Which came First--the Basket or the Egg?

Today’s post is a mini post full of Easter art made by my students. I’m not including art from all of my classes because some are working on other projects. But I decided to post while Easter is upon us, rather than at the end of April, when people are on to new topics. I will do a longer post in May. Until then, enjoy these cheerful eggs, and Happy Spring!

My Kindergarteners made Easter egg drawings, and the kids produced some colorful results. Look closely and you will see chickie beaks poking out of each egg. I can almost smell the vinegar dye bath from my egg-dying youth…

The first grade students used watercolor paint to make vibrant Easter eggs paintings. The variety impressed me—some kids did pastel blends, and others did brightly-colored patterns. It was a messy project but worth the flood because the results are so charming.

Second graders are always imaginative, and they produced some adorable Easter egg drawings, too.

I told the second grade that they could put whatever they wanted on their eggs (within reason) and so we have what may be the world’s first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Egg. Simultaneously tough and sweet! 

Third grade added a bed of fringed grass to their egg scenes. Charming result!

From fourth grade: colorful and creative...

My sixth graders have been working on some creative Easter art, too. To be honest, I cobbled together this assignment only minutes before they arrived in my classroom. Why? On the day when I’d planned to have sixth grade paint, I barely had survived the First Grade Painting Flood, and I didn’t think my frazzled nerves could handle two painting fiascos. So I pivoted and came up with a less messy project. We have lots of interesting paper and I announced that we were using a collage technique to decorate giant Easter eggs. The kids layered tie dye paper, colorful cardstock, origami paper and weaving paper to create unique eggs. They blew me away with their interpretations!

This blog post does not have the visual variety that most of my art posts do, so to fill that void, I thought we would play a quick round of Fun Facts—Easter Edition!

Let’s talk Peeps, the colorful Easter candy that has been in your local store since the day after Christmas.

The marshmallow chickies originally were made by the Rodda Candy Company. There is no recorded “hatch date” for the chickies’ invention, but it is believed that they were created in the 1940s.

The chickies were made by hand, using a piping bag, and the process to complete one took 27 hours!

In 1953, Sam Born acquired the Rodda Candy Company, and decided to make the system much faster by using machines. This changed the Peep process to a mere six minutes.

Because of that, more peeps can be made each day. How many Peeps are made daily?

        a)     50,000

        b)     12,000

        c)     5.5 million

If you guessed c), then you are correct. That’s a lot of Peeps per day (ppd)!

Approximately 1.5 billion Peeps are eaten each spring. (None by me. I'm not a fan, but I do like their festive look.) Did you know that they come in many flavors, including Kettle Corn and Hot Tamales?

Besides chickies, there are also marhsmallow bunnies, and other animals and shapes for various holidays. The chicks and bunnies come in yellow, blue, lavender, orange, pink, white and multicolored. The peep bought most? Yellow. 

How many Peeps did competitive eater Takeru Kobayashi eat in 30 seconds in 2012?

a) 32

b) 25

c) 41

If you guessed 25, you win! You win a lifetime supply of Peeps, courtesy of Mr. Kobayashi, as he probably never wants to see another Peep again.

That wraps it up for my Easter blog post. Whether you celebrate Easter or Passover or something else, enjoy the many wonderful aspects of Spring. I’ll see you next month to discuss a timely topic: crafts to make with leftover Peeps.