These shakers can be used for many different things and all ages. For babies they are great for sound development and fine motor skills. For toddler and preschool ages they can be used for music and teaching sound discrimination. In the classroom I would bring these out at Easter time. I would fill eggs with different items {2 eggs had the same item for matching} then I would hide them around the room. The children would take turns “hunting them” and then they had to match the eggs with the same sound. They always enjoyed this lesson and it was great watching the all the other kids try to help. It was a great way to teach sound matching, patience and taking turns.

All you need are plastic Easter eggs, a hot glue gun and different sounding items:

Rice

Beans

Pennies

Bells

Paper Clips

Plastic beads

Cotton balls

{and} I always left 2 empty

Fill the eggs with desired items and then hot glue them closed.

Even though the Groundhog saw his shadow and we have 6 more weeks of winter {BOO} our winter has been pretty mild. So I take these sunny days as opportunities for water play outside. I also took our discovery bottles and egg shakers too. Fun, easy and cheap!