Easter Crafts for Preschool Aged Children
- Get messy this easter (and not just from chocolate).easter-cocks and easter-eggs image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
All parents agree, preschoolers love to glue, paint and scribble, and Easter provides the perfect occasion for crafts. Messy play, however, isn't just about entertainment value. According to parenting site Preschool 4 All, arts and crafts help to develop a preschooler's motor skills, imagination, concentration and social development. And don't forget that the craft doesn't have to be perfect; kids learn from the process of making something, not the final result. Below is a list of festive crafts that will help your little one to learn while playing this Easter holiday. - Speckling is a messy but fun way to decorate hard-boiled eggs for Easter. First, protect your work space with newspaper and wrap your child in either an old shirt that covers his sleeves. Dip a toothbrush into food dye, hold it next to the egg and scrape the bristles away from you. Droplets will spray from the toothbrush, creating an interesting speckled effect on the egg. For more color contrast, craft website All Free Crafts recommends dying the egg first by boiling in water either with a few drops of food dye or natural egg dye.
- Chocolate nests are a sweet recipe that even a 2-year-old can put together. Pour 3 oz. rice cereal into a large mixing bowl. Melt 4 oz. dark chocolate in the microwave (do this by melting it in short bursts). When your chocolate is melted, stir in 2 oz. butter. Leave it to cool for a few minutes before you allow it near your child, as it will still be hot. Then combine this mixture with the rice cereal and 3 tbsp. of treacle. Supervise your child while she gently mixes the ingredients together until everything is brown. Then pour the mixture into 12 muffin tins, flattening them in the middle to make nest shapes. Leave to cool and then fill with miniature chocolate eggs bought from the supermarket. Serve in an Easter basket.
- Help your child make a simple little bunny from a baby food jar. Get her to tear apart cotton balls and stick tufts to the jar with glue, until the sides are completely covered. While she does this, use a marker to draw eyes on a piece of cardboard, then cut them out. Then together paint the lid pink. On the front of the jar, help your child to stick on the eyes, short strips of yarn knotted together for the whiskers, and a small cotton ball painted pink as the nose. Use the marker to draw on the mouth. On the back, glue on a cotton ball as the tail. For the ears, bend two pink pipe cleaners into ear shapes and staple them onto the lid. Cover the staple marks with a final tuft of cotton for the top of the bunny's head and your little bunny is complete.
