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I must confess that I have been collecting a few egg carton trays lately, well for over a year now. You see I have this idea that they are useful and I could make some craft stuff out of them.
I love to recycle into crafty things and plan on thinking up a few more craft projects using egg cartons soon.
Here is our egg carton craft!
I am trying to teach shapes and colors to the boys lately and the egg cartons presented a perfect landscape for some color sorting. That is after we had some painting fun!
I mixed up some of our tempera paints into the base red, blue, yellow, green and black then mixed a few to get purple, pink and brown. I also watered them down a bit for a better painting experience.
Once set up with some egg carton trays on the craft table, the painting began!
We painted 3 or 4 of each color on 2 trays. They have to be the same amount because you are going to cut up the second tray to make the color caps for the first tray. I made the colors random on the main tray and just painted the ones on the cut up tray together.
My 17 month old couldn’t resist joining in on the painting. She loves to do whatever her brothers are doing. She didn’t do a bad job either!
Here is an example of the main mixed color egg carton tray and the soon to be cut up uniform tray.
Don’t you just love the colors of this egg carton craft?
Once your egg carton trays are dry use a larger scissors and pinch the area between the dividers to separate the raised bits. Do this on all sides, until the egg tray is all cut up.
Pull everything apart. You should now have single color sections.
Trim these so that they resemble little caps.
Put the little egg carton craft caps in a basket, grab the main tray and go have some learning fun with the kids!
For mine I let them color match, I passed them each cap saying the color and asking if they could find the corresponding color on the main tray. Once the egg carton tray was full I would ask for a certain color back to add to my basket.
My 17 month old also loves this egg carton craft as she gets to stick the caps on, she does get half the color sorting and corresponding colors. This one is a keeper and I might have to make a second tray as the kids always want to do the same activity at the same time.
What do you think?
Emma (My Little 3 and Me) says
I’ve scheduled to share this on Facebook this week. I just love it!
Laughing Kids Learn says
I love this so much I have featured it on my Share It Saturday round up. Thank you so kindly and I hope you continue to add your great ideas. Kate xo
London Painter Decorator says
Great idea! I love the colours. And you used something that would otherwise have been thrown away. Brilliant.
Heather @ Crayon Box Chronicles says
This is so clever and fun! We love recycling too! Such a neat want to practice color matching and recognition. Thank you for sharing on our Facebook page. Pinned!
Nadia van Zyl says
Very clever!
Nadia van Zyl says
Very clever!
Laughing Kids Learn says
So great!
Crayon Box Chronicles says
genius!
Sugar Aunts says
Love this!
Sarah McClelland says
Totally pinned earlier today! Love color activities made from easy materials! Could turn it into another game with tongs and pom pons!
Janis Cox says
Hi,
I found you at We Made That. I would love you to link to Creative Saturdays where I am trying to build a community for kids crafts and art work.
I make a little Tadeo Turtle with an egg carton.
Blessings,
Janis http://www.janiscox.com Author of Tadeo Turtle
Katie Stokes-Guinan says
Beautiful, simple, and fun! Love this great idea for working on colors!
Laura M says
I am just staring at those beautiful colors! So awesome and vivid, the cartons just soak it up! It is so fun to see how they call can participate in the activity- and in making it! Very fun!