Easter Egg Eruption!

 

 

 

Here’s another activity that will make good use of your plastic Easter Eggs.  This experience is full of excitement for you and your little ones.  They boys love to do science experiments and what’s great is that it’s something we can do over and over again and as they get older, they’ll appreciate it in different ways.  When doing science experiment type activities with your little one, think about encouraging language development by:

·         WONDERING and GUESSING what will happen - Even if your little one is too young to make PREDICTIONS, you can model it for them!  “What do you think will happen to the ice if we put it out in the hot sun?  I think it will melt!”  Modelling appropriate language is a great way to encourage your little one’s own development.

·         PROBLEM SOLVING  - How can we fix it?  Change it?  What could we do different?

·         DESCRIBING what’s happening – In this particular experiment, the bubbling eruptions would make us ooh and ah, but make sure to narrate what’s happening. “It’s bubbling up and spilling everywhere!”

·         USING YOUR SENSES - Any science experiment is sure to be a sensory experience as well.  So, talk about what you SEE, SMELL, FEEL and sometimes, TASTE.

·         RECALLING WHAT HAPPENED – Talking about your experience afterwards is valuable not only to language, specifically narrating skills (story telling), but also great for memory. 

·         SAYING HOW YOU WERE FEELING – Anthony now loves to tell me when he is “so escited” and I love it.  Make sure to share how you felt during the experiment – excited, nervous, curious, frustrated!!!

As you can see, you can get tons of language out of even simple science experiments and it’s great at any age!  I found this idea on an amazing blog called:  Little Bins for Little Hands.  Here’s what you’ll need:

Plastic Easter eggs

Vinegar

Baking soda

Food coloring

Egg carton

Sequins

Eye droppers

Small spoons

Jars or small bowls

Cookie Sheet

Plastic table cloth

Large bin (for washing everything off afterwards)

 

I prepared the first part of the set up the night before without the boys.  I just felt it would be easier that way for this one.

Split your plastic Easter eggs in half and place them in the carton. 

 

Fill them about half way with baking soda. 

 

Then, mix some sequins into the baking soda. 

Prep your play area.  Put a plastic table cloth on your table and have the egg carton on a cookie sheet.  The eggs will be overflowing so you’ll want something to catch the mess.

I had Anthony help me with the vinegar.  Pour some vinegar into a few jars or small bowls.  Add different color food coloring to each and mix.

Now time to play scientist!  Using the eye dropper, pour some vinegar onto the baking soda and…. Bubble, bubble, bubble!  Your eggs will be fizzing in color with the sequins moving around as well. 

 

The look on Anthony’s face says it all! 

 

Using the eye dropper is great fine motor practice.  After a while, we tried using a spoon, squirt bottle, then just ending up pouring vinegar right from the jar!

 

 

There was a lot of shared enjoyment during this activity which I Iove!  We waited in anticipation together as the vinegar poured on the baking soda and we got super excited when it started bubbling!  We COMPARED our erupting eggs to a volcano.  When talking about what we SAW, we noticed the COLORS and AMOUNT of bubbles.  We couldn’t not comment of the STINK of the vinegar either!  We WONDERED what would happen if we pour A LOT or JUST A LITTLE and when the eggs stopped bubbling, we BRAINSTORMED what we could do to get it going again.

Once we were all fizzed out, I gave the boys a large bin filled with soapy water.  They splashed around and washed all our eggs and supplies. 

 

This baking soda experiment was a lot of fun and definitely something we can do again in the future!  If you missed our Easter Egg Painting, check it out now!

Stay tuned for more Easter egg fun…

Love & Language,

Marisa

Painting With Easter Eggs

 

I bought two packages of plastic Easter eggs for $0.89 each at Target and decided that I am going to see how many activities I could do with my boys with these eggs.  I already have a few ideas in mind and yesterday we tried one.  If you’ve ever painted with marbles, this will be familiar to you.  It’s basically the same concept but you’ll use the plastic Easter eggs instead of the marbles.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Plastic Easter eggs

Washable paint

Paper plate

Paper

Container with a lid (a shoebox would work too)

Container (to put the dirty eggs in)

 

 

First, place a piece of paper at the bottom of your container. Pour a few different colors of paint on a paper plate. 

 

Now the fun starts… dip an egg in the paint, and then put it in the container. 

 

Secure the lid tightly on the container and SHAKE! 

 

You can put as many eggs as you like in the container at a time.  The end result was so much prettier than I thought it would be!  The boys really had fun shaking the containers and since the mess is container, there isn’t too much clean up!  I left a second container next to the table and just dropped the dirty eggs in there as the boys were done with them.  When we were all done, the boys wanted to wash the paint off the eggs and I had no objections to that!  They wash the egg in the container with some water and a brush and we were done!

 

 

During our egg painting, I encouraged the boys to MATCH the plastic egg color with the paint colors.  We talked about what colors were the SAME and what colors were DIFFERENT.  This activity is truly a great experience for talking about COLORS!  We talked about what COLORS we would start seeing in the SPRING – GREEN grass, YELLOW daffodils, BLUE birds.  Use as many COLORS as you have and for your older kids, you can use colors like TURQUOISE and FUSCHIA to expand their COLOR VOCABULARY.

 

 

This activity was simple, fun and not so messy!  Definitely give it a try with your little ones!  Stay tuned for more activities you can do with plastic Easter eggs!

Love & Language,

Marisa