With Easter quickly approaching, you might be thinking that you need to buy a bunch of Easter-themed ‘stuff’ so you can create plenty of Easter themed activities to keep your little one busy.
Firstly, know that you do NOT have to incorporate Easter into your little one’s play AT ALL if that’s not your vibe! Not creating fancy Easter activities will not make you any less of a parent.
But, if you DO want to get into the Easter spirit with your little one, you DON’T have to spend heaps of money on fancy Easter toys.
In fact, I’m going to share with you ten easy play ideas using a $3 packet of plastic eggs and a few things you’ll already have at home.
So, let’s get playing!
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Balance the Egg
For this activity, you’ll have to raid the recycling for some cardboard rolls (or if you’re anything like me, you’ll just have to grab a bunch from your collection hehe), then grab your plastic eggs and you’re ready to go! Show your little one how to balance the eggs on top of the cardboard rolls. This is great for younger toddlers who are working on their hand-eye coordination. For older children, you can add an extra challenge by encouraging them to use tongs to pick up the egg and balance it on top of the cardboard roll.
You can also try building towers by balancing an egg on top of a cardboard roll, then another cardboard roll on top. How tall can you build your tower?
Colour Match
You’ll need to go through the recycling again for this activity, but this time it’s for an egg carton. Add a coloured dot at the base of each egg spot (I have not idea if that’s the right word?!) to match with your plastic eggs, for example if you have two purple eggs, add a purple dot in two spaces. Then you can encourage your little one to match the eggs to the corresponding coloured dots. To create a challenge for older children, you can add a pair of tongs to pick up the eggs, or instead of using colours you can write numbers or letters on the eggs, and matching numbers or letters in the base of the egg carton to match.
Musical Eggs
Fill a few of your eggs with a variety of small materials, for example uncooked rice, lentils, corn kernels, small beads or small bells, then tape around the edge with tape to secure. Give them to your little one to explore or pop them in a basket for them to discover. Your little one will love shaking the eggs and listening to the different sounds they make. This is the perfect activity for all ages – even bubs will love shaking them to make sounds! Just make sure that you supervise them closely as depending on the size of the egg they may be a choking hazard.
Egg Grab
Pop all your eggs into a large container or bowl, hand your little one a pair of tongs, an ice-cream scoop or handy scoopers (like these or these) and call out a colour for them to grab. This simple activity supports the development of fine motor skills, hand strength and hand-eye coordination, all at once! You can also add another empty bowl for you little one to drop the eggs in to.
Sensory Tub Colour Match
This activity is for all the little ones that love a bit of water play! Fill a large container or bowl with water (add a few drops of food colouring if you like) and throw in your plastic eggs. Then let your little one ‘catch’ the eggs with a pair of tongs or a mini sieve. You can also add some coloured bowls that match the colours of the plastic eggs for your little one to sort them in to.
Eggs and Rainbow Rice
If you like the idea of creating an Easter-themed sensory tub, but aren’t too keen on setting up some water play, try adding some rainbow rice, plastic eggs and some spoons to a large container or bowl. Your little one can practice their scooping and pouring skills by using the spoon to scoop up the rice and pour it into the eggs.
Egg Stamping
If your little one loves a bit of art, you can set up a process art invitation using the plastic eggs. Add a few dollops of paint onto a plate, then encourage your little one to experiment with making marks by pressing the egg rounds into the paint and stamping them onto paper.
Egg Rolling
Another process art idea using the eggs is to fill them with something heavy, perhaps a small rock or uncooked rice, then pop a piece of paper in a tray, add some drops of paint to the paper then add the eggs onto the tray. Your little one can tilt the tray to roll the eggs around, watching the marks that the eggs make as they roll through the paint.
Egg Hunt
If your little one has plenty of energy to burn, try hiding the eggs around the house and seeing how quickly your little one can find them all! Don’t forget to count how many you’ve hidden so your little one knows when they’ve all been found.. or don’t, and enjoy the extra five minutes of peace!
Number Match
If you have an older child that is interested in numbers, you can use the eggs to make a number matching game. One the top half of each egg write a number and on the bottom half of each egg, draw the corresponding amount of dots. Add them all to a basket and allow your little one to choose an egg half, count the dots and find the egg half with the matching numeral to match.
So there you have it! So many ways to play with one simple toy, and one that you’ve likely got at home! I hope this gives you some play inspo for the coming weeks leading up to Easter, and I’d love you to let me know which idea you’re going to try first in the comments!
Happy playing, and Happy Easter!
Lycie x
