Egg Shakers

Zel had a ton of fun doing his first egg hunt this year. However, the leftover plastics eggs started to drive me a little crazy. They ended up all over the house no matter how many times I put them back together and in his basket. I was going to throw them away until we went to our playgroup on Thursday morning. The host of the playgroup had homemade egg shakers that she also used as a matching game. She made two of each material so that the children could match the sounds of the eggs. She also wrote the name of the material on the outside so that the older children could do some letter/word recognition and matching.

The great thing about this craft is that it is really easy and practically free. Since Easter was just a few weeks ago we still have our plastic eggs and we had plenty of food in the pantry for filling them up. Zel and I chose rice, lentils, and shell pasta, but you can use whatever you have at home (oats, other pastas, beans, etc.). The only other items you need are tape and a sharpie, which we already had too.

After you gather your materials, open all of the eggs and put all of the materials into small bowls (easier for kids to scoop or pour). Once you fill an egg to your desired level, close it and put tape around the opening. I used scotch tape because that is what I had, but I would have used packing tape if I had some since there would less likely be a spill later on. Then use your sharpie to label your eggs.

This project is great for little and big kids since it is pretty easy to clean up, just watch out for little ones putting little pieces in their mouth. Smaller children will love scooping and pouring the material in and out of the eggs while the bigger kids can choose different materials and amounts and compare the different sounds. As soon as we finished Zel tried shaking every single egg. We later used them along with some of his favorite Sesame Street tunes (Do De Rubber Duck and Monster in the Mirror).

Zel really enjoyed the whole process, even the clean-up!