Wednesday, November 2, 2011

dinosaur eggs!

the dudes are super into dinosaurs, so for one of our projects this week, i made some dinosaur eggs for the kids to hatch. we hid them around the yard & collected them, & then hatched our eggs. all 3 of them loved helping the baby dino out of the egg & it was a fun way to talk about eggs in nests & the way some animals grow from eggs.


i used this recipe for coffee dough to make the eggs:
2 1/2 c. flour
2 1/2 c. coffee grounds
1c. salt
1 c. sand
water

mix it all together with just enough water to bind the dough & form it around whatever little critter you're hatching.
we saved up our coffee grounds for a couple days, & i used craft sand, but i'm guessing any dry dirt would work fine. ours took about a week to dry totally, & they dried surprisingly hard. i liked that, as it made the kids really think about how to open them. (we tried kicking, stomping, throwing, & hitting with a little hammer... cracking the eggs was pry the best part!) i actually think these would make fun party gifts for a birthday or something too.
the kids all seem to be less psycho when we have daily "projects", so i've been trying to come up with different activities for us & this one was a big hit. next up i think will be homemade bird feeders (of the pinecone/peanut butter variety.)

2 comments:

  1. love this one!! I will go get some baby chicks or ducks or something to do this with K. And as you know, we arenpine cone bird feeder pros over here :). This year I will expand and let her do glue and glitter for xmas gifts. We'll have to do it when T is at work cause he gets super OCD over messes :)

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  2. Oh cute idea! Eli LOVES dinos so we were thinking about doing his next birthday with a dinosaur theme and these would be so fun for the kids!

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