle of the two baskets.  Using tongs have child reach across their midline and pick up an egg and transfer it to the other basket.  Once children get really good at this move the baskets a fair distance apart and have them run back and forth to fill the baskets.

12. Build Gross motor skills

Build gross motor skills by having egg and spoon races with plastic Easter eggs

Have egg and spoon races.  Challenge children by adding obstacles that they have to step over or crawl under.


Build gross motor skills by having egg races with plastic eggs

Have egg races using your nose or other parts of your body (elbow, knee, shoulder, etc.)

13. Make an ice mold

Use plastic eggs as a mold.  Hide small objects or animals in the plastic eggs and fill them with water and then freeze to make ice.  The kids will have a blast trying to release their objects from the ice.

14. Hide eggs and go on a Egg Hunt.

Fun Easter activities hide eggs and go on an egg hunt

So that's it for this year!  What do you do with your eggs?


14 fun activities that you can use to create learning opportunities for kids at Easter.


Need some Easter and bunny books.  These are a few of my favorites.
The night before Easter book Bunny Trouble treasury book Eggbert the slightly cracked egg book

Five little bunnies hopping on a hill book How to catch the Easter Bunny bookThe biggest Easter Basket Ever book


Need more Easter and spring center ideas?  Check out my printable units below:

Easter literacy and math centers for kindergarten
Spring literacy and math activities and games for kindergarten

Need a fun Easter art activity?  Try these Glossy painted Easter eggs.  You won't believe what we used to paint them!  (Click on the picture to be taken to the post.)



Create Glossy Easter Eggs with Edible paint art activity






I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy
I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more information about this please see our disclosure policy

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