30 Games, Activities and Crafts to try with Plastic Easter Eggs

Plastic Eggs are everywhere in the lead up to Easter. Craft stores, dollar stores, even the supermarkets are full of shiny, brightly coloured plastic eggs. They're a great alternative to chocolate Easter eggs for an Easter egg hunt and you can hide small objects inside for an instant surprise egg. 

As soon as Easter is over they quickly disappear from the shelves, however unlike chocolate Easter eggs, these ones don't get eaten; so what do you do with them all for the rest of the year? I'm generally anti plastic items for play, but plastic Easter eggs are one of my exceptions, because they're actually a really great open ended learning resource. Instead of throwing them out or hiding them away in a box for a year, try some of these 30 fun crafts, games and learning activities that can be done with plastic eggs all year round.

CRAFTS TO CREATE WITH PLASTIC EASTER EGGS

There are so many different ways to dye normal eggs and even wooden eggs, so how do you craft with plastic eggs when you can't dye them? The answer is to think outside of the box! From frogs to birds to whales and even mini planters, there's so many different ways to turn an unassuming plastic egg into something wonderful.

Do your kids have Easter hat parades where you live? It was all about paper and cardboard hastily stapled together and fashioned into a headband type bonnet back when I was little. Sometimes there were mini chickens glued on too, but I guarantee I never wore anything as amazing as this gravity defying Easter hat! You'll be the envy of all the other crafty mums if you manage to pull off a super creative hat like Where The Smiles Have Been. I'll let you in on a secret, it's not as hard to make as it looks.

If you want to decorate the house with an Easter wreath don't go out and buy one, make your own DIY plastic egg wreath. All you'll need to make this super cute wreath is a 12 inch wire wreath, different sized plastic eggs and a hot glue gun. Follow the easy instructions at The Soccer Mom Blog and your wreath will be done in under 10 minutes!

Another DIY Easter egg wreath idea from Ann's Entitled Life uses a grapevine wreath, plastic eggs, hot glue gun and ribbon. You can even print out the instructions from Ann's Entitled Life.

Make these cute plastic Easter egg weebles with just a few items. What are weebles you might be asking? Weebles are egg shaped roly poly toys that wobble back and forth when they're unbalanced, due to a weighted bottom. To make these Easter egg weebles you'll need some plastic eggs, pipecleaners, felt, a black sharpie, some coins, tape and a hot glue gun. Follow the instructions over at Pink Stripey Socks.

Possibly the cutest aliens ever, these plastic egg aliens are really easy to make. You'll need some plastic eggs, pipecleaners, small pom poms, googly eyes and paint pens or chalk markers. Follow the step by step instructions at Artsy Craftsy Mom.

How adorable is this plastic egg frog. He's really easy to make using some coloured paper, mini pom poms, googly eyes, sharpie and glue. Follow the instructions over at Artsy Craftsy Mom.

Another awesome creation from Artsy Craftsy Mom are these plastic egg birds. You'll need some plastic eggs, googly eyes, orange paper, feathers and blu tack. Follow the instructions at Artsy Craftsy Mom.

These birds are similar but they're actually plastic bird egg shakers. To make them you'll need googly eyes, felt, feathers and bird seed. Follow the instructions at Buggy and Buddy.

Create this cute little plastic blue whale with a plastic egg, googly eyes, some paper and some sharpie pens. Get the instructions from Artsy Craftsy Mom.

Turn plain white plastic eggs into gorgeous marbled eggs. You'll need some marbling medium and acrylic paint. Follow the tutorial at The Country Chic Cottage to recreate these eggs.

For a really simple craft activity try plastic egg painting. Split the plastic eggs in half and dip them into paint to make perfect circle prints. Mix it up using different colours like Buggy and Buddy.

These egg mini planters are probably the most creative crafty way to use plastic eggs I've ever seen. I never would have thought to use plastic eggs as planters, but they look so adorable. Follow the instructions at Ann's Entitled Life to make some of your own.

DIY MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

Kids want to make music, but you don't have any instruments at home? No problem. Make these DIY musical instruments from plastic eggs.

Make some sensory shakers using plastic eggs and dry sensory materials. Try using different items like rocks, popcorn, birdseed, buttons, bells or pom poms to see what different sounds they make. Follow my full step by step instructions to make your own musical shaker here.

Make your own DIY egg maracas like Crayons and Cravings. You'll need some plastic spoons, plastic eggs, rice and washi tape.

FUN GAMES USING PLASTIC EASTER EGGS

The most obvious way to use plastic Easter eggs for an activity is for an Easter egg hunt, however there are many other ways they can be used for search and find and matching games. Plastic Easter eggs are great for matching games because they're so easy to click the two sides back together. Below are some creative game ideas using plastic eggs and there are even more educational ways to use plastic eggs in games further down in this post.

This plastic egg colour learning ferris wheel from Hello Wonderful is next level awesome. It's a craft activity, game and DIY toy all in one. To make this you'll need a paper plate, some thick cardboard, a brass fastener, plastic eggs, pom poms and a hot glue gun. Full assembly instructions can be found at Hello Wonderful.

A really simple way to create a game using plastic eggs is to make an egg colour matching game like Little Bins for Little Hands. You'll need plastic eggs and some pom poms in matching colours. Fill a tub with the poms poms and plastic eggs and get the kids to open the eggs and fill them with matching pom poms. It's also a great game for hand/eye co-ordination and building up hand strength as they open and close the eggs.

Create your own egg memory game like Happily Ever Mom. Simply use plastic egg half upside down to cover small items like charms, mini erasers or lollies. To make it easier put matching items under matching colours, or to make it harder for older kids mix them all up regardless of the egg colours.

Emotion eggs are a great way for kids to learn about feelings and how different emotions can change our facial expressions. Kate from Laughing Kids Learn made these by using a sharpie to copy different emoticon faces drawing eyes on the top half of the egg and mouths on the bottom. Kids can mix and match the emotions or try and put the correct ones together.

This washi tape egg toss game by The Gingerbread House is really simple to make. You'll need some plastic eggs, different coloured washi tape and some large plastic cups. Put matching washi tape around an egg and plastic cup, using different colours for each egg. Set the cups out a certain distance away and have kids try to throw the plastic eggs into the correct cup. This game is great for colour matching and hand/eye co-ordination.

To make this egg shape matching game like School Time Snippets you'll simply need some plastic eggs and a black sharpie. Draw different shapes like a circle, square, star, heart, oval, hexagon, triangle, pentagon etc across the front of the eggs and then separate them so kids can match them back together.

Make some glow in the dark Easter eggs like Mama Cheaps by adding a battery operated tea light candle inside each egg. If your children are still young tape the eggs closed with some sticky tape so they can't open up the eggs and get to the candle {you don't want them to have any access to the button batteries}. You can use the glowing eggs to have a glow in the dark egg hunt or as a diy night light.

EDUCATIONAL LITERACY GAMES

Plastic eggs are also a great tool for literacy games to teach foundation English skills such as letters, sounds, word blends and spelling. Below are 5 different literacy games using plastic eggs.

Try this ABC egg hunt to help kids with letter recognition. Print out the free printable from About a Mom and hide letters in eggs around the house or backyard. Send the kids off the find the letters and the first one to cross off all 26 letters is the winner.

An ABC beginning sounds egg hunt is a great way to help kids learn phonics. To play this game fill 26 plastic eggs with small items or toys that represent letters of the alphabet {one of each letter of the alphabet}. Download the free beginning sounds egg hunt printable from Artsy Momma and hide the eggs around the house or yard so the kids can go find them. Cross off the letters once they find an item for each one.

This crazy eggs word families game teaches children to match up certain words with the correct word family. E.g. car, far, bar are all part of the "ar" family. To make this game at home you'll need some plastic eggs, an egg carton, cardboard and a pen. Follow the instructions at Mama Teaches to set up the game.

Another fun literacy game to try is this plastic egg word building game. Hide letters inside eggs then each player rolls a dice to find out how many eggs they get. Then they have to try and build as many words as possible from their letters. Find more details at Teach Me Mommy.

Plastic eggs are perfect for learning word family blends and practicing sight words like Natural Beach Living has done here. To make these on the bottom half of the egg write a two letter word blend {for example at, it, ed, un} and on the corresponding top half write 4-5 letters that will form a word when joined together with the word blend. For at you could use c, m, r, h, b to make cat, mat, rat, hat and bat. This plastic egg word blend game is a really fun and interactive way to help preschoolers learn sight words.

STEM ACTIVITIES USING PLASTIC EGGS

Stem is a learning acronym for science, technology, engineering and maths educational activities that promote critical thinking. Stem activities involve experimentation to problem solve and come up with a solution. Stem activities can involve all different materials, below are 4 simple stem activities using plastic eggs.

This simple egg engineering activity from Sixth Bloom is great for toddlers, preschoolers and primary school children. You'll only need plastic eggs, however can also add playdough if desired. The idea is for children to work out how high they can construct a tower using plastic egg halves. They need to find the best way to stack the eggs and balance them so they don't fall over.

This fizzy egg reaction experiment using one of my favourite simple science experiments for kids - baking soda + vinegar. When vinegar comes in contact with baking powder it creates an explosive fizzing reaction. This fizzy egg version adds an Easter twist by using plastic eggs and food colouring to create a colourful, bubbly reaction. Follow the instructions from Messy Little Monsters to recreate this experiment at home.

This rainbow fizzy egg experiment from Little Bins for Little Hands is the same reaction as above using baking soda and vinegar, but they've taken it a step further with colour matching eggs using all the colours of the rainbow. To set this up line up egg halves {in matching colours} into an egg holder and add matching colour food dye into each one. Top with baking powder and then when vinegar is squirted on top the fizzy rainbow will appear.

Plastic eggs are also great for teaching maths facts. This addition facts game from Homeschool Preschool using plastic eggs as a fun hands on way to learn addition. On the top half of the egg write a simple addition problem, then on the bottom of the egg write 4 or 5 different numbers with one being the answer to the problem. Children then move the bottom of the egg around until they find the correct answer. This game could also be done using subtraction, division or multiplication equations as well.

For more ways to use plastic Easter eggs try some of these Easter sensory bins and play ideas

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