With spring here and Easter coming up, here is a fun activity for the kids, especially since they’re not in school! Allow the children to do as much as they are able.

This activity gives children the opportunity to develop their fine motor skills and work on their colors. See “More” below for more ideas on how to make this a teachable moment.

Tissue Paper Egg or Cross

What you’ll need:

–various colors of tissue paper. Can’t find any? Look inside your shoe boxes or the bags from a certain lingerie company. If you only have white tissue paper, make this another activity – let the kids watercolor paint on the tissue paper. When it’s dry, they can use it. Or they can color with markers on the white tissue paper. When liquid is added, the colors may blend in a pretty way!

–stiff paper works best. Construction paper will also work.

–liquid glue (like Elmer’s). It will be watered down.

–newspaper to cover the table/surface you are using

–paint brush to move the glue around

Get started:

-On the stiff paper, draw either a large egg shape or a large cross.

-With the tissue paper, show the kids how to tear it up by tearing a few pieces yourself. Then have kids tear it up into small pieces. This is a good fine motor skill activity. Let the kids tear it any way they want.

-Pour a small amount of glue into a container and add a few drops of water. Mix. The consistency should be milky. No too thick but not too runny.

Now, there are 2 ways to do this.

1. Have the child “paint” the glue onto the egg shape, then lay the tissue paper on top.
2. Place the tissue paper on the egg shape and paint the glue on top of it.

The goal is to make the tissue stick to the paper so however this is done is up to you and your kids!

It’s OK, and in fact encouraged, to overlap. This creates a new color!

MORE:

-Talk to the kids about the colors of the tissue paper. Ask them to notice what happens when the colors overlap. Does it get darker? Is a new color made? Does green over blue give the same color as green over red?

-Where do eggs come from? Why do we use eggs for a sign of spring?

-What does the cross represent? Why are we making a cross during Easter?

When the masterpiece is finished, you can cut around the whole egg or cross. The kids can also fill in the background with crayons, markers or different color tissue paper.

Along the way, ask kids what THEY want to do. Do they want it cut out or do they want to color the background? Do they want to use just yellow and pink tissue paper or all of the colors?

Remember, it’s about having FUN! If it’s not fun, no need to do it!

Please send The Italian Grandmama photos of your kids’ masterpieces!

Happy Easter! Happy Spring! Happy happy everything!

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Angela DiCicco

The Italian Grandmama

theitaliangrandmama.com

theitaliangrandmama@gmail.com

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