Hollowed out eggs. Egg Candles. Treasure Hunt. Cookie Cutter Painting. Cotton Ball Eggs. Egg Heads

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2 Hollowed out eggs To hollow out an egg and leave the shell intact, drill a hole at both ends of the egg with either a large needle or a small drill (Don t use an electrical drill, just hold the drill bit in your hands and turn applying a gentle pressure). Hold the needle or drill inside one end of the egg and cover the other with your fingers. Then swirl the egg around which will cause the yolk and egg white to mix and be easier to remove. Next, blow forcefully into one hole and collect the egg from the other. Wash the hollowed out shell with water to remove any remaining yolk to prevent it from smelling and once it is dry, you can decorate it with some of the ideas below - have fun! Egg Candles Melt an old candle on the stove in an old saucepan with a low heat. Be careful not to have the heat too high. Break your egg shells in half and stand a wick in the centre of the shell. You can use the old unused portion of the wick from your old candle. Pour in carefully the melted wax and allow to set. The children can then decorate these candles for their family. If you don t have an old saucepan, you can use a new one by filling it with water and placing an old plastic (not an ice-cream container) or metal container in it and boiling the wax in the container in the water. That way your saucepan isn t ruined. You can buy candles and small plastic containers from the $2 shop if you need to. Treasure Hunt Make up a treasure hunt with the eggs as prizes. You can use brought Easter Eggs, or you and the children can make them from the recipes below, then the children can enjoy eating the eggs they made, after they find them of course! Cookie Cutter Painting Put a small amount of tempera paint (or other suitable paint for small children) in a large shallow container. A pie tin or oven tin works well for this. Show the children how to dip cookie cutters in the paint and then onto their paper to create a print. You can make Easter Greeting Cards or just pictures. Cookie Cutters are also available from the $2 shop. Cotton Ball Eggs Fill a couple of separate containers with different coloured tempera paint. Supply the children with some cotton balls ( Cotton balls can be purchased from your local supermarket). Once the balls are dry, they can be glued onto egg-shaped paper of different colours to make presents for their families. Egg Heads You can use some hollowed out egg shells for this one, or you can make a larger hole in your egg, for example remove the top 5mm of the shell. Draw on each shell with permanent markers a face, or use white board ones and allow the children to do their own faces. Spoon some soil into the top of the egg and plant with grass seed, or sprouts etc and place in the sun after watering. Once the seeds start growing you can cut the grass into different haircut styles to match the different faces. If you want to, you can also glue pipe cleaner legs and arms so your egg head becomes a small figure in different poses.

3 Coloured String Eggs You will need: Balloons Coloured string or wool Glue Margarine container Plastic fork (to stir the glue) Waxed paper or plastic bag Scissors Lace/Ribbon/coloured paper Cut the string into small lengths with the children. Place the string into the margarine container with some of the glue and stir with the plastic fork until the string is well coated. Blow up the balloons, but not too large as they take a long time to cover with the string. Remove the string from the container and squeeze off the excess glue with your fingers. Wrap the string around the balloon in a random fashion until it is well covered. There will still be plenty of spaces between the string so that it resembles a single layer birds nest. Allow the balloon and string to dry on the wax paper or plastic bag, usually over 2 days. After it is dry, pop the balloon and remove it. You can then decorate the string egg with the other decorations. You can also carefully cut the egg in half and fill with other Easter decorations or Easter Eggs! Natural dyes for colouring eggs Here are some ways to dye egg shells. Usually the more natural ingredient you use and the longer the egg shell soaks, the deeper and richer the colour will be. Remember: Do not eat any egg that you have boiled in the dye for hours or that has been sitting overnight if you are using whole eggs. Red - Pink - Violet blue - Lavender - Gold - Brown - Green - Pastels - General - Save the skins from red onions and boil with the eggs for 1/2 to 1 hour. Remember the more skins you use and the longer the eggs soak, the darker the colour will be, ranging anywhere from rose to lavender to deep red. Use cranberry juice or the juice from pickled beets. Soaking them in hot water along with violet petals will produce this colour Soak the egg shells in grape juice, or add 2 tea spoons of lemon juice to the violet blue water to lighten the colour. You can also produce Lavender by adding 1 to 1 1/2 tea spoons of turmeric and 1/2 tea spoon of vinegar to a cup of hot water and letting the shells soak. Use the skins from yellow onions boil your water and add a table spoon of instant coffee with 1/2 tea spoon of vinegar add 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to a bowl of violet blue to produce green. You can also purchase liquid chlorophyll from a pet shop. You can squeeze or rub blueberries and cranberries right on the shells for soft blues and pinks, or blend them for another result. all natural materials will produce a dye when boiled. For example grass will produce a green dye, tomatoes red, roses all the colours of the rainbow! So experiment, but remember to mix the dye with vinegar to ensure it stains the egg shells. The vinegar acts as an acid and etches the shell so the dye can be absorbed.

4 Coconut Easter Eggs These eggs can be made up to 2 weeks ahead of time. This recipe is not suitable for freezing. Ingredients: 45g Kremelta, chopped 2 cup icing sugar 1 cup coconut 1 egg white 1/4 table spoon coconut essence Yellow food colouring 125g dark chocolate, chopped Melt the kremelta in a saucepan on a low heat. Sift the icing sugar into a bowl, stir in the coconut, kremelta, unbeaten egg white and the essence, and mix well with a fork. Remore 1/4 cup of the mixture and tint yellow with the food colouring. Divide the remainder into 5 equal parts (about a heaped table spoon for each one) and roll each white portion into a smooth white ball in your hands. Cut each ball in half and make an indentation with your finger. Divide the yellow portion into 5 equal parts and roll into smooth balls. Place these egg yolks into the indentation of each egg white. Press the joined eggs together and roll into smooth egg shapes. Repeat with each egg. Place each finished egg on a foil covered tray and allow to stand for 30 mins or until slightly firm to the touch. Melt the chocolate in a pan over water to prevent burning. Spread about a 1/4 tea spoon of the melted chocolate on to the foil tray in 5 separate places, then dip each egg in the chocolate and sit it on the chocolate spot on the tray. Immediately after each egg has been coated, gently push the egg across the foil. This ensures that the base of the egg is coated and sealed with chocolate and avoids a large pool of chocolate around the base. If the weather is hot or humid, place the eggs in the fridge to set, then remove them or the chocolate will sweat. This recipe makes 5.

5 More Easter Fun & Games Easter egg Hunt Make 1 or 2 dozen coloured boiled eggs or buy chocolate eggs in foil. You can give each child a specific colour to look for, but none the same The children have to only find their colour egg but if they see another colour egg they can t tell the child with that colour This is really nice because it reinforces colours and each child gets the same amount of eggs. It s a lot of fun! Catch the Easter Eggs Have an adult place a basket on a tree outside. Give each child a plastic egg. Mark a line for each child to stand (don t make too difficult). Each child will then try to throw their egg into basket. Pin the Tail on the Bunny Draw or trace a rabbit on poster board and then get the triple size cotton balls and the kids can play pin or tape the tail on the Easter Bunny. Easter egg Memory Game You will need an old wallpaper book for this activity. Easy to get from paint shops (often free). Cut 2 egg shapes out for every different coloured and kinds of wallpaper. Have the children turn them over (wallpaper side facing down) and guess which ones are the pairs. Dye Easter Eggs Colour the eggs lightly with wax crayon before dyeing them. Buy an egg dyeing kit. The children can pick any colour they want. Sometimes, for a little fun we mix the colours, they come out looking really good when they dry. Give children a Styrofoam cup to put their egg in with some coloured Easter grass. The children can decorate their cup with crayons and stickers. Give the children a pipe cleaner for the handle of the cup. Let the eggs dry in the egg carton then put them in the cups. The cup ends up looking like a basket with an egg in it. The eggs last for a long time. Sun Catcher Easter Eggs To do so all you need is contact paper and tissue paper squares. First you peel the paper off the contact paper. Then you place it sticky side up in front of the child. They then cover the sticky side with tissue squares. When they are all finished trim the edges and hang in the window. Painting Easter Egg Shapes Allow the children to paint on white paper using bright colours. They can finger-paint, paint with rolling marbles or tennis balls, splatter paint, etc. You choose! When dry, cut into large egg shapes and place around their room for great colour and no two alike!

6 A Beautiful, Hollow Tissue Paper Egg Inflate and tie a small balloon for each child. Make a thin glue and water mixture, and have the children paint sections of the balloon and then lay squares of tissue paper down flat onto the glue. The tissue should overlap and cover the entire balloon. Let dry on wax paper, or hang to dry from the knotted end of the balloon over newspaper. When the balloon is completely dry, use scissors to cut a small slit in the balloon neck. The balloon will deflate, leaving a beautiful, hollow tissue paper egg. For a parent gift, these may be filled with lightweight candies, and then sealed with one more square of tissue. Easter Bonnet Items needed: paper plate, silk flowers, ribbon and glue. To make an Easter bonnet have the children glue silk flowers or other Easter items on the bottom of the plate, when they are done, punch two holes near the edges, opposite of each other and tie ribbon on. Then place the paper plate on the child s head, tie it and you have Easter bonnet. Easter egg Card Easter Card Print each child s foot using yellow paint. Add orange beak where the ball of the foot would be (use a marker). Add brown stick feet where the toes are. Glue onto a piece of folded 8 ½ x 11 add Happy Easter on the front. Parents love this! Dough Baskets Make salt dough. 2 cups of salt to 2 cups of flour. Add a little water to make dough like consistency. This can now be rolled into any shape. Allow the dough to dry slowly or bake in a moderate low heat in the oven overnight. Paint if required and then varnish with clear varnish. Makes a wonderful long lasting gift for Mum or Dad Easter bunny Ears Get an old headband cover it in white cotton then cut out cardboard ears and cover them in white cotton but leave the middle so that you can fill it in with pink cotton. You will be turned into an Easter Bunny. Easter Songs Bunny Pokey You can use bunny ears, bunny paws, bunny feet, bunny nose, fluffy tail, and any other bunny parts. Using the Hokey Pokey song

7 Hippoty- Hoppity Easter Bunny Here is a fun Easter tune called Hippoty-Hoppity Easter Bunny. It is sung to the tune of the Eensy, Weensy Spider. The children sing this song seated with legs out stretched and hands touching toes. It goes like this: The Hippoty Hoppity Easter Bunny is coming straight at me. Closer and closer he hops up on my knee. Up to my shoulder the bunny s much to near. Happy Easter, he whispers in my ear. (As the children sing this song, their hands hop from their feet to their knees and eventually to their shoulders and ears. They absolutely love it!!!) Five Little Easter Bunnies Five little Easter bunnies standing at the door, one boils the eggs and then there are fou Four little Easter bunnies sitting under a tree. One dyes the eggs and then there are three Three little Easter bunnies sitting under a tree. One decorates the eggs and then there are two. Two little Easter bunnies, oh what fun. One puts the eggs in a basket, and then there was one One little Easter bunny, what can you say? He hides the eggs for a happy Easter day!! I m a little Chickie Sung to the tune of I m a little Teapot I m a little chickie, ready to hatch (crouch down inside your egg) Pecking at my shell (Pecking motion) Scratch, scratch, scratch (scratching motion) When I crack it open, out I ll jump (jump out of shell) Fluff my feathers, cheep, cheep, cheep! Egg Science Rubber Egg You ll need: 1 uncooked egg in its shell, jar with a lid, white vinegar Place egg inside the jar. Make sure that it does not crack Pour enough vinegar into the jar to cover the egg. Screw on the lid Leave the egg in the jar for three days. Every once in a while, check on the egg Notice how it is changing After three days, take the egg out of the jar What happens? When you put the egg into the vinegar you will see bubbles. After three days the shell of the egg is gone and the egg has gotten bigger Why? The shell is made of limestone. When the acid in the vinegar touches the shell, there is a chemical reaction. The shell breaks down during this reaction creating gases including carbon dioxide, which causes the bubbles you see. Vinegar has water in it. The water moves through the teeny holes in the eggs membrane. The process is osmosis. As more water goes inside the egg, it gets bigger. This is the same way nutrients move into your body s cells.