Montessori: Posting Eggs

One of the little girls I look after is mad for posting in any form.  I put this Easter themed activity together with her in mind, but added numbers to the eggs as a way to introduce written numbers 10-20 to E.  He is still working with the wooden sandpaper numbers I made a couple of weeks ago, but is beginning to verbally count beyond 10.  

I started off by cutting a slot in the top of an empty peanut butter jar.  Ta da!

I printed the numbers on Easter coloured cardstock, cut and glued it to some squares of cardboard I had already.  I used Montessori Script just to keep it consistent with the numbers the children are already using.

When the cards were dry I cut them into egg shapes by hand, ensuring that none of them were too big to fit through the slot in the jar lid.

I added some shredded paper 'grass' into the jar to make a nest and placed the eggs into a small wooden bowl.  Added to a small basket and presto!  Posting eggs!  

This has been far more popular than I anticipated.  The 4 year-old I mind keeps getting it off the shelf and enjoys telling me all the numbers.  As he has mastered his numbers already I didn't expect this activity to have much appeal for him.  M, the little girl this was created for spent nearly an hour yesterday working with this.  In addition to the posting, she loves twisting the lid on and off to get the eggs out.  Handing me the eggs was also good fun.  Best of all, the whole lot can be recycled once we're done with it and I don't have anything to store!  Hurrah!