Need a way to keep your toddler busy until the Easter bunny arrives? These simple Easter egg activities require absolutely NO prep, and they’ll provide hours of entertainment!
If your kids are like mine, they LOVE Easter. Candy, hunting for eggs, springtime, bunnies…what’s not to like?
Last year, my three-year-old somehow found the Easter eggs in the basement mid-February and we had a month and a half of hunting for Easter eggs before the Easter bunny even showed up.
That would have been fine, but he had a bad habit of hiding the eggs for me to find and then forgetting where he put them, which meant I was finding random plastic eggs around the house for months! It was never-ending.
At least they weren’t real…then again, we probably would have found those ones sooner because of the smell. Ewww.
This year, I managed to keep him excited about St. Patrick’s day (and hid the eggs better in the basement), so he didn’t really pick up on the Easter egg activities until a few days ago. But now that we’ve pulled out the eggs, OH MY!
It’s pretty much all he wants to do…and he’s not any better at remembering where he hid the eggs.
The good news is that his little brother loves playing with the eggs, too, so I’m getting a lot of mileage out of a really cheap toy. Mom for the win!
And there are SO many more ways to play with Easter eggs than just hiding them.
Here are some of our favorite Easter egg activities. They are all completely NO PREP (you’re welcome, busy mama). All you have to do is pull out your eggs and get cracking!
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist. I blame my father for the puns that seeped into my subconscious over the years).
No Prep Easter Egg Activities for Kids
1. Spinning Easter Eggs
This is the simplest thing ever, but my boys love it so much that I thought it was worth sharing. All you do is take several Easter eggs, and place them on the floor (or on a tabletop). Hold one egg with a hand on each end, and spin it as fast as you can. My boys love to see how fast they can go, how they crash into each other, and how long they’ll spin for. If you get them going fast enough, they’ll actually start spinning upright instead of on their sides, which my boys think is magic.
2. Color Sort Race
Hide the eggs around a room (or just spread them around the floor in the open, depending on the age of your child). Then have your child race to gather the eggs and group them by color. You can have them match the eggs to colored bins, colored paper, or–the truly no-prep option–just make piles on the floor.
3. Cracking Eggs
This activity was created by my one-year-old, so it’s definitely kid approved. Scatter eggs across the floor and then take turns racing around and smashing them with your hands (think “Whack-a-mole”). If you have little toys around that will fit inside, it’s always fun to find something inside, but not necessary.
Note: With older kids, remind them to be gentle or you’ll end up with a lot of broken plastic eggs.
4. Matching Tops & Bottoms
Break apart the eggs into their two halves and mix them up (this is a good one to do right after the activity above to reassemble all the eggs you just cracked). Invite your child to find the matches and see how fast he can get them all put back together. Or race each other and see who gets the most assembled eggs by the time they’re all gone. If you’re willing to do a little prep (we’re talking less than a minute), you can even make it an alphabet or numbers learning activity, like this number matching game from Blessed Beyond a Doubt, or this alphabet matching game from Rub Some Dirt On It.
5. Play Catch
Stand across from your child (or get two of your kids to do it together) and toss the egg back and forth. Simple, but it’s a great way to work on hand-eye coordination. You could also add a level of difficulty to the game for older kids by having them say something that is the color of the egg each time they catch it (yellow: bananas, the sun, daffodils, etc.). Change the color of the egg you’re using when you get stumped.
6. Target Practice
Grab a few containers and try tossing the eggs into the containers. It’s especially fun if you can find different size containers (have your child find some around the house) and assign points, more points for smaller containers, fewer points for bigger ones. We usually raid the tupperware drawer for games like this, but any container you can grab quickly will work.
7. Egg Sensory Bath
I don’t know what it is, but every toy is more fun in the tub. Easter eggs are especially great because (a) they float and (b) they can be used to scoop and pour. From a mom’s perspective, they dry easily and there’s minimal clean up. Win! To expand on this, you could give your little one a slotted spoon or strainer to turn it into this activity from Jen at Plain Vanilla Mom.
8. Stacking Eggs
Instead of blocks, try stacking eggs. Kristina at Toddler Approved has several ideas for how to expand on this simple idea to make some really fun learning games. This activity was one of my preschooler’s favorites and had him rolling on the floor laughing as the eggs toppled over and over.
9. Spoon Race
Let your child use a spoon (for younger kiddos, I recommend using a larger serving spoon so they have more success) to see if they can carry an egg from one place to another. If you have multiple kids, you can make it a race! Or, put two containers at opposite ends of a room and have them transfer eggs between the two. Even my one-year-old could carry the egg around the house on a large spoon after a couple of tries.
10. Suction Cup Eggs
This random idea was created as I was playing on the floor with Little Brother, exploring Easter eggs. We discovered that you can put half an egg over your mouth, suck in air, and get the egg to stay without using your hands. Then, when you run out of lung capacity, blow out quickly and watch the egg go flying. He thought this was hilarious, and tried to do it himself, but just bit the side of the egg and then dropped it–which I thought was hilarious. See, I told you these were simple ideas.
11. Explore
Ask your kids what they think would be fun to do with the eggs. Several of the ideas about came from my kids just exploring the eggs I had piled on the floor. Sometimes I fall in the trap of feeling like I have to entertain them and plan something meaningful, but really, just giving them the freedom to explore and use their imaginations can lead to great fun…and learning.
Happy Easter Week!
What are your favorite ways to play with Easter Eggs?
Want more fun Easter activities for kids? Try these:
The egg spinning contest is something my brother and sister and I have done since 1972.
BUT, we use real colored eggs and we made up rules. Object is too be the last operable, spinning, yolk still attached egg at the table. Spin the egg so it crashes into your opponents egg, hoping to push it off the table.
Rule #1- cant catch the falling egg. There are consequences.
Rule #2- everyone playing must spin egg at same time or else your egg gets pushed off the table.
Keep spinning no matter how much shell you keep loosing. When your yoke flys out, your out.
Keep spinning. Dont catch that egg flying by you. There are consequences.
We are now in our 50’s and have passed the tradition onto the 5 neices and nephews. Although by brother still coordinates the activity.
Happy Easter everyone
I love these ideas! Thanks floor sharing!