Montessori Activities With Plastic Eggs

One of the best-kept secrets in multisensory learning for kids is likely nearby. You probably have dozens sitting around at home. They are beautiful, hold up well to little hands, and have dozens of uses. We are talking about plastic Easter eggs.

🧮 What Montessori says about everyday objects as learning materials: Maria Montessori believed that the best learning materials are those that are beautiful, purposeful, and accessible. She also observed that children develop critical thinking and creative reasoning when they are presented with familiar objects used in unexpected ways. This kind of open-ended, divergent thinking, seeing multiple possibilities in a single object, is one of the hallmarks of the Montessori prepared environment. Research on object-based learning (Lillard and Else-Quest, 2006, Science) found that children in Montessori environments showed significantly stronger executive function, creative problem-solving, and abstract reasoning than peers in conventional classrooms, in part because Montessori materials consistently invite children to discover multiple uses and relationships. A 2018 study in Early Childhood Education Journal confirmed that open-ended manipulative play with everyday objects produced the strongest gains in mathematical reasoning, language development, and fine motor skills among preschool-age children.

Whatever your family traditions, plastic Easter eggs are an incredible tool for children. Not only can they help teach dozens of concepts, but they also teach children about creative thinking. When we present children with an object in a completely different way than they are used to seeing it, minds open.

As children move from concrete to abstract thinking, they begin to see the world in a new way. This is a critical skill for growing the brain and raising lifelong learners. These activities are also perfect for keeping a younger toddler occupied while working with an older child.

Your child may laugh or seem puzzled when presented with these activities. This is entirely normal. Children are still learning to see shades of grey, still discovering that objects can have multiple uses. You are not only getting a versatile and inexpensive teaching tool, you are expanding your student's mind.

Plastic Easter eggs for Montessori activities

The Top Educational Activities to Try With Plastic Eggs

Gather up your Easter egg collection and try a few of these activities together:

🌸 Sorting and color matching

Use old egg cartons to sort eggs by color
Place one color onto each row or crate
Color the inside of an egg carton and match eggs to the proper color
Separate eggs and match the halves by color
Place into a sensory bin
Use several different sizes and sort by color or size
Practice nesting eggs by size
Make a color wheel with eggs
Match eggs to similarly colored paint strips

🎵 Music and sensory play

Put magnets inside for magnet exploration
Fill each egg with something different and have the child guess what is inside
Match pom poms or beads by color
Create egg shakers for music
Make two of each pitch and match the sounds
Make patterns with eggs

✍️ Fine motor skills

Practice opening and closing the egg
Use tweezers to pick up an egg half
Use tongs to pick up a whole egg
Fill and empty an egg
Fill an egg with pom poms using a spoon, scoop, or tweezers
Let a toddler who loves opening and closing things explore freely
Poke holes on each end and string eggs onto a cord
Fill with water for outdoor play

🔢 Math activities

Number each egg and put them in order
Sort eggs by even and odd numbers
Skip count with eggs
Use in place of number cards for math
Match fractions with decimals written on egg halves
Write a monetary value on the outside and fill the egg with the proper coins
Write the value of a coin on the outside and sort coins into the proper egg
Match the number of dots to the proper number

📖 Language arts activities

Put a letter on each egg and use for spelling (one color for vowels, another for consonants)
Create compound words with one portion on each half
Write common word endings on one side with possible beginning letter combinations on the other
Write a state or country on one half and the capital on the other, then separate and match

Creative and community activities with plastic eggs

🌟 Creative and community ideas

Fill with snacks for a fun lunchbox surprise
Decorate with washi tape
Balance an egg on a spoon while walking around
Build structures with egg halves
Save for next year, fill, and bring to a children's hospital, retirement home, or similar location
Make homemade putty to fill the inside. Learn how in our Sensory Activity Pack.

Have another favorite use for plastic Easter eggs? Let us know so we can add it to our list. We love sharing creative ways to reuse common materials for education here on the blog, so stay tuned for more.