egg carton Archives - JDaniel4s Mom

Egg Cartons – Great Holiday Gift Boxes

December 8, 2014 By Deirdre

We love creating with egg cartons. We have made fun egg carton skeletons and egg carton catapults. We have even used egg cartons to create a Christmas tree. I decide that they would be a great holiday gift box for cookies we made for JDaniel’s teacher at school. Egg cartons are great at keeping eggs safe. We knew they would keep the cookie balls safe on their way to school. (The cookie ball recipe will be shared in a post tomorrow.)

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We started by painting the top of the egg carton bright green. We used Acrylic Paint, Green to paint the lid of the carton. Egg cartons can absorb some types of paint and we have found that acrylic paint doesn’t end to be absorbed.

After the paint had dried, we had to decide what to draw on the lid. We weren’t sure if layering paint would work so, we used markers to create a design on the lid. The first set of makers we used made a faint design. When we used Crayola markers, they seemed to create a brighter design. You may want to do a marker test on a tiny section of your egg carton to see what kind of makers or paint will to the best job.

We went with a Christmas holly theme for our egg carton. I think we may try more abstract designs when we decorate egg cartons in the future. It will give the egg cartons a more funky look.

On the inside of the egg carton we placed small cupcake liners. The liners give the inside of the egg carton more color. They also give the cookies a little more cushioning .

Why not paint the inside of gift box egg cartons?

While some paint might be safe to have near food, I decided not the risk it. The paint on the outside of the egg carton was enough for us. You could add stickers to the inside of the carton if you want to add more pizzazz to it. The cupcake liners added enough pizzazz for this egg carton. In the future we may add stickers to the inside of eggs cartons that fit the theme of outside decoration.

What other than cookies would be great to place inside this type of gift box? Share your answer below or leave a comment on my Facebook page.

Halloween Crafts- Egg Carton Skeleton and Bone Soup

October 1, 2014 By Deirdre

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You are probably familiar with the story Stone Soup. Recently JDaniel and I checked the story Bone Soupout of the library. It has a very similar theme. A traveler comes into town hoping to find someone who will give him some food. Word of the traveler and their appetite have preceded their arrival in the town. Through wise thinking and a desire by the town’s people to make the best bone soup the whole town ends up with a hearty dinner. We created Halloween crafts to go along with this wonderful tale. We used it for retelling. I think it would be great for a variety of activities.

Halloween Crafts-Egg Carton Skeleton

The first craft was an egg carton skeleton. The skeleton was made using only the parts of one gray cardboard egg carton. Yep! Just one egg carton was used to create the whole skeleton.

Cutting Out the Skeleton’s Body

Let me walk you through which part of the egg carton was used to create each body part:

Skull- Two full egg cups and two egg cups connected to them cut diagonally. The lower egg cups were cut down to create the skeleton’s jaw.
Shoulders- Each shoulder was cut from the indentions on the top of the egg carton.
Arms- Each arm as cut from the top flap of the egg carton. Each arm came from the outside edge of that flap.
Chest- Four eggs cups form the chest. Slits were cut in the side of the egg cups to create the ribs. Actually four slits were cut into each side of the rib cage.
Legs- Each leg comes from the bottom flap of the egg carton. The flap with the nubs that you put through the top flaps holes to keep the carton closed.
Hand and Feet- The hands and feet were cut out of top section of the carton that doesn’t open.

The various parts of the skeleton were cutout free hand. You might want to cut a hand or foot print pattern and trace them onto the carton. Kids could cut out all the parts on their own if they are great with scissors. If you are working with younger children, you will want to cut out the rib cage for them.

Making The Skeleton’s Body White

When all the all the skeleton’s body parts were cut out, the skeleton was painted white with tempera paint. The egg carton is so porous it just absorbs the paint. Only one coat of paint was applied to a grey cardboard egg carton to make it white.

Playing with the Skeleton

During the story the skeleton named Finnigin looks forward to arriving in the town and getting a great meal. The skeleton’s arms can be arrange so that it looks like he is looking ahead and thinking about a meal.

Finnigin tries to get someone to open their door and feed off his hunger, but he does’t have any door open for him. He finally decides to set up his cooking pot and get it boiling with water.

A young werewolf volunteers who has various soup making ingredients like bat wings. The skeleton can be arrange so that he has one hand raised.

In the end they all end up with a wonderful meal.

I have paraphrased the story to show you various ways the various parts of the Halloween crafts’ arms can be move to retell the story. You are going to want to read the story in its entirety. It is really wonderful.

Halloween Crafts- Bone Soup

The various soup ingredients can be cut out of construction paper ahead of time and children can add them to their paper soup bowls. Children could also cut out their own ingredients to add to their soup bowls.

Some of the ingredients mentioned in the story are:

Bat wings
Eyeballs
Frog’s legs
Dandelions
Toenails
The bone

What are some other activities you could do with this egg carton skeleton? Leave me a comment below sharing your kid friendly activities.

Math Fun- Solar System Math Facts

July 14, 2014 By Deirdre

$Math Fun- Solar System Facts$

Reviewing and learning math facts is not always considered math fun. This solar system game was created to tap into a child’s love of space, a joy in bouncing and throwing balls, and a need to practice math facts.

While we practiced basic addition facts with the math fun game, you could easily practice basic subtraction facts or even multiplication facts with it. Mastering basic math facts is something my almost first grader needs to do to get ready for first grade in a few months. We will probably take out this game again to work on subtraction facts later.

How to Play Solar System Math Facts

$Math Fun- Solar System Facts$

The goal is to get two of the planet ping pong balls into a section of the intergalactic themed egg carton. Each egg cup has a golden star with a number on it.

$Math Fun- Solar System Facts$

Then a player needs to add the numbers displayed on the stars to get the sum. If they get the answer right, they can have another turn. If you get an incorrect sum, it is another players turn.

Not Ready For Math Fun in Their Heads

Not all children are ready to work with numbers in their heads at my son’s age. Children a little younger and a little older may have trouble too. You can provide paper and pencil if you are playing this game inside or chalk if you are playing this outside. Children can draw stars or planets to represent each number. Tally marks could be used as visual representations too.Wait! They could used small rocks, pom poms or buttons to count up the the sum of the two numbers if working with concrete objects makes adding easier for your children.

How to Create The Solar System Game and Planetary Ping Pong Balls

$Math Fun- Solar System Facts$

You will need: (There is an affiliate link listed below for your convenience.)

Ping Pong Balls

Magic Markers

Egg Carton

Black Paint

Blue Paint

Paint Brush

Scissors

Yellow Sticky Backed Foam

I started by painting a egg carton with its lid removed black. It took a couple of coats of paint to make the carton dark black.

Then blue paint was added as an accent to the black paint and make the egg carton look more space like. You could add comets or asteroids to the carton if you like.

Next 12 stars were cut out of the yellow sticky backed foam. If you don’t think you can cut stars out freehand, print out a clip art star and use it as a pattern.

Then numbers were added to each star.( Several numbers were displayed on stars more than once.) Once the numbers had dried they were placed into the egg carton cups.

With the game space was finished it was time to make the planetary ping pong balls. I found a set of color ping pong balls at a local big box sports store that I thought would make great planets. Simple lines were added to the ping pong balls to make them look other worldly. I think they turned out well. You could easily have your children decorate the planets if you like.

We will be playing with this solar system math facts game over and over again. It really made math fun!