There’s nothing quite like springtime to spark creativity and imagination in little ones. As the weather warms and flowers bloom, it’s the perfect time to explore the wonders of nature with your children. And what better way to celebrate the season than by crafting a whimsical spring pond sensory bin filled with adorable floating egg carton ducks?
Spring’s arrival brings a flood of blossoms & sprouts, new sounds & fresh smells – it seems there is new life to be found everywhere! Our neighborhood is home to a pair of wild ducks, and this year they surprised us all with 3 adorable little ducklings.
They’ve been tottering unsteadily through the dewy backyard every morning – getting used to their wobbly legs, tiny webbed feet, and round little bodies.
In honor of our neighborhood’s new ducklings, we decided to craft up our own set of miniature DIY ducks for pretend play and read-along props. With Easter coming, I have egg cartons EVERYWHERE, so we painted them yellow, added a feather, popped each of them into a jar lid, and made a set of tiny floating egg carton ducklings!
This is a wonderful spring craft to make with preschoolers or invite older kids to make on their own, and the opportunities for duck-themed learning activities are endless (scroll down for a few engaging and easy ideas).
Press play on the video below for a demo of our spring pond sensory bin and floating egg carton ducks!
One of the things I love about this recycled spring craft is that there are so many wonderful teaching opportunities and easy ways to put it to use. Read on to learn how you can add these ducklings to a simple sensory or reading activity. Can you even stand the cuteness??
Loving these little spring babes? Triple the newborn cuteness with a cereal box and stick spring fawn, and then make your own juice carton birdhouse (with baby birds tucked inside!).
To make your own floating egg carton ducks you’ll need:
BASIC SUPPLIES:
- An egg carton cup
- Yellow paint and a paintbrush
- A baby food jar lid
- A feather
- A very small piece of orange card stock or craft foam
- Craft glue or a hot glue gun
- An X-Acto knife or small pair of craft scissors
- A permanent marker, black paper, or googley eyes
POND SENSORY BIN SUPPLIES:
- A baking dish filled with water is a simple way to create a “pond”
- Glass beads, collected rocks, flora, and fauna can help bring your pond to life
- We recycled some old craft foam to create floating lily pads for our pond
How to Make Floating Egg Carton Ducklings – DIY Instructions:
Learn how to make a delightful set of little egg carton ducks using just a few simple household materials!
Cut an egg carton cup.
Cut an egg cup from an egg carton (the middle cups worked best for us).
Paint the egg carton cup.
Use acrylic or tempera paints to paint your egg carton cup yellow (or whichever color you prefer for your duckling)!
Add a beak.
Cut a small beak shape out of your craft foam or cardstock. Once your egg carton has dried, cut a small upside-down U-shape into the “front” of your duckling cup. It will look like a little frown, but you will push your orange craft foam piece into the “U” and ta-da! It becomes the perfect duck beak!
Add a feather to the back of your duckling.
Use a hot glue gun or craft glue to add a small feather to the back of your duckling – we added a tiny little feather on the top of its head too – extra darling! Don’t forget to add two little eyes with a pen or permanent marker.
Tuck your egg carton cup duckling into a baby food jar lid
Gently pop your egg carton duckling into a clean baby food jar lid – now it will float!
I love that we could work a little science into this cute recycled duck craft. While you put your ducklings together, you can discuss why things sink or float, density, and buoyancy.
Are there other supplies we could use that would help this duckling float? What would happen if we removed the baby food jar lid, and why? What happens when water gets inside the lid (and it will eventually!)?
How to Create a Spring Pond Sensory Bin for Your Floating Ducks:
We used our floating ducklings for a simple spring pond-themed sensory activity. They were so perfect (and easy to recycle, so I don’t have a million plastic ducks sitting around I’ll never use again).
If you have a water table or Tuff tray, you can fill it with water, but you also don’t need a fancy sensory bin. I used a clear glass baking dish filled with water. Tuck a blue piece of paper under the dish to instantly “color” the water blue, and you don’t even have to mess with food coloring to give it that bright spring tint.
Put some stones, pebbles, or water beads in the bottom and fill it with water. Add plant trimmings, lily pads (we cut ours out of foam sheets and added paper flowers) – whatever you like!
Add duck or pond sounds for a full spring pond sensory play experience.
One of my favorite additions to ANY sensory activity is soothing background sounds. Quiet pond videos like this one or this one-hour video of lake and water sounds are perfect to pop on in the background while play happens. I find it always helps to create a complete, peaceful sensory experience.
Five More Ways to Play with Your DIY Duck Craft
1. Use your duck crafts for phonics or memory games.
Write a letter on the bottom of each duck and place them back in your pond sensory bin. Invite kids to grab a duck, say the letter on the bottom, then create the sound it makes. Instant literacy skills practice!
Alternatively, you can also paint matching designs or symbols on the bottom of the ducks and use them to create a memory game. Kids can take turns flipping two ducks at a time to find pairs, improving their memory and concentration skills.
2. Pair your egg carton ducks with pond-themed picture books.
We’re going to pair our sweet little ducklings with Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey – it’s one of my springtime favorites and an absolute classic. Fuzzy Yellow Ducklings by Matthew Van Fleet and Ten Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle are two more great choices for younger readers. These make the cutest little props your kids can use to act out the story as you read.
3. Extend the science lesson.
You can easily turn your little pond into a quick little science experiment by testing the buoyancy of other objects. This sinking objects science project from education.com, or this “sink or float” activity from PBS Kids provide some great background and ideas you can reference.
4. Use your DIY ducks to discuss conservancy.
Use your egg carton ducks and pond sensory bin to discuss the protection of animals and habitats like ponds and wetlands. Mix a bit of food coloring and/or vegetable oil, then slowly pour into your play “pond” to mimic an oil spill. What happens when it spills into the water and gets on the ducklings? Is it easy or difficult to get it off the plants, ducklings, and out of the water? Is there anything you can use to stop the oil from mixing with the water?
This oil spill simulation activity from National Geographic has tons of great ideas.
5. Explore duck habitats.
Why do ducks live in this environment, and what other animals would live in a pond like this? How are ponds, marshes, and wetlands different (or the same)? Can your ducks live in freshwater ponds, saltwater ponds, or both? Are there places like this near you that you could visit?
National Geographic has a good resource here for learning about all different kinds of habitats, and this collection of 20 ways to explore habitats from We Are Teachers is a wonderful page to visit and save for activity ideas! This interactive habitats page from DK Publishers is also a favorite of mine – chock full of good information!
More Egg Carton Animal Crafts for Kids
If you love these little ducklings, you should see how we made a few small changes to this project to turn an egg carton cup into a floating baby whale! Or try using an egg carton cup for a few creative and engaging turtle playdough invitations!
