leftover plastic Easter eggs, part 1

Now that Easter is over, you may be wondering what to do with all the left-over plastic eggs!  I just can't bear to throw them away - it seems sad and bad for the environment.  Last year, I stowed them away for re-use this year...but thanks to grandma, we ended up with twice as many.  Here are some things you can do with your kids to put those colorful plastic eggs to use and keep the fun going.....

• make egg shakers by filling them with buttons, beans, beads, whatever and taping closed
• fill each egg with a puzzle piece and re-hide them.  Let the kids search and put the puzzle together
• use a glue gun and a foam wreath form or a plain grape-vine wreath to create a festive decoration for next year
• empty eggs make great bathtub toys for scooping and pouring - will they float or sink? how can you make them sink?
• empty eggs make great sandbox toys for scooping and pouring.  Bury them and dig up your treasure.
• use them to cut circle-shaped cookies or biscuits
• create a matching game by mixing up halves and letting a young child put them back together
• create patterns with your kids by lining up halves with alternating colors and sizes.  You can make a pattern and ask them to guess what would come next.  Have them create their own.
• use three halves flat on a table, place an object under one and shuffle them around. Can your child guess where the object is?
• plastic eggs are just the right size for snack containers for lunch boxes or in mom's purse - they make good serving sizes for little kids.
• play scavenger hunt - fill the eggs with clues and hide them leading to something fun
• use them for seed starters - place halves in the cups of an empty egg-carton, fill with soil and plant seeds, keep moist and set in a sunny place until seeds sprout
• smaller eggs can sometimes fit into board game boxes to hold small pieces such as dice or pawns to keep them from getting lost
• if the egg doesn't have small holes in the bottoms, you can place a small amount of play-doh or clay inside and stash it in your purse for entertaining your kids while waiting at a restaurant or at the doctor's office, etc....  or fill it with stickers or beads and a shoelace.
• use one in your purse or make-up bag for storing cotton balls, earrings, or other small items
• play your own version of Jenga - have each child take a turn stacking one egg half over top of another, see how high the tower will grow until it falls over

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Comments

[Jennifer]

Great suggestions! Thanks for all the ideas.

[Linda]

Great ideas!!! Will try many of these.