Gets the kids moving and creative at the same time while painting with eggs. Just the plastic Easter egg kind, not real ones! [Though that brings an idea...]
It’s sometimes hard to do a toddler art activity when all they do is just sit and create. Henry is particularly this way. That’s why big art is my favorite kind of art.
Big art, to me, is any kind of art that involves movement to make it. Burning off some energy while making something pretty!
I decided to take this big art activity outside. It took Henry awhile to get into it.
At first, he only wanted to play with his dump truck and stack the paints in it.
I started by showing him what we’d do to spark some interest. That got Henry to join me soon after.
This art activity was inspired by Tinkerlab’s Rolling Easter Egg Painting and Teaching 2 and 3 Year Old’s Cars Down Ramp in Paint. But, Henry created and played with the paints in his own way.
I set out 4 containers and put a blob of paint in each. Henry rolled the plastic Easter eggs [along with a ball] in the paint to get them nice and covered.
I laid out a piece of cardboard on our sidewalk [which is slanted]. I taped a couple of pieces of butcher paper on the cardboard.
Henry rolled the eggs down the paper. The eggs usually needed some pushing to keep them moving.
Henry also kicked his ball down the paper many times!
Henry chose to include the ball himself. The design the ball made on the paper added a lot of interest because of the circles. Henry said that a couple of the paint circles the ball made looked like glasses!
The process was fun! We never knew where the Easter egg would go… Each path it made was different from the previous one.
[The eggs didn't end up looking so bad either.]
This was a very messy activity, so I do recommend doing it outside. Henry’s clothes ended up covered in paint [take precautions with the 10 ways to keep messy play clean]. I cannot stress how much I love Crayola Washable Paints!
Henry was 3 years old.
This post contains affiliate links.
About Jamie Reimer
This is Awesome! Looks like he had a lot of FUN! We did some Easter Egg Paint Rolling too! My daughter Loved it! This is definitely a boy's way to approach this! Though my daughter would enjoy the kicking too…Great pics!
The kicked egg and ball version is so much fun!! It never occurred to me to kick the eggs — probably not as fun for cleaning up, but the process is incredible. I love those moments when children take an idea and run in their own direction with it. And I agree with Melissa – your photos are gorgeous. Thanks for linking back to me
Hi Jamie!
I nominated you for The Versatile Blogger Award!
Check it out on my site:
http://thechocolatemuffintree.blogspot.com/2011/04/versatile-blogger-award.html
Crayola washable paints are the best! What a fun twist on the traditional Easter egg roll!
We did this last summer with little bounce balls! What a colorful mess
http://educationofours.blogspot.com/2010/07/bouncey-ball-painting.html
Fantastic idea, I love it!
What a fun idea! I just know my messy M would love to get paint balls rolling!
I love this ssooooooo much! What a great way to recycle on earth Day. We'll be doing this soon! cowsgomooandducksgoquack.blogspot.com
Oooh messy, colourful fun!
Love the kicking photo, what fantastic fun
This is FABULOUS!!! I would love if you would like this up to Made by Little Hands Mondays!
Have a great day!
Michelle
http://www.delicateconstruction.blogspot.com
Very smart idea to do this one outside! Mess = Fun. ; ) Thanks for linking up with Fun for Kids Friday!
Heather
localfunforkids.com &
PreschoolBuddy.com
What an awesome idea! I love your pictures too. They are priceless. He is a cute guy. I want to see the final product in a frame. I need to take more art products outside. Thanks for the inspiration and for sharing.
My guy will try anything that involves balls. We did his cars down the slide and he loved it!
http://livingatthewhiteheadszoo.blogspot.com/2011/04/painting-with-cars.html
Had to feature this one on my blog! Not only is it super fun, but the pictures are so inviting.
Great summer activity for kids… love it, thanks for sharing
I found this particular post through Pinterest and instantly knew we had to do this. We changed it a little to be more seasonal and used pumpkins, primarily. I linked back to this wonderful post and I want to say thank you for inspiring us. We had so much fun with this today. It was a ridiculous amount of fun. I'm also going to link this to this weeks Playtime linky. Thanks!
A less messy version of this activity would be to put a piece of paper inside the bottom of a shoe box or plastic storage bin and have the kids hold the box with the egg inside and move the box around to roll the egg around the paper. My daughter used to do this with golf balls. Probably not as fun, but also not as messy.