Updated August 3, 2022
Plastic easter egg stamping for toddlers is a fast and budget-friendly art project to add to your Easter week activities.
Our kids love any kind of paint stamping or printing activity.
I love it because it can engage a bored and restless toddler in seconds.
You can find plastic eggs at Walmart or on Amazon. Paint Stamping is one of our favorite activities.
Plastic Easter Egg Stamping for Toddlers
Supplies:
Washable craft paint (yellow, blue, pink, purple, green), you can get good deals on craft paints at Walmart and Amazon.
I used a mix of pastel colors and deeper colors of blue, green, and purple.
Our theme was Easter and Spring. You can choose more primary colors or even fluorescent colors for this activity.
Plastic Metallic Easter Eggs (yellow, blue, pink, purple, green)
Paper plate
You will need a large sheet of white paper for your toddler to stamp/print on with their plastic eggs.
Directions:
Break the eggs apart into egg halves.
Pour the washable paint onto a paper plate.
You will want to pour enough for the egg to fit on.
Leave space between colors.
Match the colors of the eggs to the color of the paint.
Dip the egg into each paint color.
Print the egg onto the paper, creating paint circles around the paper.
Repeat the steps above and create as many circles on the paper.
We do try to tie process art, invitations to play, or our sensory bins into literature.
You can never read your toddler too many books. You can never encourage your toddler or preschooler enough to enjoy reading.
There is a connection between a lifelong love of reading and learning and creativity.
Much of that begins in early childhood.
These are some Easter and Spring books our toddlers have loved:
The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Little Blue Truck’s Springtime
Llama Llama Easter Egg
Baby Animals
The Itsy Bitsy Bunny
Tips for making arts and crafts enjoyable for your toddler:
- Play music
- Encourage movement
- Discuss their art with them. Write down the words they use to describe their art if they want you too.
- Allow them to do more than one art project. Get them more paint and paper if they ask.
- If the weather allows do art projects outside in nature.
- Laugh, sing, and smile.
What is process art?
Before I became a nurse I was a preschool teacher and the childcare facilities I worked for focused on open-ended activities and lots of process art opportunities for the children.
I was lucky to attend a college that had a NAEYC accredited childcare center.
We were taught to design early childhood activities that focus on providing choices, encouraging autonomy, and learning via open-ended play-based activities. We allowed the child to focus on the process, not a pre-determined goal defined by us.
This was a very new concept to me having grown up attending Catholic school and being taught by nuns (let’s just say the product was all that mattered).
Having experienced teaching in a way that encourages a toddler’s choice, exploration and creativity have made me a huge fan and believer in offering toddlers and preschoolers as many open-ended and process-oriented activities as you can.
What does open-ended play mean? What does process art mean?
It means that the play and the products are child-centered and child-directed.
There are no samples made, no directions given, and the child is allowed to create and explore all on their own.
What I like about the plastic egg printing and stamping and activities or activities like that is that they’re open-ended and process-oriented.
There’s no end product in mind it’s all up to the child.
So as you set up this open-ended process art activity for your toddler keep that in mind that it’s not about the end result, it’s not about what it looks like (though give your toddler an opportunity to describe their creation to you), it’s not about being good enough, it’s about exploration and creativity.
There is a time and place for directed activities for toddlers and preschoolers but as a parent and a teacher, I try to limit those, and I try to make sure that it’s not in the area of arts and crafts.
The process is so much more important than the end result.
If you were looking for more ideas for extending out your toddler’s play during Easter week you may find these articles helpful.
Amazing Toddler Easter Sensory Bin To Try Right Now
20 Genius Easter Sensory Play Activities For Toddlers
10 Amazing Ideas For Baby’s First Easter
Most of us have been cooped up inside all winter or cooped up inside because of the pandemic, if the weather is nice you can easily take this project outside.
Get outside and enjoy the fresh spring air.
I love using his plastic eggs in painting, printing, and stamping projects after we have used them in our sensory bins.
Are you going to be making a big Easter dinner for the family?
One idea I had was to purchase an inexpensive white tablecloth and have our young children do the egg stamping on the tablecloth.
You could either use that on the dinner table itself or on a table where you would serve desserts or even on the table that you would serve appetizers before dinner.
That’s a great principal idea and it will make your toddler feel involved in the holiday planning and they’ll get to tell people that they made the tablecloth.
You can make a big deal about it and that’s a really good father confidence and self-esteem and it’s a great way to keep them busy during Easter week.
Another option would be if you had a way to laminate the Easter printing you could have your child make Easter egg stamping placemats for everyone who will be attending.
When your toddler is done set it aside to dry. Display!
Conclusion:
We hope your toddler enjoys this Easter art activity and that you found it helpful in keeping your toddler, busy, engaged, and learning!
