Looking for a fun Easter-themed learning activity? Encourage your preschooler to practice number identification and counting skills using this Easter egg hunt with a math skills twist!

I can’t believe it’s almost Easter already. I’m just catching my breath from St. Patrick’s Day (and the weekend getaway to our friends’ cabin in Idaho…holy cow LAUNDRY!), but we’re already gearing up for another holiday! Yikes! It’s okay though. I went out last night with a friend (hooray for girls’ night) and bought most of the items for my kids’ Easter baskets, and I’m enjoying the chance to do some fun Easter activities with my boys.

Speaking of, I don’t know what’s happened, but all of the sudden, Little Brother is actually interested in doing “Mommy School” with me. He’s been indifferent at best for most of his life about doing any kind of structured activity. He typically prefers to dig in a rice bin or play with Legos on his own. I’ve tried to follow his lead (he’s only three, after all), so up until now I’ve kept our learning activities pretty free-form (and brief), but I’m excited that he actually wants to do something with me now.

Even with his newfound enthusiasm, I’m a big believer in keeping preschool activities play-based and as hands-on as possible. So, as I’ve planned Easter-themed activities, I’ve tried to appeal to his interests.

He especially loved this Easter egg hunt counting activity we did a few days ago. It came to me as I was going to bed one night (anyone else get brilliant ideas when you’re trying to sleep?…SLOW DOWN, brain). It’s a really simple concept, took me five minutes to prep, and I used supplies I already had on hand.

I know my boys love hunting for Easter eggs (they do it year-round), so I knew I wanted to capitalize on that to build an activity that would encourage Little Brother to practice counting with one-to-one correspondence. He can rattle off numbers in order without a problem, but ask him to count actual items, and he forgets to say just one number for each thing. He gets ahead of himself and ends up with the totally wrong number in the end.

With all that in mind, I put different numbers of small snack foods inside some plastic Easter eggs. One egg had one chocolate kiss. The next had two goldfish crackers, then three pieces of cereal, and so on. I set the eggs aside and wrote the numbers 1-12 on stickers in the bottom of an empty egg carton.

Then I hid the eggs and had Little Brother find them. Every time he found an egg, we would open it, count the snacks inside, and put it in the corresponding egg carton spot. He had a hard time at first with counting one snack at a time, but I found that if I had him dump out the contents of the egg and then count each one as he placed it back in the egg, he was able to keep track and count properly most of the time.

When he was done, I let him dump all the snacks into a bowl and enjoy a morning snack of trail mix. Double win!

Little Brother was thrilled because he got to hunt for Easter eggs and eat yummy snacks at the end. I loved it because it kept him engaged and got him to practice counting, one-to-one correspondence, and number identification.

Ready to play? Here are all the details you need to know:

Easter Egg Hunt Counting Activity

WHAT WE’RE LEARNING:

• number identification
• matching
• one-to-one correspondence
• counting
• greater than/less than

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• Easter eggs
• empty egg carton
• assorted small snacks/countable items (Goldfish crackers, cereal, raisins, jelly beans, etc.)
• pen

DIRECTIONS:

PREPARATION:

1. Fill several Easter eggs with small snacks or other countable items. In the first egg, put one item. In the second, put two…and so on. Fill as many as you want your child to practice counting. (I did a dozen to fill the egg carton nicely.)
2. Write the numbers 1-12 (or however many eggs you use) in the different cups of an egg carton.
3. Choose boundaries for your hunt. We kept ours to the living room and kitchen of our house. Hide the eggs in the defined area for your child to find.

PLAYING THE GAME:

1. Explain to your child that their job is to match the right egg with the right number in the egg carton.
2. Encourage your child to hunt for the eggs. When he/she finds one, have your child open the egg and count the items inside. Then, they can place the egg in the right spot in the carton.
3. Continue playing until all the eggs have been found.
4. You can double-check that each egg is in the right spot by opening them up, counting the items, and then dumping the items into a bowl all mixed together. Then, declare it snack time and let your child enjoy a fun trail mix!

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Want more Easter activities for kids? Try these:

• 10 no-prep Easter egg activities your kids will LOVE!
• “What’s hidden in the grass?”: Easter cutting activity
• How to make Easter egg bath bombs
• Match & color Easter egg activity