A Piece of the Apple: Egg-stra Special Art

We are putting the final touches on our Peeps experiment write up, so I thought I would share what we did for art the week before Easter.

I was feeling rather guilty that we didn’t do an egg hunt this year. We aren’t allowed to have candy or sweets, and I didn’t have a spring party, so I got to thinking, “What can we do that is exciting, free, and engaging?’’

My next-door neighbor and teacher friend was doing this really cool, intricate art project based on Rechenka’s Eggs. Based on what I could see that was going on at the picnic tables outside our classrooms, there was some coloring and some black watercolor painting going on, monitored by a bunch a sweet parent volunteers. Whatever it was, it looked amazing, but I didn’t have the expertise or the manpower to pull it off!

Enter Jan Brett’s The Easter Egg book. We are big Jan Brett fans in my room, and the kids are always up for listening to one of her stories, always paying close attention to the beautiful illustrations. I am equally in awe. After finishing our book. I knew what we would do!

I gathered some white construction paper, oil pastels, markers, and a whole bunch of Q-tips. Since I taught fourth grade for a zillion years, I was certain that the firsties would also know the baby oil meets oil pastel trick. Boy, was I wrong! They were mesmerized by the magical abilities of the oil!

Here are the directions to slip in your back pockets for next year.