Easter Color Matching

I can't seem to find it now, but I swear I pinned a similar activity last fall, which was trees cut out of green paint strips. I don't know what happened to it. But fortunately, it popped into my head a few months ago when I saw this bunny shaped hole punch on clearance at Michael's.

I bought it, and somehow managed to not lose it while waiting for Easter. I also managed to remember to grab extra paint sample strips last time I was at the paint store. I know some people think it's wrong to take extra paint strips, but I buy so much paint that I don't feel bad about it.

I got Eastery pastels in a few different shades.

Lissie and I punched the bunnies out sideways along the edge away from the text. Max did a few, but the hole punch was too stiff for her to manage easily.

Maxine is pretty good with colors, but some of the gradations are subtle, so we only did one or two cards of each color for her.

This is more for the younger kiddos, but I wondered if Lissie might enjoy sorting the subtler colors, or all of the bunnies from cards of a single color. She didn't. Of course, I can't guarantee interest at any age. Maxine thought that a making "bunny stack" was a better way to use these guys!

I have a feeling that these will be popping up in crafts and couch cushions for months to come.

Things to Make for Preschoolers to Do

Whatever crafting I do typically involves sewing. Clothes or quilts, by hand or by machine, little felt things, that's what I do. But once in a while, I like to try something different.

I found these cute little boxes in the unfinished wood section of Michael's. I can't remember what I was actually there looking for, but did you know they have all kinds of different sizes and shapes of boxes available? I had no idea. This particular one has a drawer, and a lid that flips up to reveal a small mirror. 

It's probably intended to hold jewelry, or hair accessories, but I thought it would make a cute portable dollhouse.

I kept the outside natural, and Lissie helped me paint fun colors on the inside, like a little surprise when you open it, then we sealed everything with beeswax polish.

Max loves it. The people basically seem to hang out and eat a lot of mushroom soup.

I also found some unfinished wood flower pots, and had these flat wooden spoons--you know, the kind that used to come with the little cups of ice cream from the ice cream truck? I hated eating ice cream with those. It always reminded me of being at the doctor's office.

I've seen a million variations on this, but the spoons came in a pack of way more than I needed for anything else, so that's what I used.

I sanded the flower pots, but the idea of sanding 24 tiny wooden spoons didn't sound appealing, and I left those as they were. I used watercolor paint to paint the bottom sections of the flower pots, and then painted four spoons in varying shades of each color I used for the pots. 

Some of the colors could have used a little more variation (I'm looking at you, yellow and orange!), but Maxine doesn't seem to mind. She likes to use them for counting "one, two, three, four, SEVEN! One, two, three, four, SEVEN!"