Homemade Eggshell Chalk Arts & Crafts Activity

This environmental activity will allow you to spend a super-duper time with your kiddo whilst discussing recycling with him. Not only will it offer you the opportunity to develop your child's environmental awareness, it also holds several benefits for your child's overall development, together with wholesome parent-child bonding. Throughout the time you are preparing the chalk and playing with your little one, you're letting him know how important and loved he is in your world.

Go ahead, have fun! Turn this arts and crafts into a blast and invent all sorts of games together. Encourage your child to use his imagination. And who knew homemade chalk was this easy and fun anyway!?

What you will need

• Eggshells (if thoroughly cleaned and dried, they can be stored for quite some time. Accumulate as many as you can in order to make a large quantity of chalk.)
• Pestle and mortar to grind the eggshells (you can also crush them with a bowl)
• Plaster of Paris or flour
• Water
• Mold for chalk, such as small paper cups, ice cube trays, tissue rolls, water bottles, etc. (optional)
• Mixing bowl and spoon (preferably an old margarine or yogurt container for example)
• Powder paint or food colouring

How it's made

• Carefully clean and dry the egg shells.
• Grind the shells until you obtain a fine powder.
• Mix 2 parts flour or plaster with one part powdered eggshells.
• Add sufficient water to form a stiff paste.
• Shape the paste into sticks or press into molds for fun shapes. If making chalk sticks, roll the sticks up tightly in a paper towel or plastic wrap.
• Allow time to dry (may take up to 2-3 days).
• To make coloured chalk, add the powder paint prior to pouring in the water, or add just a drop or two of food colouring lastly and mix again until the colour is evenly distributed.

While preparing the chalk, discuss with your child the ingredients and their characteristics (texture, smell, etc). As you add them in one by one, make him observe what happens when combined. This arts and crafts activity is an ideal opportunity to discuss environmentally friendly products, recycling and giving a second life to things you usually throw in the garbage!

Once ready, the chalk is ideally good for exterior use, on the sidewalk or paved driveway for instance. Your little one can use the sticks of chalk to make drawings, or to play hopscotch or even Tic-Tac-Toe! They work very well on construction paper as well. Not suggested to use on chalkboards.