Hinged plastic eggs are so great to play games with. Any dollar store will have them this time of year. Go stock up! Here are three matching games I played with my kids this afternoon.
Version One: Basic Matching Game 
*fill plastic eggs with any small item you can find around your home. Lego, small toys, hair elastics, whatever you can find. * To make it a little more challenging, I don't put the matches in matching-coloured eggs.
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*Set your eggs up in rows and columns so they are ready for the game to begin.
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*Take turns opening two eggs at a time to find the matching items inside.
Version Two: Sound Matches *This time, instead of filling the eggs with whatever I could find that fit, I filled them with things that would make an interesting sound when the egg was shaken. Examples: rice, popcorn kernels, marbles, dimes, etc. *Again, I mixed up the colours of the eggs with the fillings. *Set out the eggs in tidy rows again.
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*Then take turns picking up two eggs and shaking them to find the matches.
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*If you think you've found two eggs that sound the same, open them up to check if you were right.
Version Three: Matching Goodies
*In this version, when I filled the eggs, I filled them up with happy little surprises for the kids. Examples: mini eggs, cream eggs, jelly beans, smarties, marshmallows, chocolate chips, etc.
* Set up the eggs in rows, and rotate taking turns again.
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*Of course, this time when they got a match we stopped to enjoy the sweets we found inside.
Version Four: Prizes Matching Game *We didn't play this game, because I only thought of it right now as I was blogging these other ones. But wouldn't it be fun to go to the dollar store and get some little toys and gizmos to put in the eggs? Then when a match was found, they could keep it's contents as a prize. I've totally got to do that!
great idea!
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