Math Busy Bag: Counting Eggs - Best Toys 4 Toddlers

An Easter busy bag is much more than a way to occupy your young child. It can help your kiddo to build early learning skills. Like what?

Keep reading to find out how to create an imaginative egg activity and what it can do for your developing child!

Easter Egg Fun for Any Season

Whether it’s actually Easter or not, brightly-colored eggs are always fun to make. Instead of dip-dyeing real ones, this activity lets your crafty kid make 2-D felt versions that she can stash away in a bag and reuse over and over again – year round.

Your child can add to her Easter busy bag, changing it by the season or holiday. Even though she’s starting with eggs, she can dress the basic oval shapes up like decorative Christmas lights, turn them into rainbow pots of gold for St. Patrick’s Day or make them into summer-time sea shells. The only limit here is your child’s creativity. And, you already know that is boundless.

Learning and Development

So, what will your child learn by using her busy bag? To start with, she’s building fine motor skills. She’s cutting and manipulating craft felt. This builds eye-hand coordination and dexterity.

This kids’ activity also includes plenty of math content and spatial ability skill-building. Your child will learn number recognition skills and counting. She’ll also develop shape recognition skills and learn about the part-to-whole relationship.

Counting Egg Busy Bag Materials

Here are the materials that you’ll need:

Craft felt (choose a variety of colors)
Markers
Card stock paper
Scissors
Zipper plastic baggie

How-To Steps

Draw an oval onto a piece of craft felt. Size it so that it is larger than a real egg. Ask your child to name the shape as she draws. You can also add in a color recognition activity by asking her to tell you what hue she’s using. Cut the oval out.
Trace the oval onto another piece of craft felt (in another color). Cut that one out. Repeat to make as many eggs as your child wants to count.
Cut small shapes from other colors of felt. Use the scraps leftover from cutting out the ovals.
Cut out squares from the card stock paper. Number each square. Make one number for each egg. You can also make these from small pieces of craft felt. If you’re using felt, you’ll need a fabric marker to draw on it clearly.
Line the eggs up. Place one number square on each egg.
Decorate the eggs with the small felt shapes. Your child must match the number of shapes with the number on the egg. Repeat for each egg/number. Ask your child to name the number and count as she’s pressing shapes on. When your child’s done you can pack everything up into the baggie and store it for later.