I found these cool plastic Easter eggs on sale for $0.99 at Michaels craft store Tuesday night, and knew they would make perfect egg shakers. They are made out of sturdier plastic than regular eggs, and I love that one half is a colored egg and the other half is clear. We filled half of them with poly pellets. Then I decided to make things a little more interesting, so we used colored rice, quinoa, pinto beans, and black beans to fill the remaining eggs. I sealed the eggs shut with electrical tape – it’s hard for little fingers to peel off and stretchy enough that it only bunches a tiny bit at the narrow end of each egg. And it gives each egg a “fancy” black stripe.
All three kids enjoy playing with them:
Lily uses them properly the most frequently – turns out they make perfect baby toys!
Emma and Johnny spent much of yesterday afternoon pretending to be Easter bunnies and hiding the eggs. They would then go find them for me, and tell me what a good job I was doing of finding the eggs. That’s my kind of game!
There are many structured ways to use egg shakers: you can have children shake their eggs to the beat of a song, talk about how different fillings in the eggs make different noises, have one child shake their egg and ask the other children to try to walk to the beat of the egg shaker… If you make fancy clear shakers like us, you can even talk about how static electricity makes some of the fillings (quinoa in particular) stick to the inside walls of the shaker!








Nice! They look so cool.
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Great ideas, and you snagged a great deal on those eggs. Lily looks so big already!
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Our church uses them in the children’s ministry for the kids to participate in worship. Glad to hear mine aren’t the only ones hiding eggs nonstop.
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Great idea!
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What a great idea! My kids would love this. Thanks for stopping by Healthy Moms!
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What an awesome idea! I didn’t see those at Micheal’s the other day.
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Great find!
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They are so pretty!
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Gorgeous! And I totally agree they are the perfect baby toy.
LOL about your kids finding them for you and telling you what a great job you’re doing of finding them. :)
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such a great idea! those are really cool eggs too.
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They are so pretty! I love that you filled them with such interesting and colorful fillings. So cool!!
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You are awesome! The things you do are one of a kind and so, so fun!!
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What a clever idea!
Following from MBC.
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love the see-through eggs!
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Great idea.
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Bad idea, electrical tape is not secure enough for a toddler witrh with patience, contents can be choking hazards depending on size of particulate, as well as the left over tape.
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maryanne Reply:
December 28th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
@MD – Ours have held up without any trouble, but they aren’t ever used without supervision.
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We have some homemade shakers in little boxes but I really like that you can see inside your version – much more interesting. Thanks for linking to the Carnival of Music and Sing Play ;)
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Oh my and wow! These look AMAZING!!! I Want to find eggs like that!! Perfect!!
Maggy
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maryanne Reply:
April 20th, 2011 at 9:51 am
Thanks! I want to make more for friends, but so far I haven’t seen eggs like those this year…
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What a great idea – I’m going to be on the hunt out as I’m sure T will love them.
Thank you for linking up with Made with Love
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oh, totally love them! You made them so exciting also for the kids! Pinning them.
Love and thanks for linking up,
Angelique
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maryanne Reply:
January 10th, 2012 at 10:01 am
I’m glad you like them! Thanks for pinning =)
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So much fun! They have pretty colored electrical tape, too, but these are so visual already. I love this idea! Carolyn
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maryanne Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Thank you!
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I love that one side is clear!! I’ll have to look for those as Easter gets closer!
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maryanne Reply:
February 1st, 2012 at 3:51 pm
The clear side makes them way more fun! Wish I knew where to buy them all the time – I have friends who want sets =)
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Great idea! I wonder if anyone makes plastic eggs that are totally see-through?
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MaryAnne Reply:
March 25th, 2013 at 12:32 pm
I actually found some at Oriental Trading last year, and made this version: http://mamasmiles.com/fancy-shaker-eggs-version-two/
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Those look very pretty, with the colored sand and poly pellets!
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MaryAnne Reply:
March 26th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Thank you! My kids play with them all the time!
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