I hope you saved all of those egg cartons that were left over from your Egg Experiments. Tinkerlab has challenged readers to get creative with materials that you come by easily… this month’s Creative Challenge is Egg Cartons!
For the paper bag challenge I manipulated the materials ahead of time. This time I let the kids help. We cut the egg cartons into single cups. Then we painted them.
While we worked I asked them a lot of questions about what we could make with these egg carton cups. My plan was to get them thinking of creative options so that I could prepare the proper materials once the egg carton cups were dry. Unfortunately the brainstorming session wasn’t as successful as I had hoped. The only real ideas offered were to use them for holding eggs…. hmmm.
Since I am not afraid to let a flopping idea go… we finished up the painting quietly and I waited a full 24 hours to try again. Instead of a lot of talk, this time I simply set up the egg cartons and waited. Big M and his cousins walked past the displayed egg cartons for about an hour before someone made a move.
Big M started building.
After building for a bit he found the party blower from our Magic Beanstalk and made up a little game. Stack, blow, smack!!!
Cousin S tried it with an egg carton cup attached to the blower. I love the excitement in her face when the egg carton went flying.
I did not get a picture of the game that followed but Big M and Cousin S also played “egg carton hockey”. They used the blowers to bat the egg carton cups back and forth. So cool!!!
Now if you have seen Tinkerlabs Creative Challenge before you know that my super fun post will be followed up by a linky… make sure to see what other families did with EGG CARTONS!!!
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I love that you let the kids come up with this idea all on their own. I started out like you did by placing a bunch of cut up egg cartons out, and she made towers and was done creating. 😉 I might need to set them up again or like you did arrange them in appealing way to invite her to create her own experience. I love how they came up with their own games!
Rebekah… they have walked away from many well planned activities. Part of teaching/ planning is just being able to let go. (even if it stings a bit). Rearranging the “display” can help though.
What a fun game and I love the way that they came up with instead of being lead by anything (everytime I read a post by someone with older children it leads to moments of excitment with what is to come with my own two – Thank you so much)
Cerys… and it comes up quickly! I don’t even know exactly when they started creating in this way, but I remember thinking. “Ahhh I have been doing a good job, now I can see it. :)”
The kids did not disappoint! They created fun games with the egg cartons. And of course I love that it was all their ideas.
And I love that you love that it was all their idea! Thanks Trisha. 🙂
Super fun idea! I also find that walking away from something to let them become interested in it on their own time and terms works well, too. They came up with such a great game!
Thank you Chrissy!
I love the creativity! Awesome and perfect for the kids! I really loved the materials you put to complete this. We did an Egg Carton Color Sorting Activity game out of the same materials you used. You should check it out! 🙂
EarlyLearning.Momtrusted.com: Preschool Egg Carton Color Sorting Activity
Sounds like a fun game!