Learning with Spring Eggs

Lots To Do With Plastic Spring Eggs

Every spring bags of plastic colorful eggs appear in stores.  They are inexpensive and appeal to kids of all ages.  Here are some springtime fun activities with the eggs which encourage discovery and learning.

  You will need about a dozen plastic assorted color eggs which come apart in the middle, various small items to fit inside the eggs like pretzels, jelly beans, popcorn, cotton balls, pebbles, pennies, nails, rubber eraser, and cheerios, toothpicks, and dental floss.

Patterns

   Spend some time just laying out eggs  halves on a soft 

Look for the Patterns

surface.  Count them together.  Group the eggs by color. Ask children a few questions. Can you make some patterns like yellow, blue, red, yellow, blue, red?  Can you use the half eggs to make shapes like triangle, square, or a circle? 

   No bring out the little items and place some pieces in each egg.  Talk about what you are putting in each egg as you do it.  When each egg has something different inside, help children play a little guessing game by shaking the egg and guessing what is inside. How does our sense of hearing help  when we can’t see what is making the noise?  Does the sound suggest something soft or hard, big or little, rubbery? How many did you guess correctly? You can play the game lots of times or add new items.

  The eggs can also be used for a fun container for snacks for little fingers—cheerios, pretzels, small carrot sticks or peas. Younger children may need help to open the egg without spilling the contents.

   Let your child hide an egg and then play the hot (getting closer) cold (going away from) game as you try to find it.  In the bathtub, children can experiment with eggs that float or sink depending on what they put inside.

Hide and Seek With Eggs

Decorate Trees

 Older children can use the eggs to play simple math games with adding one more egg or taking away one or two eggs from the group.  Let them make up some problems for you. Use the eggs to show your answer. Your little ones will have fun using the eggs to decorate the dinner table to help celebrate the coming of springtime.

  You can also hang some colorful eggs in the trees. Tie a piece of a toothpick to some dental floss. Poke a hole through one end of the plastic egg with a large needle and poke the toothpick through the hole.  When you gently pull the floss back out the toothpick will hold the floss inside the egg.  Make a loop on the other end of the floss and use that to hang the eggs on a tree branch. For more see grandparentsteachtoo.blogspot.com and wnmufm.org/Learning Through the Seasons, live and podcasts; Facebook, and Pinterest.

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

Making Maps with Plastic Eggs

Young Children Construct Maps With Blocks

Children are naturally eager for knowledge. With a little preparation, families can have fun together providing a learning environment and inviting discovery. Map making activities are fun and help develop a sense of order.
   When young children play with snap together blocks on the floor, they can construct rooms and furniture for their tiny play figures. Explain that they can also look down on the room and draw a picture map of all the furniture, doors, and windows with lines, rectangles, and squares. They can make circles to represent their play figures.
  You don’t need to do this every time they construct, just when they are in the mood. Making maps may become a habit when they build.
Treasure Maps
  Another time help them draw a simple paper treasure map of their bedroom. Draw some ovals where you plan to place plastic eggs. Explain that if they were Spiderman stuck to the ceiling, this is what they would see.
  Then walk around the room while

Learn and Explore Through Mapping

following the map and place the eggs. Use words like ”turn right and walk around the chair” to practice directions. Add a map key and  a title “My Bedroom Treasure Map”
  Together you can make more treasure maps and include eggs for others to find.  Place the plastic eggs under and behind objects around the bedroom so the seeker must follow the map.
  When young children feel like playing map games again, help them draw a treasure map of more rooms. Keep the maps very simple and hide eggs where others will need to follow the map instead of taking one look and spotting the eggs.
Fun with Maps
   Together make treasure maps of their room’s

See Your Neighborhood in Google Street View

location in the house and their house on the street.  Introduce other kinds of maps of places they visit. Show them where Santa lives on a world map or globe and draw a line to their house. Children might also like to see locations on Google Maps.
  Other helpful places include: ”Follow That Map” by Richie, “Me on the Map" by Sweeney.
Photo by Fran Darling, fdarling fotos
Sketch by Mark Nowicki;
Street View, Google Maps
More Ideas and Activities....See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio, 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest