Have some creative fun by bringing the winter snow indoors while repurposing an egg carton and making a unique banner! This activity provides a great way for your preschooler to practice refining their fine motor skills through cutting, painting, and stringing. This also serves as a wonderful opportunity to teach your child about the benefits of repurposing and recycling! Once the activity is finished, you and your child can have fun putting the banner on display!
Materials:
- Egg carton (you will need a cardboard carton for this activity!)
- White paint
- Blue paint (optional)
- Glitter (optional)
- String or twine
- Scissors
- Paintbrush
- Newspaper (to catch any paint that falls or spills)
- Toothpick
- Two small pieces of tape to hang the banner once finished
Let's Get Started!
Step 1
Gather your materials, and prepare a flat surface for your activity! Carefully use your scissors to cut around each of the little cups of the egg carton (these are the pieces you will be using for the snowflakes!)
Step 2
Once they are all cut out, cut slits around the cup but make sure you stop once you reach the bottom of the cup (1 or 2 inches down). I’m making 8-9 slits in each of my cups, but you can make as many or as little as you’d like!
Step 3
Place your cups with the bottom side up, and with a flat hand, carefully push the top of the cup down onto the table to flatten it! You may need to do this a couple times for the cup to be mostly flat.
Step 4
Once they’re all flattened, you can begin painting! Using your paint brush, cover the whole surface, then set it aside to dry. For my paint colors, I mixed white and blue paint for my snowflakes, but you can be as creative as you’d like with yours! Remember! No two snowflakes are the same!
Step 5
While your snowflakes are drying, you can prepare your string or twine. You can decide how long you want your banner to be, but I cut the twine to be as long as my arm! If you wanted a longer piece you could measure the twine as long as your wingspan (fingertips to fingertips).
Step 6
When your snowflakes are dry, you can get even more creative and add some glitter glue, draw on your snowflakes, or add anything else you’d like to dress up your snowflakes! Afterwards, use the toothpick to poke a small hole into one end of the snowflake. String the twine through each of the holes so your snowflakes are on the string. They might be bunched together, so space them out along the whole length of the string! (I spaced mine about 2 inches apart!) When choosing a place to hang your banner, check in with an adult to make sure it’s in a safe spot or to help you reach! Once all of the snowflakes have been strung,hang up your banner using two pieces of tape, and let it snow !!