10 Easy Ways to Reuse Plastic Eggs

1. Use plastic eggs to practice reading, writing & spelling CVC words.

CVC words are words that start with a consonant or consonant pair, and end with a vowel consonant pair (EX: “C” (consonant) + “A” (vowel), & “T: (consonant)). I wrote one or two consonants on one side of the egg, and a vowel consonant pair on the other side of the egg. I had my child put consonants and vowel consonant pairs together to make words. Does the word make sense? If yes, I had him write the word down. I challenged him to build as many words as possible using the plastic eggs.

2. Throw your plastic eggs and other Easter leftovers in a sensory bin!

Sensory bins don’t have to be complicated. I like to start with this question when I plan a sensory activity: How can I use these materials to practice a skill? Plastic eggs lend themselves so perfectly to color sorting. I also had some extra marshmallow bunnies, jelly beans and Easter grass lying around. I threw all of these into a container, handed my daughter a pair of tongs, and challenged her to sort the jelly beans into the plastic eggs. This activity also helped her practice fine motor skills by using the tongs and also with opening and closing the plastic eggs.

3. Stack Plastic Eggs using Playdough

If you saw my Spring STEM Challenge Cards, you’ll be familiar with this activity. My son loves to build, especially with unlikely materials. Using playdough as the “glue,” we stacked plastic eggs on top of each other to build structures. The most fun build was a simple bridge. This was a great opportunity to teach him about the cornerstone support of a bridge.

4. Plastic Eggs are Perfect for Preschool Color Sorting

Have pom poms on hand? Have your child practice learning their colors by sorting pom poms into their corresponding colored eggs. Such an easy activity. If you don’t have pom poms on hand, use colored paper or color on scraps of paper.

5. Fizzy Exploding Plastic Eggs

Mix baking soda with food coloring and place it into a plastic egg. You’ll want to place the eggs on top of a carton half open. Have your child drop vinegar into the eggs and watch as the eggs “explode” and fizz.

6. String Pipe Cleaner in Plastic Eggs to Make Creepy Crawlies

Like adding beads to string, thread a pipecleaner through one half of the plastic egg. String the next half of egg so they face the same direction. Add as many egg halves as you’d like to create caterpillars, snakes or other creepy crawlies. Add googly eyes to bring your creations to life. These egg caterpillars make fun sounds and would be great addition to a sensory tray!

7. Plastic Egg Plinko

We used our Nugget as a ramp to roll plastic eggs into containers, and even a dump truck. We placed toys on the nugget as obstacles, similar to the plinko carnival game. You could also use colored containers and and have kids roll the egg into the correct color container. Or you could number containers and try to roll the correct amount of eggs into the appropriate container.

8. Practice Counting with Plastic Eggs

Write a number on the top of the plastic egg. Write the corresponding number of dots on the bottom of the egg. For example, I wrote 3 on the top, and 3 dots on the bottom. Have your child match the eggs correctly.

9. Use Plastic Eggs to Practice Counting Money

My child is getting curious about money. He thinks that bigger coins are always worth more. Unfortunately, dimes are worth less than nickels! To help him learn the value of coins, I wrote a low value in cents on the egg. I challenged him to count money and put it in the correct egg. I don’t carry change, so I purchased this set of play money, which has been helpful for a variety of activities. I even use play money for paying him when he does jobs beyond his home responsibilities (more on this later).

10. Plastic Egg Tower Challenge

Grab a leftover cardboard box and stick 5-10 straws on top. Starting with 1, number each straw on the box at the base of each straw using a marker. Have your child stack the correct number of egg halves on each straw. For older children, challenge them to stack 10 or 20 straws. How many straws can they stack?

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