Plastic Egg Shaker Music Games

Last Spring, Onetime and I spent some time studying seeds.  We started a seed collection using seeds we found outside and in our own kitchen.  We even made some awesome seedy art and grew plants from seeds!

This year, we decided to show you how we made and most importantly – PLAYED –  with some cute plastic egg shaker music eggs made with seeds!

You Will Need:

• 6 or more coloured and patterned plastic easter eggs (BONUS points if you can get 3 matching-coloured PAIRS of eggs with 3 different patterns.  For example, 2 eggs with dots, 2 with flowers, and 2 plain)
• 3 different kinds of seeds   Note: the best 3 to use are popcorn, rice, and oatmeal because they sound quite different in the eggs when shaken.  Beans could be substitued for popcorn kernels, and lentils could be substituted for rice.
• hot glue gun

To make the shakers, have your child scoop a couple of tablespoons of one type of seeds into 2 different-coloured plastic eggs.

For example, you will fill 2 eggs with oatmeal (one blue and one purple), 2 eggs with rice (one yellow and one pink), 2 eggs with beans (one pink and one blue).

Once each egg is filled, get your glue gun out and glue those eggs shut!

 Now play a few games!

GAME #1:  Shake, Shake, Shake!

Put on some music and have fun shaking the different eggs along with your child as you dance and create music!  Ask your child which egg they like the best.

Try to get your child shaking along with the beat (the sounds that are like a heartbeat – can be fast or slow).

Now get them to try shaking along with the rhythm (the rhythm is sometimes carried by the bass guitar – it is a pattern that usually repeats, consisting of short and long sounds).

GAME #2:  Listening Match

The idea is to mix up the eggs in a pile and have your child shake each egg and try to match together the 2 eggs that were filled with the same seed – using their listening skills!

Onetime needed to be guided through this activity.  I told him we were going to try to match the eggs by how they sounded.

I picked up one egg, shook it and then asked him to find the other that matched this sound.

Eventually, he was able to find the matches with a little prompting to keep shaking eggs until he found one that matched.  Lots of learning here!

GAME #3:  Colour and Pattern Matching

Pretty self-explanatory!  Mix up the eggs and have your child group the eggs together according to colour.  This is why you needed PAIRS of coloured eggs.  The picture below shows 12 eggs, but 6 is a great start for a preschooler!

If your child can match colours easily – try having them sort according to patterns on the eggs! For example, we had a group of dotted eggs, flowered eggs, solid eggs, and a unique patterned group.

GAME #4:  Rhythm Copy Shake

You and your child should each have one egg.  Shake out a simple rhythm with your egg and ask your child to copy you!

Did you know that there are simple words that can be associated with certain rhythms?

Try These Rhythms:

Bear = 1 beat/1 shake

Penguin = 2 beats/2 shakes

Antelope = 3 beats/3 shakes

Alligator = 4 beats/4 shakes

Octopus = 1 long beat, then 2 short/3 shakes  (put emphasis on Oc-to-pus)

Now you can say the words and have your child shake them out!

If you child gets good at copying you saying one word, try shaking a couple of words together like: Bear Penguin, then having them copy.

You can also try having them shake a rhythm that you have to copy!

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Hope you enjoy some of these games!