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Cute & Easy Crafts for Kids

Kids Get Crafty: Egg Birds & Owls (Egg Blowing Part 2)

Welcome to Kids Get Crafty! Hooray, how I love getting crafty with my children! Remember how a few weeks ago, I did a post on “Easter Egg Blowing” – how I love the delicate nature of a blown egg?! Well, I think that you can do this with children too – older children can have a go at blowing and younger can help you decorating… of course, if you are still not sure, then make these little birds with either hardboiled eggs or with styrofoam eggs from the store. Your call!

Visit How to… Easter Egg Blowing for more on the basics.

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The Book

My First Story of EasterMy First Easter Story, by Tim Dowley.

Now the craft is fun and jovial… my book choice is less so… I am a strong believer in the fact that you need to teach your children about the world, how it works and why we do things. So what is Easter all about? It isn’t just about Easter bunnies, chicks and chocolate, but of course there is a very important story behind it. So I went on the hunt for some “introductions to Easter” and found this little book.

I have to say, I am uncertain about the book – on the one hand they have done a great job of “simplifying what happened” for young children yet on the other hand, I find the use of words such as “hate” and “kill” really hard when talking to a 3 year old. Having said that, what else can you say to child about the story of Jesus? How he was crucified and killed? There is only so much you can do with rose tinted spectacles. And if I really want to educate my child about Easter, then these words and images are unavoidable. The book makes haste not to linger too long on these bits (without brushing over them) and therefore probably is a good choice. The illustrations are great (and not frightening or scary) And of course, as we all know, things “end happily” – Jesus rises from the dead and eventually ascends to heaven.

If you have any book suggestions on Easter or any religious topic for that matter, please do let me know. I am would like to introduce Red Ted to all sorts of beliefs and backgrounds.

The Craft

Some of you may have seen that I made the basic bird for a Guardian article a couple of weeks ago.. since then Red Ted has been shouting More! More! (doesn’t he always?) and one day we came up with these little Owls too. As with many of my “toddler craft”, I find it helpful, if you cut out all the pieces, lay it front of the toddler and then they can see where they go. They are then surprisingly good at the actual sticking…

Materials: one egg, 2 feathers, one beak (we used foam), some contrasting card for the eyes, googly eyes, glue, ribbon for hanging

So. Prepare your egg as per Easter Egg Blowing. An older child can paint the egg themselves, or you may use food dyes… I decided to paint the egg for Red Ted, he did all the glueing:

And here are the final ones:

And

And

And here are some for Granny’s house:

Have you been decorating any Easter Eggs? Let us see!

For more Kid’s Craft ideas, click here for a full list.

If you have been crafty with your kid’s be it at home, in the kitchen or outdoors, I would love for you to link up:

 

If you enjoy blog hops and link up parties.. do go and the fabulous Play Academy & Something for the Weekendevery Friday and Monkeys Doodles every Monday!

Comments

  1. Kate from An Amazing Child says

    Hi Maggy, you’re little man is quite clever to be able to make these little chicks. I’m just wondering, how easily do the egg shells break? Do you need to have very careful hands? I’m thinking I might need to wait a little while before we can make some blown eggs. But still, very nice 🙂
    Kate

    Reply

  2. maria says

    These eggs are so cute!!!
    On the topic of the religious meaning of Easter, I think for as much as you try to rose tint the brutality of it children will always see for what it is, but at least it has a happy ending. My son was exposed to a lot of it during preschool as he went to a Catholic school over Easter they were tought in a rosy kind of way what happened and I remembered he was so sad about it, he kept asking why?

    Reply

  3. Red Ted Art says

    Kate: I worry about misleading what Red Ted can and can’t do – we did these together – i.e. he pretty much only did the sticking – yet he ADORED doing the sticking… as to breaking. I painted our eggs in acrylics and I get the feeling that that has given them a protective coat. They seem a little less fragile. Having said that – I never leave the kids alone with them, as they would indeed end up smashed (prob dropped on the floor) – so. Yes they are fragile, but I would give it a go. It is a great lesson for the kids to start handling things carefully. PS my husband dropped 3 that were in an egg box for granny and they survived!!!

    Maria: maybe I should wait until next year? I guess there is no hurry, as far as I am concerned, I just want him to learn about things?

    Reply

  4. maria says

    I didn’t mean to put you off, I think children should learn too and I think the way you are going about it it’s great. What I meant is that children see through rose tint but that’s not a bad thing.

    Reply

  5. Red Ted Art says

    Aaah thanks for that Maria!! Yes, children are amazing at seeing through things and understanding the world!! (well parts of it). Thank you for th encouragement! Maggy x

    Reply

  11. Red Ted Art says

    Aaah everybody – thank you so much for your lovely comments 🙂 we are rather in love with our little owls too.. can’t stop making them!!

    Reply

  15. Gattina says

    That brings back so many happy memories when we painted eggs, emptied them, hid them, made all kind of little figurines out of it. My mother with me, and I with my son. Now I have to wait a few years until my grandson is ready to do this with me. Easter decoration has always been very important in Germany.

    Reply

  16. Natalie says

    Very pretty craft! I love how colorful your collection turned out. We read The Story of Easter – it’s very short and doesn’t dwell much on the events leading to the death of Jesus. I think it’s quite hard to explain to a young child why Jesus died. We are not church goers, so I am only telling my daughter “general culture” basics without dwelling on details.

    Reply

  19. Janelle says

    I agree it is hard to find age-appropriate books that tell the story of Easter without completely frightening a child. Your book suggestion sounds like a good one. We also like to use our Resurrection Eggs.

    Just the other day I was trying to figure out how I could add those googly eyes to eggs. Your chicks are perfect!

    Reply

  24. Chris at Thinly Spread says

    Thanks so much for linking up again Maggy, I’m spoilt for choice here! I never did find that Easter book of ours, I think I may have loaned it out to a teacher friend and I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called. Pah.

    Reply

  25. Red Ted Art says

    Ahh never mind Chris! But thanks anyway!!!

    And to everyone else: if you do get to make some little birdies, I would LOVE to see some photos!!!

    Reply

  29. Red Ted Art says

    Kewkew – thank you so much for the spotlite – how kind of you!! And yes, I do try and visit everyone – I love seeing what everyone has made and find it very inspiring!!!

    Mandy – thank you – I particularly like that colour combo too!

    Reply

  30. Jackie says

    These turned out very very cute! On the subject of the book, I have to agree. I want to introduce the real meaning of Easter to my (almost) 3 year old but it seems odd to talk to him about Jesus’s death. I guess because generally we avoid books that talk about such harsh things with little ones. I ‘ll have to check out this book. We also read The Story of Easter by Patricia Pingry. I felt like it introduced the meaning of Easter without being overly “harsh”. I really like the sweet words at the end, Jesus gave his life for us so that we can live too.

    Reply

  33. Jenny says

    I felt the same way when I went looking for authentic Easter books…and then when I found them, I realized it was hard for me to read about death to them. I think because they can’t quite comprehend it yet. It’s much easier to talk about bunnies, eh?

    Reply

  35. Fiona Erlandsen says

    Oh loving the eggs, gonna have a go at those this week with the kids.

    A question, we need to may some cool name tags for our pegs in our house in Norway, so that when we have all the kids (5) here together and they’ve got all their coats and ski stuff they know where to put their bits?? Any suggestions what to use? An Easter theme maybe… Will check out the links to these Easter SubmissionS:)

    What a ramble, sorry, never mind!
    Happy Easter
    Fiona

    Reply

  39. Bailey says

    I love seeing kids engaged in crafts. Finding age appropriate books is a challenge, but a worthy one. As they age you will continue to find books that address the issues a with more of the details that are not appropriate at this age. He will not have lost for not addressing these issues at age three.

    Reply

  40. Red Ted Art says

    Hi Bailey – yes you are right – we are enjoying the pictures this year… and will wait for the “text” next year… he seems happy with that!

    Reply

  42. JDaniel4's Mom says

    Thank you for linking up to Read.Explore.Learn. JDaniel has been discussing death regularly since I told him the Easter story. It is hard for his three year old mind to get around.

    Cute birds!

    Reply

  43. Rachel says

    I LOVE the birds.. so cute. And thanks for hosting!

    Thanks so much for sharing this at For the Kids Friday Link Party! I will be posting the next party tomorrow night. I hope to have you stop by and join us for another week sharing great ideas for our kids!!

    Thanks for stopping by!
    :)rachel at http://SunScholars.blogspot.com

    Reply

  45. Michelle Willow says

    Ah Maggy! They are sooo cute! 🙂

    Featuring it in this week’s High paw since I’ve decided to go with Easter theme! 🙂 Hope to see you stop by this week! Starting Monday we’re celebrating Beary Birthday party with loads of giveaways and free stuff! 🙂

    Reply

  47. Ness says

    These are adorable. The blue one looks remarkably like one of my son\’s favourite children\’s TV characters here in Australia. We might just have to make \”Hoot\”, um, him. As for teaching about the truth of Easter, it is tricky isn\’t? My son is 3 as well and I haven\’t been brave enough to try to explain it to him. I attended Catholic school and I recall crying over the Easter story when I was about 7! I don\’t want to put my son through that but I don\’t want to shield him from it either. It\’s a tricky balance.

    Reply

  49. Cerys @ Rainy Day Mum says

    These are so cute – I haven\’t done any egg blowing with J this year as I\’m well aware of the chunky little hands breaking the eggs everywhere – next year will be our real egg year I think.

    Thank you for sharing with Tuesday Tots this week

    Reply

  50. mansi says

    Hi Maggy,
    I found these adorable craft from the Kids Co Op linky. I simply loved these and they are so kids friendly. My 3 yr old love to stick things as well. She loves making faces on the balloons

    Reply

  51. Red Ted Art says

    Aaah so pleased you found the craft 🙂 And yes, sticking is great fun at that age… Hope to see you again soon!

    Reply

  52. Agata Marc says

    Another cool stuff I will surely do with my kids for Easter this year! I only wonder how you do that the eggs can be hanged… Do you put the string into the hole made during blowing the egg? or do you stick the string to the egg? or maybe there is another way to make it? Please, let me know!

    Reply

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