lessons with lori – Egg Games

Hooray! We made it through Easter on quarantine, and hopefully you were able to have fun with your family. Now that it’s over we have eggs EVERYWHERE but of course “you can’t throw them out, MOM!!!” Sooooooo what can you do? You use them for a game!

As a Type A personality teacher, I created this game for my Elementary school classes and therefor NEEDED color coded egg groups. If you are my spirit animal in that way, put on your haz-mat suit and head to the WalMart because everything is super cheap! If you are happy with the massive amount of eggs your own kids have, just commandeer those!

There are a couple of games and activities that you can do with these materials. EGG HUNT is the first game. In my classroom, I would divide my students into small groups and let them know what their team color was. They could ONLY hunt for their eggs. I would go out to the common space, or the playground at the school and just chuck those eggs like a lunatic. I asked parents, friends, and the awesome art teacher to donate empty egg carton so I had a fun way to store them. If you are doing this at home, you can use whatever you want.

If you are a parent, not planning on making. class set of these, you can have your older kids put this project together. It will keep them busy for a little while. You’re welcome!

If you are a teacher, you want to make this activity as TEACHER SUPPORT FREE as possible. You want your students to work together and sort the eggs without you having to give them all of the answers. My 6 year old is still an early reader so she can absolutely recognize letters, but won’t be able to read the names of the symbols. She can match the pictures though and that will help her with symbol recognition. I created a document with instruction on how to set up the game and all of the labels you will need.

Here is Evie matching the eggs to the key, and then finding the right place to put the egg using letter recognition skills to help her. Older kids should be able to work towards relying on their own symbol recognition, but can use the key to help out if needed.

The next game you can play with repurposed Easter eggs is one I call SCRAMBLED EGGS.

You can either mix the colors up by using one color for the top part and another color for the bottom, or you can use the same color for top and bottom. Regardless, whether you choose to draw your music symbols on with a sharpie marker or use the labels I have created, be sure to cover them with tape. Permanent marker isn’t actually permanent when you add small human hands to the game.

Fasten the music symbol to one half of the egg, and the name of the symbol to the bottom of the egg. Then pull all of the eggs apart and scramble away!

Evie and our pup Cadence had a “done” basket as well as a basket for the scrambled eggs. Again, with Evie being in Kindergarten, she used the key to help her match the tops to the bottoms.

I used my littlest musician for these pictures because my older musicians were chained to their desks finishing their Learn From Home assignments, but these activities are great for any age child who likes puzzles and matching games and you can use this concept for math problems, matching Spanish to English vocabulary, small words to pictures… The list goes on. If you are a parent who has suddenly been thrust into the education system, good luck! We classroom teachers are here for you, and know that we are missing your kids like crazy! Stay safe!

Click here for instructions and materials to create Egg Hunt and Scrambled Eggs. I’d love for you to share pictures of your kids playing!