When my daughter was about 2 1/2, her very favorite art activity was rolling paint-coated marbles all over sheets of paper. We made Rolling Rock Paintings with smooth rocks and Spooky Marble Spider Webs for Halloween. With Easter coming up, I was inspired to make something fun with the plastic eggs that consume dollar stores across the country. Not only is this fun to do, but the set up is easy and it’s a novel way to celebrate the spring season. On the developmental/arts experience level, kids will make choices about the colors they use, they will be active (standing and moving!), and they’ll learn how to manipulate the uneven balance of a rolling egg (as opposed to a more predictable rolling marble).
Materials
- Easter eggs. I used plastic, but just about any eggs will do. If you can pry the chocolate ones away from your kids, more power to you!
- Paint. Tempera or biocolors. Washable is always preferable!
- Paper
- Tray to hold the paper. We used a wooden tray, but I’ve also had great success with an open cardboard box.
Before we got to rolling, N wanted to dip half-eggs in the paint…
And print them.
Then she took a closed egg, rolled it in red and white paint (because her favorite color is pink, and she’s proud of her color-mixing knowledge!)…
…and then rolled it on the paper.
A few colors later!
So much fun. And clean up wasn’t too difficult — as long as you keep those eggs on the paper and in the tray!
What do you think?
This post is linked to It’s Playtime
If you used safe paint that could adhere to real eggs you could make a painting and dye your Easter eggs at the same time! 2 for 1 deal!!!!! Or use wooden eggs/acrylic paint and use them as a decoration—–your plastic egg looks so cool too!!!!! Now you got me thinking!
Now you’ve got ME thinking, Melissa. That’s brilliant.
what is safe paint and where do you get
I love all the bright colors all mixed together!
Me too! And thank you for the mention on your FB page. 🙂
Thanks for the idea Rachelle! I needed it!! I loved Melissa’s input too and doing this with real eggs. Something to try next week! 🙂
Jamie
You’re welcome! And I agree — we’ll have to try Melissa’s idea, too.
Love this!! We love rolling paint too. Have done it with marbles, pebbles, golf balls, acorns too… Cut them out and made thank you cards for her bday this yr:)
Hi Roopa! I bet acorns would make an interesting pattern. We’ll have to try that. And these would make for some spectacular cards — thanks for sharing the good idea.
I have found that the best container to do projects like this in is the lid of a copy paper box. Masking tape under the corners holds it to the cardboard pretty well, and the higher sides keep the rollig objects contained.
Awesome input, Christi! And I totally agree. If we didn’t already have this paint-beaten tray (which I have to somehow justify keeping), we would use cardboard boxes too.
I love these!
I wonder if it would have been any different if you experimented with putting marbles inside the eggs to change the weights?
Oh my goodness, I never thought of putting anything inside of the eggs! That would be a fun experiment, wouldn’t it??!!
That is so fun! I love how cute it turned out! I just found your website on Imagination Tree. I’ll go vote for you for the Babble awards right now!.
Oh, thank you ever so much My Oatmeal Kisses 🙂
Very colorful!
🙂
What a colourful painting! The textures and patterns are so enticing….!
And, this rolling game looks like real fun. We have done this with marbles but not an egg! Must try..
And there are so many other possibilities — eggs, golf balls, acorns, pinecones…..
oh, mostly what i want to say is that this blog is wonderful eye candy!!! eager to come back. thank you!
So fun! And both the paintings and the eggs look so neat. Thanks!
Hi Diana! Thanks for following up with these great photos! Both the eggs and the paintings are beautiful, and it’s nice to see how the activity transpired in your home.
picture of the eggs…
Stunning!! And I just love those pipe cleaner stands. What a good idea.
We’re going to ttry this with a carboard box and our hardboiled eastereggs…i think the box will be a soft ebough landing for hardboiled, and i think were going to add some tape / stickers in phrases to pull off and leave white messages under our beautiful paper masterpieces! GREAT project, thanks for the inspiration!!!
the box should work out great for this project, and i love your idea about adding stickers. if you think of it, please circle back and share a photo!
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