I want to wish you a happy Easter and share an idea to infuse mathematical thinking into the traditional egg hunt. You can turn Easter eggs into flashcards! 

Easter Egg Flashcards:

1) Use a sharpie or dry erase marker to write any number on the top and bottom of plastic Easter eggs. 

2) After the eggs are collected, challenge children to fill the eggs with the correct number of jelly beans based on the mathematical operation that is being practiced.

3)Have children mix and match tops and bottoms to create new numbers. As the new number is created either add additional jelly beans or subtract by eating! 

Mathematical Operation Variations:

ADDITION:
Children should add the numbers on the top and bottom of each egg to determine the number of jelly beans to place inside the egg. Even young children can work on counting out each number of jelly beans and combining to make a bigger group.

SUBTRACTION:
Subtract the bigger number from the smaller number and place the correct number of jelly beans into the egg. This is a good time to think about why it is necessary to start with the bigger number in subtraction. You can even talk about the concept of negative numbers. There will not be any jelly beans in the egg if you start with with 3 jelly beans and take 5 away! 

MULTIPLICATION:
Multiply the numbers on the top and the bottom of the egg together. Place the total number of jelly beans into the egg. If children are still working on the concept of multiplication, make groups of jelly beans with the same number in each group to figure out the total. For example: 3 X 4 would be three groups with 4 jelly beans in each group for a total of 12 jelly beans placed in the egg.

DIVISION:
Have children see what happens if they try to divide different numbers. Sometime it will work out nicely: 6 divided by 3 will equal 2 jelly beans. Sometimes you will have to break jelly beans into fractional parts! 1 divided by 2 will equal 1/2 a jelly bean! Eat 1/2 and place the other half into the egg!