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Who knew you could paint with milk!? This was a super fun and really easy activity to make breakfast a fun activity. All we had to do was cut an egg out of the center of our breakfast toast. Then while I was making breakfast, I let Sofie use food coloring and milk and a little paint brush to paint the eggs. She had fun while I cracked an egg and cooked her some toast. Super simple and just 3 ingredients:
Bread
Egg cookie cutter
Food coloring
Milk
Paint brush
Creating Jello-Filled Easter Eggs for Sensory Play: A DIY Craft for Early Toddlers
Jello-filled Easter eggs are a fun, mess-free sensory activity perfect for early toddlers. This craft combines tactile play with colorful pastel hues that evoke the springtime spirit. In this post, we’ll walk you through creating these delightful sensory eggs step by step.
Materials Needed
• Plastic Easter eggs (with tight closures)
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Gelatin mix in pastel colors (or white unflavored gelatin with food coloring)
• Food coloring (pink, yellow, purple, blue, and green)
• Small bowls and spoons
• Measuring cups
• Warm water
• Dropper or syringe (optional)
Learning Objectives by Age Group
Age 0-6 months: Exposure to textures and colors during supervised play enhances visual and sensory development.
Age 6-12 months: Encourages fine motor skills as they explore the eggs by touching and squeezing.
Age 12-24 months: Promotes hand-eye coordination and strengthens grip as toddlers handle and manipulate the eggs.
Age 3-4 years: Engages older toddlers in color sorting or simple counting games.
Age 4-6 years: Introduces basic science concepts, such as mixing colors and changing textures.
Description of the Decor/Theme
These pastel Jello-filled Easter eggs are perfect for spring sensory play setups. Pair them with Easter-themed fillers like shredded paper grass, small plastic bunnies, or pastel pom-poms in a sensory bin for a complete experience.
Sensory Bin Setup
Sensory Bin 1: Pastel Jello Easter Eggs
Materials List:
• Jello-filled eggs (prepared in advance)
• Easter grass or shredded paper
• Plastic or plush bunnies and chicks
Activity Instructions:
1. Set the Jello eggs in a sensory bin lined with Easter grass.
2. Allow toddlers to explore the eggs by touching, squeezing, and even tasting (if they’re made with edible-safe materials).
3. Discuss the pastel colors with your child to build color recognition skills.
How to Make Pastel Jello Easter Eggs
1. Prepare the Plastic Eggs:
• Wash and dry plastic Easter eggs thoroughly.
• Spray the inside of each egg with a light layer of non-stick cooking spray to make the Jello easier to remove.
2. Mix the Gelatin Base:
• Follow the package instructions to dissolve your gelatin mix in warm water.
• If using unflavored gelatin, sweeten it to taste and divide the mixture into small bowls.
3. Create Pastel Colors:
• Add one or two drops of food coloring to each bowl of gelatin to create soft pastel shades. Suggested combinations include:
• Pink: 1 drop red + 1 drop white food coloring.
• Yellow: 1 drop yellow + 1 drop white food coloring.
• Purple: 1 drop red + 1 drop blue + 1 drop white food coloring.
• Blue: 1 drop blue + 1 drop white food coloring.
• Green: 1 drop green + 1 drop white food coloring.
4. Fill the Eggs:
• Use a spoon or dropper to carefully pour the gelatin mixture into each egg half.
• Snap the halves together tightly to form a whole egg.
5. Chill and Set:
• Place the filled eggs in the refrigerator for 2-4 hours, or until the Jello has fully set.
6. Unmold the Eggs:
• Gently open the plastic eggs and remove the Jello eggs. If needed, use a small spoon or your fingers to ease them out.
Benefits of Sensory Play
• Tactile Exploration: Squishy Jello textures engage the sense of touch, helping toddlers develop sensory processing skills.
• Color Recognition: The vibrant pastels encourage learning colors in a fun, interactive way.
• Fine Motor Development: Picking up and manipulating eggs strengthens little hands and fingers.
• Creative Play: Incorporate the eggs into pretend play or use them for counting and sorting activities.
25 Vocabulary Words for the Theme
1. Easter
2. Egg
3. Jello
4. Pastel
5. Color
6. Pink
7. Yellow
8. Purple
9. Blue
10. Green
11. Mix
12. Chill
13. Mold
14. Texture
15. Squeeze
16. Squishy
17. Sensory
18. Explore
19. Taste
20. Play
21. Spring
22. Holiday
23. Craft
24. Sweet
25. Bin
Enjoy crafting these colorful, squishy sensory Easter eggs with your toddler this spring!
Week-Long Lesson Plan with 8 Easter-Themed Activities Per Day
Here’s a jam-packed week-long lesson plan featuring 8 fun, educational, and Easter-themed activities per day. We’ve incorporated GoodnightFox products like farm flashcards, the farm memory game, farm acrylic charms, and chicken lifecycle cards to create a meaningful, hands-on learning experience for toddlers.
Monday: Sensory Exploration Day
1. Jello Easter Egg Sensory Bin: Set up the pastel Jello-filled eggs in an Easter grass sensory bin for free exploration.
2. Farm Flashcards: Practice matching flashcards to real objects like small toy animals in the sensory bin.
3. Egg Sorting Activity: Use plastic eggs and sort them by color or size.
4. Touch & Feel Hunt: Hide farm acrylic charms inside sensory fillers like shredded paper or rice for a tactile Easter hunt.
5. Color Recognition Game: Use the pastel Jello eggs to teach color names.
6. Farm Memory Game: Introduce simple matching with the GoodnightFox farm memory cards.
7. Chicken Lifecycle Cards: Arrange the lifecycle cards in order and discuss each stage.
8. Painting Eggs: Use washable paint to decorate plastic or wooden eggs for a fine motor activity.
Tuesday: Fine Motor Skills Day
1. Tongs and Eggs: Use tongs to pick up plastic or Jello eggs from the bin.
2. Farm Animal Sorting: Match acrylic farm charms to their corresponding flashcards.
3. Easter Egg Puzzle: Create a simple puzzle by cutting plastic eggs into halves and mixing them up for toddlers to match.
4. Farm Animal Rescue: Hide small farm animal toys in sensory fillers, and use tongs or hands to “rescue” them.
5. Chicken Lifecycle Role Play: Pretend to be a chick hatching from an egg and crawling around the play area.
6. Egg Cup Stacking: Stack plastic egg cups to build towers and knock them down.
7. Color Sorting Challenge: Place colored bowls and ask toddlers to sort acrylic charms or plastic eggs by color.
8. Threading Activity: Use a pipe cleaner to string beads or small items for an Easter necklace.
Wednesday: Early Literacy Day
1. Easter Word Match: Use vocabulary words like “egg,” “chick,” and “bunny” to match to images.
2. Farm Flashcard Storytelling: Use flashcards to create simple stories involving farm animals.
3. Letter Recognition with Eggs: Write letters on plastic eggs and practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters.
4. Chicken Lifecycle Cards: Practice sequencing and learn simple new words like “hatch” and “grow.”
5. Easter-Themed Sensory Play: Add letter beads to the sensory bin and spell simple Easter words.
6. Farm Animal Songs: Sing nursery rhymes like “Old MacDonald” while holding corresponding acrylic charms.
7. Jello Letter Hunt: Embed small plastic letters in Jello and encourage toddlers to “rescue” them.
8. Easter Book Time: Read an Easter or farm-themed book together, like “The Tale of Peter Rabbit.”
Thursday: Math and Science Day
1. Counting Eggs: Count Jello eggs in the sensory bin or plastic eggs on the table.
2. Farm Animal Sorting: Group acrylic charms by type, like mammals vs. birds.
3. Size Sorting: Sort plastic eggs into small, medium, and large groups.
4. Chicken Lifecycle Experiment: Use hard-boiled eggs to crack and explore egg anatomy.
5. Pattern Matching: Create patterns with acrylic charms or colored eggs.
6. Sink or Float: Experiment with plastic eggs and charms to see what sinks or floats in water.
7. Egg Stamping: Use halved potatoes or carrots to create Easter egg-shaped stamps.
8. Number Matching Game: Write numbers on plastic eggs and match them to the correct number of objects.
Friday: Creative and Artistic Play Day
1. Easter Egg Decorating: Use stickers, markers, or craft materials to decorate plastic eggs.
2. Farm-Themed Playdough: Use farm animal acrylic charms and cutters to create shapes in pastel-colored dough.
3. Jello Mold Fun: Let toddlers squish the Jello eggs and try molding new shapes.
4. Easter Bunny Ears Craft: Make bunny ear headbands with construction paper.
5. Egg Rolling Painting: Roll eggs dipped in paint over paper to create abstract art.
6. Farm Collage: Create a farm scene using GoodnightFox flashcards and magazine cutouts.
7. Sticker Play: Use Easter-themed stickers to decorate cards or plastic eggs.
8. DIY Bunny Masks: Cut out and decorate bunny masks to wear during pretend play.
Saturday: Active Play and Movement
1. Egg and Spoon Race: Use plastic eggs for a toddler-friendly race.
2. Farm Animal Charades: Act out different animals with sound effects and movements.
3. Easter Egg Hunt: Hide eggs around the house or yard for a fun scavenger hunt.
4. Hopping Bunny Game: Hop like a bunny from one egg to the next.
5. Obstacle Course: Create a course with eggs to step over or crawl under.
6. Dance Party: Play Easter or farm-themed music and dance with props.
7. Animal Yoga: Try toddler-friendly yoga poses inspired by farm animals.
8. Toss the Egg: Toss plastic eggs into baskets or containers.
Sunday: Sensory and Reflection Day
1. Jello Smash: Let toddlers squish the Jello eggs and explore the textures.
2. Color Sorting Review: Sort plastic eggs or acrylic charms into matching baskets.
3. Chicken Lifecycle Storytime: Use the lifecycle cards to recap the week’s learning.
4. Sensory Bin Free Play: Let toddlers freely explore the bin setup with all materials.
5. Matching Game: Pair farm flashcards with real objects or acrylic charms.
6. Easter Egg Stacking: Practice balance and coordination with stacking activities.
7. Reflection Activity: Talk about their favorite part of the week while drawing an Easter scene.
8. Final Egg Hunt: End the week with a big Easter egg hunt featuring toys, stickers, or treats inside the eggs.
Today we made the cutest Easter bunny pancakes ever and oh my were these so much easier than I thought they would be. I always get nervous doing breakfast activities that take a while because Sofie is so hungry when she wakes up in the morning. But I simply couldn’t resist these adorable little Easter pancakes. So I whipped up some batter (just mix and water nothing special) and poured it into these squeeze bottles that I got on Amazon. It was sooo easy to make perfect round and ear shapes with the squeeze bottle and a lot less messy than piping bags which is what I usually use.
Sofie loved eating these little cakes (especially the bunny tail and feet) not sure if it was because they’re pink or she likes the small pieces! Either way these were super yummy and a lot of fun to make.
Today we made Easter deviled eggs for our afternoon snack! We boiled up some hardboiled eggs, peeled them (which turned out to be more challenging than I thought!), and cut them up. We took a butter knife and aiming in toward the yolk at an angle, we made little peaks for the cracked egg look. Even though a few of the eggs didn’t turn out great, cutting them up this way hid a lot of the flaws! We took out the yolks and mashed them up with some mayo and paprika and salt.
I didn’t have a piping bag handy so I just went ahead and used a ziploc bag and cut the tip to squirt the filling into the little egg cups. I didn’t have anything legit handy to make the eyes, but I did happen to have a kiwi and the seeds worked perfectly for the eyes. Then we took little slices of cheese in triangles to make the chick’s beaks. And there you have it! A fun and simple little Easter egg activity perfect for an afternoon snack!
Eggs (hard boiled)
Mayo
Paprika & Salt (or other seasonings)
Cheese for beaks
Kiwi seeds for eyes!
Check out Goodnightfoxstudio.etsy.com for these awesome Easter themed memory game card sets.
Today I finally got around to organizing Sofie’s closet. I’m a total sucker for a good rainbow theme these days so organizing her closet by color was so much fun. The main colors are bright pastel primaries which really bring the rainbow look to life. Sofie loves to shop from small mom owned brands and some of our absolute favorites are featured here:
Getting rid of old baby clothes and things she’s outgrown is so incredibly hard for me. Every little outfit is so full of memories. But when it is time to purge I love sending gently used items to ThredUP ( P.S. You can use this code to get $10 free /www.thredup.com/r/QYRWFV) because I hope they get a second lifetime.
it sounds so simple when you think about it — if you want a Pinterest perfect closet you need to plan a color scheme in advance. But most people accumulate items they love as they go and so the whole closet is a hodge pudge of various tones. Rainbow is a great theme for a kids closet because you really get the breadth of all of the fun kids colors. When Sofie was an infant though I did a completely monochromatic closet with some baby pink accents.
Okay so you’re probably thinking there’s no way you could stick to a strict pallet. There’s no way you could give up your son’s favorite red shirt or your daughters crazy purple birthday dress. Well the good news is you don’t have to! For those must have items that don’t fit into the closet color scheme, simply tuck them away in some stylish bins. This keeps the overall look uniform.
Another great way out of narrowing down the color palette is to pick two schemes. One for fall and winter and one for spring and summer. For fall I simply can’t resist natural muted earth tones and all of the brown, maroons, and dark mustard colors. But for spring and summer in all about the pastel bright rainbows. The key is just don’t mix and match. If you have two sides of the closet use one for each season. Or if not tuck away the past season in boxes — and if your kiddo is a toddler they’ve l likely outgrown last season anyway.
Sofie had a lot of Toddler Jammie’s and tops so I chose to hang those and use the shelves in between for leggings and shorts. But now that she’s old enough to pick out her own outfits, I recommend hanging matching bottoms and tops together so that they can easily choose something semi coordinated.
This is wear the rainbow magic begins! Start with red and darks moving to lighter shades and into the next color. You’ll have so much fun seeing the rainbow come to life. If you do a squint test and something sticks out, it’s probably the wrong color family or tone.
Okay so you’re probably thinking that’s great for solids but what about patterns and multi colors? We’ll as you can see in my photo Sofie def has some floral prints that I just love. I tend to tuck them strategically in between other items do they don’t stand out too much. But you can also gather then all at one end or the other or fuck them away in boxes. To get the overall effect you just have to make sure you don’t have too many outliers.
It probably sounds crazy to shop for new items based on your closet color palette instead of what your kid really needs right now. But here’s the thing — adding this constraint into the equation made me a much better shopper. Instead of just buying the first thing you see that meets that cold morning need, it’ll force you to think about what color or pattern you need, what bottoms will match, and what place does it serve in the overall wardrobe. Doing this really helped me ensure I wasn’t just buying more to have more but actually making a thoughtful choice.
Oh and it works the other way too! The best excuse I had not to buy one more coral shirt, or that bright red valentines print was knowing that either that color spot was already taken or that bright red would mess up my whole aesthetic.
So it’s a brand new year and spring cleaning will be just around the corner. So don’t forget these five tips for a more organized and Pinterest-worthy closet as you start your annual organization efforts!
Today we’re getting into the Easter Spirit with these super fun sugar cookies. I snagged these adorable cookie cutters from one of my favorite Etsy shops Holly Fox Design — if you want some cookie inspiration, you have to follow her on instagram! We started by making the cookie dough (straight out of the bag because who has time for cookies from scratch?). We mixed it up and rolled it out. We didn’t have a rolling pin, so we flattened it out by hand — which turned out to be a bit of a mistake because the first batch was too thick. So we rolled it out a bit thinner and popped them in the oven.
Then we started making the royal icing. We mixed a large batch of white, split it into bowls, and mixed up these gorgeous pastel colors. Some of the textures were a little bit off, but that’s okay, we had fun decorating them anyway. And Sofie kept running around saying “cookie, cookie, cookie!”. It was so much fun decorating these and laying them out to make the house festive for Easter! Check out the photos below of Sofie in her cutest little Easter outfit from Eighth Day Creations.
Check out these pastel color flashcards perfect for teaching toddler colors!
Ready for some more rainbow fun?! This week, Sofie and I made these fun rainbow waffles. It does take a little bit of time to mix all of the colors, but Sofie loves blueberries, so I kept her entertained with those while I made the waffle mix. To keep it simple, I just use a bag of waffle mix and then make each color in a separate bowl. I used these lovely pastel food coloring sets because I’m all about that modern pastel rainbow. Here’s what you need to get started:
Blueberries
Waffle mix
Water or milk
Pastel food colors
Waffle iron
Now for the hard part — pour each color into a piping bag and cut the tips. You have to work pretty quickly. I started on the outside with the pink and then did a circle around. Then move onto the orange and so on until you get the perfect rainbow effect. You can tell I didn’t quite fill it up enough which is why my waffle had holes. So hopefully you use enough to fill it and work fast enough not to let the colors bleed together. Then just use your waffle iron as directed and when you’re done pop it out. Mine pretty much fell apart in half, but if not, break or cut it down the middle and sprinkle some blueberries for clouds.
And there you have it, the perfect toddler breakfast — rainbow waffles. Sofie loved these and the blueberries added sweetness with out needing to get her hands sticky with syrup. I’m all about the ease of clean up over here. ;)
Check out these adorable rainbow colored flashcards from Goodnightfoxstudio.etsy.com
So some good friends of mine recommended I branch out from the usual eggs for breakfast. So on a whim I decided to make some rainbow pancakes this morning. I literally decided to do it and whipped them ago all within a matter of 30 minutes. And the outcome was so fun! Look at these adorable rainbows and clouds! I will definitely be doing more pancakes in the future.
Pancake Mix
Water or Milk
Canola Oil
Food Coloring
Piping bags
Looking for some awesome small shops to support this Easter season? Check out my ultimate list of the most awesome Easter Basket Stuffers around.
Today we decided to take our Safari Animal Flashcards outside for a little outdoor animal adventure. We took them around the yard and matched the colors of nature to the animals on each of the cards. We also laid them out on our IKEA Flisat table and pointed out each one! Sofie can already say “tiger” and “hippo” but the other animals are taking her a little while longer to get. We enjoyed a little fun in the sun in our adorable sunflower peplum from Eighth Day Creations.
These flash cards are the perfect way to get your toddler’s education started off on the right foot. They’re durable and you can take them on the go!
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