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Spring Treats
What comes to mind when you think of spring treats? Colorful eggs, jelly beans, malt balls, chocolate eggs and bunnies, or squishy marshmallow critters? Let’s play with, learn from, and eat some spring treats!
Play!
1) What is your favorite spring treat? What is your least favorite? Take a poll of your friends and family.
2) Together with your group choose a theme and use your treats to make dioramas. Whose diorama was the most creative? Best in theme? Most colorful?
3) Angry Critters- (think about the popular bird launching game app) Set up towers using plastic eggs and marshmallow critters. Take turns “Launching” marshmallows at the towers. Give 1 point for every egg part and 2 points for every marshmallow that is knocked over.
4) Critter stack- How many marshmallow critters can your group stack in 1 minuet? Whose stack was the tallest? The shortest? The most creative stacking method?
5) Jellybean Blind Taste Test-Break your group into pairs of two. Take turns closing your eyes, tasting the beans, and guessing the flavor? How many did you get right?
6) Scavenger Hunt- Hide colorful jelly beans around your meeting space (keep track of how many you hid J ) Have each member of your group gather a specific number of each color of bean.
Learn!
1) Disappearing egg shell- Have you ever seen a naked egg? Let’s make one! You’ll need raw eggs, vinegar, a container large enough to hold all of your eggs, a lid for the container, and a big spoon
* Place your eggs in the container so that they are not touching.
*Add enough vinegar to cover the eggs. Notice that bubbles form on the eggs. Cover the container, put it in the refrigerator and let the eggs sit in the vinegar for 24 hours.
*Use your big spoon to scoop the eggs out of the vinegar. Be careful—since the eggshell has been dissolving, the egg membrane may be the only thing holding the egg together. The membrane is not as durable as the shell.
*Carefully dump out the vinegar. Put the eggs back in the container and cover them with fresh vinegar. Leave the eggs in the refrigerator for another 24 hours.
*Scoop the eggs out again and rinse them carefully. If any of the membranes have broken, letting the egg ooze out, throw those eggs away.
*When you’re done, you’ll have an egg without a shell. It looks like an egg, but it’s naked!!
The eggs shell dissolved because of a chemical reaction. What caused that reaction and why did that cause the egg shell to dissolve?
2) Bouncing egg- Now that your egg is naked, it can bounce!! Give it a try. Hold the egg 1-2 inches above a flat surface and let it drop. Did it bounce? What causes the egg to stay together without its shell?
3) Shrinking egg- If after bouncing you still have a fully intact egg you can make it shrink. You’ll need corn syrup and a large container.
Place the egg in the container and cover with corn syrup. Allow to sit for 24 hours. Gently rinse the corn syrup off of the egg. You can roll and squeeze the egg in your hands. How does the egg feel? How does it look? Why did the corn syrup cause this type of transformation of the egg?
4) Expanding egg- Add several drops of food coloring to a gallon of water. Drop in the deflated egg. Let sit for 24 hours. What happened to the egg this time? Why do you think the egg got bigger?
5) Drop that egg! Now it’s time to get messy. Let’s drop your naked egg. Gather your group for an egg dropping contest. See how far you can drop those naked eggs without them breaking. Whose drop was the highest? Whose was the lowest?
Eat!
With the help of adult make some new treats out of your favorite spring sweets!
Get together with your group and have a spring treat potluck. Here are some ideas to get you started.
· Smores made with roasted marshmallow critters
· Marshmallow popcorn
· Deviled eggs
· Fudge made from chocolate eggs
· Crème egg brownies
· Colorful marshmallow rice cereal treats
· Egg salad
· Candy bark
· cookies
· cupcakes
· Jellybean donuts
· Bunny chow
· Peanut butter nests
· Let your imagination run wild, create some new spring treat favorites, and don’t forget to brush your teeth after!!
