Toddlers and pre-schoolers love a good ol’ fashioned Easter egg hunt, and the good news is that this fun activity doesn’t have to involve a this highs and lows of the sugar rush (and crash).
There are many Easter hunts involving hollow plastic eggs, and a basket of these beauties will engage your under five all year round.
The benefits of the plastic egg
Plastic eggs can be opened, closed, stacked, filled, emptied, sorted, poured and even used for painting. At the same time, these reusable eggs:
- Build curiosity as little people size them up, give them a shake and wonder what’s inside;
- Foster exploration as children use them for sensory play, nature play and general experimentation; and
- Promote developmental skills as youngsters practice their hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills while pulling the eggs apart and putting them back together.
When it comes to Easter, children use their bodies and brains to find hidden eggs and solve fun problems.
So, without further ado, here are six Easter egg hunt ideas that are exciting and educational for under fives:
Exercise Eggs
This ‘find and move’ scavenger hunt is a great way to kick off the long weekend.
All you need to do is write some physical challenges on slips of paper and hide one in each plastic egg. Scatter the eggs around the garden or house, then encourage your child to open each egg they find and complete the action.
To get you started, some of the slips could say:
- March in place for 25 seconds
- Sing the alphabet while skipping around the garden/room
- Stomp five times
- Touch your toes and clap your hands
- Jump as high as you can five times
- Sing ‘Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes’
- Do a funny dance
- Have a running race with Mum/Dad
ABC Egg Hunt
For an egg hunt with a Bingo feel, print off two sheets containing all the letters of the alphabet. Cut up one sheet so that you have 26 letters to put in your plastic eggs. Put one, two or three letters in each egg, hide them around the place, and then the hunt is on!
Each time your child finds an egg, it’s their job to mark off the letter/s they’ve found on the other alphabet sheet. Keep going till all the letters have been crossed off.
For a two-player game, get your children to find all the eggs they can, then take turns opening them and marking off the letters they’ve found (using two different coloured pens). The winner is the child who’s found the most letters (which doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve found the most eggs…).
Egg Counting Hunt
For this hunt, you’ll need 18 plastic eggs, one bucket, some Post-It notes or cardboard squares (with the numbers 1 to 18 written on them) and a preschooler!
Scatter the eggs around your house or backyard and get your child to find all 18 and put them near the bucket. Once that’s done, ask your preschooler to choose a number card from the pile in your hand, then count out that number of eggs and put them in the bucket.
Tip out the eggs and repeat this game until all the number cards are gone and your child has egg-celled themselves at number recognition and counting.
DUPLO and LEGO Easter Egg Hunts
One toddler-friendly idea is to hide a 2x2 DUPLO brick in each plastic egg, making sure you’ve got a good mix of colours. Once all the eggs have been found, get your little one to sort the bricks into colours, then use their creativity and fine motor skills to build something brilliant.
For pre-schoolers, you can hide an assortment of LEGO vehicle parts (e.g. wheels, flat bricks, windshields, spoilers and steering wheels) in different eggs. Then, once all the eggs have been found, the race is on to make some motor vehicles!
You can also do a mini-figure match-up, where you put half a LEGO character in each egg (dividing heads and upper bodies, and legs and accessories between eggs). Your child can then match the correct halves, or have fun experimenting.
Puzzle Piece Easter Egg Hunt
If your child prefers cardboard puzzles to plastic bricks, then you can hide puzzle pieces in the eggs instead. There are some cute Easter-themed puzzles, like this Easter Cookies family puzzle (with large, medium and small pieces), and whether you buy a new puzzle locally or dig one out at home, this is a sweet ‘find and solve’ activity for Easter Sunday.
Crayon Resist Easter Egg Hunt
You won’t need chocolate or plastic eggs for this hunt, but you will need some basic art supplies.
When your little one isn’t looking, draw lots of Easter eggs on a large piece of white paper, using a white crayon. Next, set up some watercolour paints and brushes for your child, and tell them that there are some Easter eggs hidden on the paper.
As they paint over the crayon drawings, the eggs will appear one-by-one and this is a magical way to get arty this Easter.
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