14 fun literacy and math activities that use plastic eggs

Every year I pull out bags and bags of those plastic eggs around Easter time.  And every year I discover more and more literacy and math activities that use these plastic eggs.   Plastic eggs are great for center activities or during guided learning lessons.  This year I decided to comply a list to share with you all.   

1. Match Upper and Lowercase letters.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to put uppercase letters on one half and lowercase letters on the other half.  Have kids match the two halves and put them together.

2. Review Beginning Letter sounds.

Fill the plastic eggs with objects or animals.  Have kids open the egg, say the name of the object and match it's beginning sound with a magnet letter or letter card.

3. Spell CVC words

Fill the plastic eggs with pictures of CVC words and letter tiles.  Have the kids open the egg, look at the picture and try to spell it using the letter tiles.  (I have included pictures and words for this center in my Easter unit that can be found in my TeachersPayTeachers store.)

4. Spell your name and your friends' names.

Fill the plastic eggs with a picture of your child or student and the letter tiles needed to spell their name.  Have students open the eggs and spell the name of the person in the picture. EXTENSION: Have kids glue the letters and pictures down on a recording sheet or write the names with special markers after they build the names with the letters tiles.

5. Review word families.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write word endings on one half of an egg and consonants on the other half.  Have kids turn one half of the egg reading the new words that they make.  EXTENSION:  Have students record the new words that they make.  They could also make a list of real words and nonsense(silly) words that they make.

6. Match Rhyming words.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write rhyming word pairs on the top and bottom halves of eggs.  Break all the eggs apart and have kids match the words that rhyme and connect the two pieces back together.

7. Make compound words.

Write on plastic eggs with a sharpie marker or use stickers to write compound words.  Break all the eggs apart and have kids make compound words by putting two halves together to make a new word.  EXTENSION:  Have kids write out their new words.

8. Practice counting seeds.

Fill 12 eggs with popcorn seeds (chicken feed).  Have children open each egg and count the seeds inside and then store them in the corresponding egg cup in the egg carton.

9. Read number words and symbols

Write number words or use dots on one half of an egg and have children find the matching number symbol and put the egg back together.

10. Make patterns.

Have children use 1/2 of the plastic egg and create patterns with them.  EXTENSION:  Have children represent the patterns they create on paper.  Build a pattern and have children extend your pattern.  Give children instructions like build me a AB pattern and have them create it.  

11. Build Fine motor skills

Take 2 baskets and fill one basket with plastic eggs and have child sit directly in the middle of the two baskets.  Using tongs have child reach across their midline and pick up an egg and transfer it to the other basket.  Once children get really good at this move the baskets a fair distance apart and have them run back and forth to fill the baskets.

12. Build Gross motor skills

Have egg and spoon races.  Challenge children by adding obstacles that they have to step over or crawl under.

Have egg races using your nose or other parts of your body (elbow, knee, shoulder, etc.)

13. Make an ice mold

Use plastic eggs as a mold.  Hide small objects or animals in the plastic eggs and fill them with water and then freeze to make ice.  The kids will have a blast trying to release their objects from the ice.

14. Hide eggs and go on a Egg Hunt.

So that's it for this year!  What do you do with your eggs?

Need some Easter and bunny books.  These are a few of my favorites.



Need more Easter and spring center ideas?  Check out my printable units below:


Need a fun Easter art activity?  Try these Glossy painted Easter eggs.  You won't believe what we used to paint them!  (Click on the picture to be taken to the post.)

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