Our children made and designed their own Easter baskets from recycled vegetable containers. This is an easy and fun activity to do at home.
Materials Needed:
-Small cardboard or wooden box from vegetables or something similar.
-Coloured paper
-Glue
-Scissors
-Stuffing for the basket (Easter grass, hay, or painted cotton balls)
-Felt, foam or fabric (optional)
-Paint (optional)
1. Find a small cardboard or wooden box.
Our children loved having the freedom to rummage around our junk modelling collection and choose the bases for their baskets themselves.
At Children First we use natural materials and talk with children about where they come from – wooden vegetable containers come from trees, egg boxes are cardboard. Card like paper comes from trees such as aspen, eucalyptus, birch, pine and spruce. People used to write on papyrus (bark) or animal skins. Many containers can be recycled afterwards which teaches children to care for the environment.
2. Cut out decorations.
Use felt, foam or coloured paper, or paint shapes in Spring colours for the side of your basket. We used a cardboard template that the children drew around, cut out and then decorated.
This needed care and concentration as the children used their fine motor skills. Developing hand strength and finger muscles is important for young children. They will need this for tasks involving manipulation and later writing skills.
Giving your child aged 2 plus some toddler scissors and supervising their cutting will mean they can help you. Children ages 3.5 plus can learn to use scissors safely with your help. Use phrases like ‘thumb on top’ and guide them to only ever cut sitting down. Show them how to hold scissors safely.
Under 3s – draw the shapes for them or use something to draw around such as a metal cookie cutter.
3. Line the box with felt or fabric and fill with some grass.
The children compared various materials before choosing what they used. We had some discussion about the fragility of eggs and how we could protect them with the soft filling. These conversations and experience help to increase a young child’s knowledge and understanding of the world around them.
If you don’t have grass filling on hand, you can paint cotton wool to look like grass and earth.
Under 3s can use paint pads on a stick. From 4 or 5 children can use cotton buds to make interesting patterns and mix colours in their ‘grass’ or ‘hay’.
4. Wrap some thin cardboard in coloured paper to make the handle.
After wrapping the strip of cardboard in paper, bend it and glue it into the box.
Squeezing a bottle of glue and teaching children how to open, use and close glue sticks properly will help them use their hands for these tasks regularly. All good for developing the tiny muscles in their hands! You can decorate the handle as well with some of the shapes that you cut out earlier.
5. Fill your basket with eggs and enjoy!
