Every year around the Easter season, my house is littered with colorful plastic eggs.  The kids can’t seem to get enough of the little things.  They want to practice hiding and finding them.  They stuff them with the parts less desirable bits of food from dinner.  They use them as water storage containers.  Something about them is completely irresistible for my children.

So I decided to harness that enthusiasm for Easter eggs and apply it to some educational activities, and the result was pretty wonderful.  It’s hard to complain about your homework when it’s a basket full of colorful eggs.  The kids couldn’t wait to get started.

Here are my 10 Educational Activity ideas that your children can do with plastic Easter eggs:

Matching Colors – Select a variety of colored eggs, and separate the two sides.  Place them all in a basket, bowl, or pile in front of your toddler.  Have them choose matching colored halves and snap them together.  Make sure to say each color out loud as your child selects it so they learn each color by name.

Upper and Lowercase Letter Match – Take an Easter egg and split it in half.  Using alphabet stickers or a permanent marker, designate one half of the egg as an uppercase letter and the other as the matching lowercase letter.  Repeat for the entire alphabet or specific letters your child needs to work on.  Have your preschooler or kindergartner search through the egg halves to find and combine the matching letter sets.

Hot Potato Counting – Sit across from your toddler, legs spread apart.  Take and egg and pass it back and forth quickly, trying to touch it as little as possible.  You can pretend it is hot because it was just boiled.  Count as you pass.  Every time you reach 10 or 20, start over again.  If your child is old enough have them count with you.

Sequencing Numbers – Using stickers or a permanent marker, number your whole eggs from 1-20.  Mix the eggs up in a basket or bowl.  Have your child pull the eggs out one at a time and line them up in the correct order.  You could also do this game with older children using skip counting.  For example, if you are skip counting by 10, number the eggs 10, 20, 30, 40, and so on.  This will help them learn to multiply quickly and effectively.

Addition & Subtraction – Set up math problems using your eggs as counters.  You could create your own math problems using a marker and paper, or let them use the eggs to solve problems on the homework they brought home from school.

Phonetic Reading – Using alphabet stickers or a permanent marker, create word prefixes and suffixes on egg halves.  Have your child mix and match the prefixes and suffixes to create new words.  Have them read each word before they create the next one.  This can be simple enough for beginning readers, or you can add more complicated endings to make words for more advanced readers. 

Color Patterns – Create a patterning sequence using your eggs.  Have your child study and continue the pattern where you left off.  This can be as easy or as complicated as you wish.  For a toddler you may want to use 2-3 colors, one at a time, in a row.  For the older child, add more eggs, include groups of colors, and create longer pattern strings.  After they’ve completed a few of your pattern ideas, have them design some of their own.

Multiplication & Division – Using stickers or a permanent marker, create an egg with a multiplication symbol and one with a division symbol.  Using numbered eggs, create and solve math problems.  Again you can come up with your own, or use the eggs to do the homework you brought home from class. 

Egg Graphing – Hide 20 – 40 empty Easter eggs.  Arm your child with and Easter basket, and send them out to search for the eggs.  Once they’ve completed their search, have them bring the basket to the table.  Pull each egg out, one at a time, and using a pencil or color coordinated crayons, color in a box for each egg on your graph.  Compare to see how many of each color they found.  Ask them questions like: “Did you find more red than blue?,” “Which color did you find the least of?,” and “Which color did you find more of than yellow and less than of orange?”  You can create your own graph or print this one I created. 

Skip Counting Toss – Stand 5-10 feet away from your child.  Toss an egg back and forth.  Each time you toss say the number from a skip counting sequence.  For example, if you are skip counting by 7 you would count, 7,14, 21, 28, 35… and so on.  If someone drops the egg you have to start over at the beginning.  This will help your children with their multiplication and division.

I hope these games will make you learning time a lot more colorful and fun this month, and have a very happy Easter season!!