Mystery Egg Shakers

I LOVE it when I find an activity that I can adapt and use with both of my kiddos... this was one of them. This activity worked on listening skills & matching skills for my son (3 yr old) and grabbing/reaching, exploring objects using her hands, listening, and auditory & visual tracking skills for my daughter (4 months old).

Materials Needed: plastic eggs (8) , different fillers for eggs (we used pennies, jelly beans, marshmallows, and rice)

Directions:

1. Fill pairs of eggs with different fillers- two eggs with rice, two eggs with jelly beans, etc.

2. Have the kids explore the eggs and shake them. This is an activity that needs adult supervision. Don't leave your child alone with the shakers since they have small objects in them. If you are worried about the eggs opening tape them shut.

3. Have older kids shake the eggs and try and match the eggs that sound the same. It is important that they shake one egg at a time... otherwise the sounds blend and they can get confused! While you shake, make guesses about what could be inside each egg.

4. Once they figure out the pairs that match, set them aside and keep searching until all eggs are matched.

5. Reveal the mystery fillers inside the eggs at the end of your activity... and then try it again once your child knows what is inside each egg. It is fun to see how much quicker they can match the sounds once they know what is inside each egg.

Language Activities:

With my daughter I also talked about the colors of the eggs and told her what I was doing (shaking the eggs, moving them up and down, etc.). I encouraged her to try shaking the egg shakers as well... and held her hand and helped her shake them. She loved it! It was fun to see how she responded to the different sounds and which ones she liked better. Singing and shaking the eggs to music was another activity that she enjoyed as well!