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It’s Easter time! What says Easter in the homeschool and classroom more than a basket full of colorful easter eggs? This is a fun egg decorating technique with a guaranteed great result. Be sure to hard boil your eggs and set them aside so they’re safe to handle. If you want to dazzle your friends and family this year, let’s hop to it! 

Things you’ll need

• Hard boiled eggs
• Cups for eggs
• Spoon
• Bottle caps (optional)
• Food coloring
• 1 Tablespoon vinegar
• 1 Tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
• 1 cup warm water per cup
• Paper towel

Steps

Pour one cup of warm water into each cup. There should be enough water in each cup to cover an egg. Next, add one tablespoon of vinegar to each cup. Tip: warm water will help the eggshell absorb the dye and give you more vibrant results. The vinegar helps the dye stick.  

Add about 10 drops of food coloring to the water and vinegar mixture. 

Leave the eggs in the dye cups for a few minutes, until they are lightly coated. Remove the eggs with a spoon and carefully place them on overturned bottle caps to dry before handling. 

Fill some new cups with one cup of warm water each. Add double the food coloring, twenty drops, to each cup and stir. Finally, add one tablespoon of oil per cup. Mix mix mix! 

Let the eggs sit in the dye and oil mixture for a few minutes. Remove carefully and wipe clean with some paper towel. You should see a cool swirling pattern emerge on the egg’s surface! 

Hoppy Easter, Super Simple Crafty Bunch! 

More! 

For more Easter crafts and activity ideas, check out our Easter Theme.

Need some easter egg decorating music? Watch Humpty Dumpty and sing along. 

Looking for a fun spring-themed book? Order Let’s Go For A Walk Outside!

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Inevitably the time comes when it seems everyone is getting sick – everywhere you go there are runny noses and coughing fits. It’s during this time that we remind ourselves, and our little ones, to wash our hands often so we don’t get sick ourselves! We repeat the important steps: wash with warm water for at least 20 seconds, get inbetween your fingers and under your nails, and don’t forget to use soap! Little ones might sometimes have a hard time remembering to do something, and often it’s because they don’t understand the reason behind it. Caitie believes if we can show little ones why we do something, like wash our hands with soap, they will be much more likely to remember to do it, and to enjoy doing it! Hurray for happy, clean hands! 

This simple experiment shows little ones just how amazing soap is and how necessary it is when we wash our hands. Without it, our hands aren’t really getting clean at all! It’s a really fun activity you can set up in a few minutes using things you already have at home. And your kiddos will never forget the soap while washing their hands again!

Things You Need

• A baking dish or deep-dish plate
• Water
• Soap
• Pepper
• Hand towel 

Steps

Carefully pour some water into your dish.

Shake the pepper into the water until there is a layer of pepper floating on the surface. 

Now we are going to carefully dip one of our fingers into the water and see what happens. Before you do this, ask your little one what they think will happen! Then dip and find out! 

Oh no! You’ll find the pepper sticks to your finger and makes it all dirty! The pepper is a lot like germs that we might have on our hands – we want to make sure we clean them away. Let’s see what happens when we do the same thing but this time with a bit of soap on our finger. 

Before you try again with soap, ask your little one what they think will happen this time! Then place a little bit of soap on one of your fingers, and dip that finger into the pepper. 

Whoa! Take a look at what happened! All the pepper moved away from the soap! Soap repels and cleans germs, just like it pushed away all the pepper! When we clean with soap, we are sure to get rid of the germs and make our hands clean. 

Now little ones can see for themselves the importance of soap and feel motivated to properly clean their hands… using soap! 

Watch Caitie try this experiment in the episode Staying Clean & Healthy, plus more fun activities to inspire hygiene in kiddos!

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It’s almost Easter! Do you enjoy decorating eggs with your family or classroom? What about an Easter egg hunt outside or around the house? With a super simple recipe, this traditional activity will feel fresh, festive, and fun. Okay, Easter bunnies. Let’s “hop” to it! 

Things you’ll need

• Eggs (white shells work best) 
• Water 
• White vinegar
• Measuring cup 1/2 cup 
• Individual clear cups
• Food coloring 
• Timer 
• Spoons for each color 
• Crayons 
• Rubber bands
• Bottle / Juice cap 
• Tablecloth or newspaper

Steps

Boil the eggs:
Add your eggs to a large pot with enough water to cover them with one inch of water. Turn the heat on high and bring them to a boil. Turn off the heat and let them stand for about ten minutes.  You can set your timer for this part. 

Prepare the colors:
Cover your work surface with an old tablecloth or some newspaper. Set up one clear cup and one spoon for every color you are working with. Place a bottle cap in front of each cup- this is where your egg can be placed while it dries. In each cup, add half a cup of water. Next, add up to 20 drops of food coloring. Finally, add three tablespoons of vinegar to each cup. The vinegar will help the colors be vibrant. Mix the colors with their designated spoons.

More about dying eggs: When mixing secondary colors like green, orange, and purple, we recommend pre-mixing in their own cups. We made orange by blending 10 drops of red food coloring with 10 drops of yellow food coloring. When cross-dying eggs, start with your light colors and then move to your dark colors.  

Now for the fun part! We have a few simple methods to decorate the eggs that we think look really cool. The first way is to draw some patterns on your eggs with crayons. ( If your eggs are nice and warm, the crayons will glide easily. If they are too hot, run them under some cold water first so little hands are safe, and so the crayons don’t melt too fast.) 

We experimented with a few different crayon colors and symbols. What do you think of our results? What patterns will you try? When it’s time to dye the eggs, dip them in the cups of food coloring and place them on the bottle caps so they can dry.   

The other method of creating patterns on your eggs is by using some elastic bands. Wrap your egg with rubber bands and dip it in a color. Leave your egg in the cup of color for a few minutes to achieve a deep saturation. 

Let it dry on the bottle cap stand. Once dry, remove the rubber bands to reveal a cool pattern! 

Place your eggs in an Easter basket if you like. Now they’re ready for a hunt, or to decorate the brunch table. Your Easter eggs look awesome! 

TIP: Did you stain your fingers while making your lovely Easter eggs? Try scrubbing them with a dab of toothpaste for a few minutes. Rinse and repeat as needed. 

For more Easter fun, learn How To Draw The Easter Bunny, or check out the song “Hot Cross Buns.”

The post Easter Egg Decorating Activity appeared first on Super Simple.

Who doesn’t love a good dance party? Little ones love to get up and move, especially to fun songs they know and enjoy. We’ve put together a list of our favorite Super Simple Songs to groove to, along with the Dance Dice, a fun activity that brings extra excitement to any dance party. Whether you’re dancing with a group of friends, or having a solo dance party (always recommended!) pump these jams, roll the dance dice, and get moving! Count us in, cause we’re ready to dance! 1, 2, 3…hit it! 

Head Shoulders Knees & Toes (Speeding Up)

All great dance parties start with a great warm up. Some folks might be shy to bust a move, so start with this simple song to get party goers following along and feeling excited about dancing.

Here We Go Looby Loo

This song is reminiscent of the classic kid song, The Hokey Pokey, with an added dance twist. Play the music video and follow along with the Super Simple Puppets as they move their bodies in and out, and shake them all about!

Move!

Now the party has started! This song has some dance moves built right into the words of the song and some great opportunity to try out some moves of your own! So turn it up and move just like the song says! 

Wind The Bobbin Up

Let’s Wind The Bobbin Up! How do you do that, exactly? Well, put on the music video and follow along with the dancing mice. They know all the moves to this fun dance song!

Red Light, Green Light

How about a dance party game of freeze dance? We took all the things we love about freeze dance and put it into the song Red Light, Green Light. Green means go – dance, dance, dance! And red means stop – freeze! You might end up in some pretty silly positions when the red light strikes, that’s part of the fun! TIP: You can play a similar game with any song you like. You can call out red light and green light as the song plays, or stop and start the song for a traditional game of freeze dance. 

The Alphabet Swing

At this point your dance party partners might want to try some dance moves of their own, and The Alphabet Swing is a swinging song where dancers can move freely as they like! It’s called free dance – they can try some moves they’ve learning in the previous songs, or try something totally new and creative! If your party goers really enjoyed playing Red Light, Green Light, this is a great song to continue playing freeze dance.

The Jellyfish

The Jellyfish is a super fun call and response song. That means you repeat what you hear in the song using your voice and your body! Follow along with the moves – they’re built right into the words of the song – as you slowly turn your body into a swimming jellyfish!

The Pinocchio

This is a true grand finale for your amazing dance party. It’s got all the moves, and dancers will be truly tuckered out afterward. You can play the song and follow along with the moves you hear in the song, or put on The Pinocchio episode of Sing Along With Tobee – Caitie and Tobee will show you the moves too! 

Dance Dice – Dance Party Activity Game

To take your dance party to the next level, bust out the dance dice! This activity was featured in the Caitie’s Classroom episode Dance Party, and you can try it at home for an extra dancing challenge! Here’s how. 

All you need is the the Dance Dice printable, scissors, and a glue stick.

Cut it out along the dotted lines of your printable. 

Fold along the solid lines include the white tabs so it can fold into a dice shape. 

Add glue from a glue stick to the white tabs, and stick the tabs to the back of the square next to it so the dice holds it’s shape. 

Now you are ready to play! To play, roll the dice and see what kind of dance it lands on. It might be The Twist, Square Dance, Ballet, Tap Dance, Disco, or Free Dance. Then try that kind of dance together! You can do the different dances to music, or just try the moves. You can do this activity as a group and try different ways of dancing together, or you can each take turns rolling the dice and performing dance moves for the party! If you need some inspiration for how each dance goes, watch how Caitie moves in the episode Dance Party. 

You can watch all the videos for the songs mentioned in this article with our Dance Party Playlist!

We hope we’ve inspired you to party it up and dance all day with these tunes and the dance dice! We know you must have some sweet moves, so hit the dance floor (also known as the living room carpet…) and let them show! 

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Introducing a festive advent calendar without the sugar high! It’s an advent calendar that’s all about music, fun episodes suited for the season, AND a bonus secret message from Santa himself! We are so excited to give our Super Simple fam this free printable advent calendar – all you need is your smartphone to scan the QR codes each day to countdown to Christmas!

Download and print the Super Simple Christmas Advent Calendar!

Here’s how it works!

Print out the advent calendar – the calendar is two pages that you’ll tape together to make one big piece of paper once it’s printed. Hang it in a place you’ll see every day so you don’t forget to count down (it’s also a lovely decoration!), somewhere like the fridge is perfect! On each day in December, scan the respective QR codes using your smartphone to view a special video from Super Simple that helps celebrate the season. But that’s not all! Below each video, you’ll find a few secret letters in the video description. It will look like this: 

Santa’s Secret Message: TH

Collect the letters to discover a message from Santa using the Super Simple Christmas Advent Calendar!

Write down those letters each day at the bottom of your advent calendar as you countdown to Christmas and a secret message from Santa will be revealed on the big day! Santa spoke to us on the Super Simple smartphone, and he really wanted to make sure his secret message was shared, so even if you can’t scan the QR codes and follow along with the advent calendar, we’ll be sharing his secret message on our Facebook and Instagram at Christmas time! We hope you have so much festive fun with this advent calendar – maybe it will be a whole new Christmas tradition for your family! 

Download and print the Super Simple Christmas Advent Calendar!

We’re wishing you the warmest, coziest, happiest Christmas yet, Super Simple fam! Enjoy the season.

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Welcome to the old oak tree, where our Treetop Family lives! The squirrels, sparrows, raccoons and mice have lots of lovely adventures out here in nature, and we’d love for you to join in, so we put together a list of ten Treetop Family activities for you to enjoy. These activities are perfect for when the seasons are changing, or for any little nature lover or fan of Treetop Family. There are lots of crafts, games, and learning opportunities in the old oak tree, let’s take a look! 

Match The Leaves Memory Card Game

This memory card game is lots of fun and a great learning opportunity to talk about different kinds of trees and leaves, and also their colors! Our Treetop Family friends live in an oak tree. Can you spot the oak leaves in your favorite episode of Treetop Family?

Treetop Family Coloring Pages

We have over 95 Treetop Family coloring pages for you to enjoy. There are six coloring pages for each episode, so you can color in scenes from your favorite one and color them in for a relaxing activity with Treetop Family playing in the background. 

Make A Rainbow Worksheet

Our Treetop Family friends learn all about the colors of the rainbow in the episode After The Rain. Make your own colorful rainbow with our Make A Rainbow worksheet! This is a great opportunity to talk about colors and weather with your little ones!

Make A Tree – Four Seasons Worksheet

When the seasons change, special things happen to the old oak tree. Color each oak tree as it would look for each season to practice seasons! If you aren’t sure what a tree might look like during each season, find some clues in episodes of Treetop Family!

Make A Tree

You can also make a big oak tree look any way you like! Little ones can get creative with this one, maybe even adding in some of their treetop family friends or trying to draw oak leaves. You can also try leaf rubbing: put a leaf underneath the page and use the side of a crayon to rub on the paper overtop of the leaf to see the leaf’s patterns and shapes appear on your tree!

Treetop Family Mobile Craft

The sparrows from Treetop Family are learning to fly! Test their wings with this lovely Treetop Family mobile craft and watch fly round and round.

Stand Up Tree Craft

This awesome tree craft is used with a cardboard tube for the trunk and stands up! You can make one to create your own Treetop Family scene, or make a few of them to make a whole Treetop forest! You can enjoy it on its own, or use it to act out your favorite Treetop Family episodes!

Tissue Paper Tree Craft

This is another great tree craft that is perfect for little hands learning their fine motor skills. They can practice putting all the tissue paper leaves on the tree one at a time. You can make green leaves, or try using autumn colors to make a tree in the fall time!

Mother Nature’s Paint Brushes

Our Treetop Family friends use things around them to make lovely gifts for their loved ones in the episode Simple Gifts. We can use things we find in nature to make something new too, a beautiful piece of art! Try our tips and ideas for using things found in nature to make your own paintbrushes! 

Foraging Animals

Things found in nature can also be used to finish an interesting picture. Print our complete the animal worksheets and take them outside. Can you find things around you in nature to complete the picture? You can use leaves, rocks, sticks, flowers… anything you can find to make your animal. Try making a whole new animal – maybe one of your Treetop Family friends, like the squirrels or mice! 

Want some more? Check out all the episodes of Treetop Family and more Treetop Family activities.

We also have lots of great activities, songs and crafts for every little nature lover.

Thanks for visiting the old oak tree! We hope you come back soon! 

The post Ten Treetop Family Activities appeared first on Super Simple.

Bumble Nums Inspired Popsicles

Summer is the perfect time for popsicles! These popsicle flavors are inspired by the delicious delicacies our friends The Bumble Nums have made. Yum yum! Find the recipe here.

Bubble Snake

This homemade Bubble Snake made from recycled materials makes some seriously impressive bubbles! It’s easy to put together and will truly elevate your backyard bubble game. 

Frozen Dinosaur Ice Eggs

Watch the dinosaurs emerge as your ice eggs melt! You can include your little one in the process of making the Dinosaur Ice Eggs, or keep what is inside a surprise! A great activity for hot days – the hotter the weather, the faster your dinosaur will hatch! 

Walking Through Time Activity: The Age Of The Earth

This is a great activity for a little active outdoor time that is also a learning experience on the history of the earth. Grab some sidewalk chalk and head outside to walk through time!

DIY Cardboard Car

This craft activity is inspired by Carl’s Car Wash! Using recycled materials, make and decorate your very own car! You can even pretend to take your car to the drive-in theatre, a favorite summer pastime, to enjoy some episodes of Carl’s Car Wash! This is a big craft – it’s great to do outside, perfect for summer! 

H2Whoa! Painting With Ice Cubes

This art activity is so fun and colorful – it’s the perfect summer time art project! It can get a bit messy as the ice cube paint melts, so it’s a great one to do outside and paint a beautiful summery scene! Find everything you need at: H2Whoa! Painting With Ice Cubes.

Make A Volcano

Summer is a great time for activities that are a bit more messy, like an erupting volcano! You can make your mess outside and maybe use the hose to help clean up afterward!

Make Your Own Bird Feeder

This simple homemade bird feeder is made with recycled materials and makes a lovely addition to a summer garden. Keep the feeder stocked with bird seed to keep the birds coming all summer long!

Play Ice Cream Dough

Ice cream is a favorite summer treat to eat, and this homemade Play Ice Cream Dough will make it a favorite summer sensory activity too! Best of all, this ice cream never melts!

Foraging Animals Printable

When summer is in full bloom you can find lots of things to forage for this activity. Flowers, green leaves and other nature discoveries you find in summer will build super colorful and impressive animals with this free printable.

Those are our top ten favorite summertime activities! Have a happy Super Simple Summer filled with learning and fun!

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1, 2, 3! Hop, hop hop! This leaping frog activity is a super simple and fun way to practice counting with little ones. Learning through play is a wonderful way to practice numbers and counting, as well as developing a child’s confidence and independence. This activity is straightforward to make, and offers a few variations of counting practice to keep little ones engaged! First, let’s put everything together with some arts and crafts, then we’ll get into how to play!

Materials 

• Green pom poms, a few different sizes 
• Googly eyes 
• Green pipe cleaner 
• Green marker 
• Green and blue construction paper 
• Something circular to trace – we used 2” and 1” lids
• Glue stick 
• White glue 

Steps 

For the Lily Pads

Use something circular to trace as many lily pads as you would like to make onto a green sheet of construction paper. The more lily pads you make, the higher you can count during the game! We used a 2” lid to make ten lily pads. Draw a wedge onto each circle and cut them out.

With a green marker, write the numbers 1 through 10 on one side of the lily pads, one number on each lily pad.

If you’d like to decorate your frog pond, you can make some flowers to add to your lily pads! We made our flowers by tracing a 1” lid, then marked and cut into the circle to make eight equal petals. We added a small yellow circle to the middle as well.

Frog

To make the frog’s legs, bend a green pipe cleaner in half. Make a little tail at the bend that will support the body, and then bend both sides of the pipe cleaner to make legs with a bend in the knee. Bend the rest of the pipe cleaner to make webbed feet.

Glue a large green pom pom to a smaller pom pom to make the body and tail, and glue it to the pipe cleaner.  Glue two googly eyes onto two small pom poms and attach them to the top of the body. Glue on a little mouth cut out from red construction paper.

Now your frog is ready to play in the lily pad pond!

Ways To Play

1. Place the lily pads number side up onto a blue piece of construction paper to make a pond. Make sure the lily pads are in order from 1-10. Have your little one hop the frog from lily pad to lily pad while counting. Have them try going backwards too!

2. Mix up the lily pads so the numbers are all over the pond. Hop the frog around the pond going from number to number in order. Little ones will have to count and search for the next number!

3. Select one of the lily pads and place it number side up in the pond. Hop the frog on that lily pad the correct number of times. Your little one might like to try hopping themselves while counting to the number on the lily pad!

4. Select one of the lily pads and place it number side up by the pond. Then count and place that number of lily pads into the pond, number side down. Then the frog can hop from lily pad to lily pad while counting. 

We hope you have a great time practicing counting and hopping with this simple lily pad and leaping frog counting activity! There are lots of ways to practice counting through play – see if you and your little one can find new ways to count and play with this activity set! Hop, hop, hop! Happy hopping and counting! 

For more ways to practice counting, visit our Counting Page.

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