Make an Easter Eggshell Mosaic

Easter morning brings with it time for family memories and celebration…and lots of colored eggs. What’s there to do after the Easter bunny has hopped home, and all the eggs have been found? Easter’s over, but the fun has just begun! Use those beautiful eggs to help your child create a memorable Easter masterpiece to hang up near the table at brunch.

In this activity, your first grader will use fine motor skills – involving multiple muscles in her hands and fingers – to create a bright piece of Easter art. These are the same skills that first graders work hard to develop so that they can print neatly, cut with scissors, draw lines and shapes, and use a ruler. It’s simply egg-cellent practice!

What You Need:

• hard-boiled, dyed Easter eggs
• empty egg carton
• markers, watercolor paints, crayons, or colored pencils
• thick drawing paper (cardstock works well)
• white glue

1. Collect the colored eggs. Help your child crack and peel each egg. As she peels the shell, she should sort the eggshell pieces by their colors into individual cups of the carton. Keep the yellows together, the blues together, etc. (Note: Large chunks of eggshells should be broken into smaller pieces by an adult, as they can be sharp.)
2. Have your child use the drawing materials to create a colorful Springtime or Easter scene on the cardstock.
3. Next, your child should look for colors in her drawing that are similar to the colors in her palette of eggshells. Have her squeeze small amounts of glue onto the drawing, then carefully stick pieces of colored eggshell onto the scene. Does she have a warm sun in her drawing? If so, she could use bits of yellow, orange, and pink eggshells to create a swirled sun mosaic.
4. Allow the finished mosaic to dry completely. Then, hang your child’s Mosaic Masterpiece on the wall near the table during Easter brunch. At brunch, have your child tell about how she made her masterpiece.