Tips for a Successful Easter Egg Hunt for Preschoolers. I am always on the hunt for new ideas for Easter egg hunts. Each year Charlie would start asking to do an Easter Egg Hunt at home as soon as he saw Easter eggs in the shops. And let’s face it that gets earlier and earlier each year. I am sure I saw them in January this year. He is totally obsessed with hunting for plastic eggs. Filling up his little Easter basket with the next egg he can find. Yet Harry is still a toddler so we also needed an Easter Egg Hunt for toddlers.
We also try to visit a National Trust property each year to take part in one of the Easter egg trails which they run. They are always great fun and the perfect way to spend some quality family time together. But given the choice, it is the ones we run at home which he really gets excited about. It has really become one of our Easter tradition. So this year we decided to start a little early and have an Easter Egg Hunt in the garden for sweet treats.
Here are our tips for running an egg hunt for younger kids.
Tips for a Successful Easter Egg Hunt for Preschoolers
Easter baskets
Don’t forget the baskets. Little hands can not hold a lot so to save the chocolate and plastic easter eggs going everywhere. Or being dropped, then a basket of sorts, is a must. It is a great way to expand the fun easter activities by having a mini craft session to make your own before the Easter scavenger hunt. Or if you are running a sustainable version this year then what not use a decorated empty egg carton.
Give the kids a number – Easter egg hunt toddlers
When running an Easter Egg Hunt with multiple children then be clear on the number of treats each child can have. We found this really important when you have a large age gap as we do between the boys. Or if you have a large group or different age groups. Otherwise h older kids do very well but the younger children do not find so may. By giving a number to Charlie we found that he would rehide anything over the amount of eggs he was searching for. He was also more likely help his younger brother to find the extras.
Treasure map & clues
Older kids can be kept entertained by a treasure map or clues. Charlie gets a lot more into the Easter Egg Hunt when he has something to lead him in the direction of the eggs. So make it a real treasure hunt by drawing a map or making up some clues for them to follow. This is a great trick when trying to create a solution for kids of all ages. If you have preschoolers then you could create picture clues of different things around the garden or of the easter egg scavenger hunt location.
Easter stories
Expand your East Egg Hunt with a story. Find an Easter story to read before hand. Or get creative with fun Easter egg hunt ideas based around the characters in the book, such as Peter Rabbit or Humpty Dumpty.
Use prompts – ideas for Easter egg hunts
Be that signs or bunny footprints. The year Charlie turned two he came down to giant bunny footprints in the garden which went down a storm. Little signposts can point kiddies in the right direction and hide the gifts and eggs in obvious places. It is more likely to be successful if they find something almost immediately! We all know preschoolers do not have a lot of patience. Similarly the next clue needs to be easy to find. If like us there are two different age groups then you may want to vary the prompts and signs. One set for the little kids. And another with riddles or an extra challenge.
End of the hunt
At the end of our Easter Egg Hunts, we tend to find the Easter Bunny has left us a slightly larger egg. We have used a golden egg in the past which was a huge hit with the boys.
Chocolate alternatives
Sometimes with little ones too much chocolate can become a problem. Especially for Harry who is diary intolleant. Non chocolate gifts – glow sticks, puzzle pieces, tiny toys and small gifts. We have always used items such as these along eggs. To create a bundle of Easter treats.
Get the whole family involved
Our most successful Easter Egg Hunt for Preschoolers have traditional included the entire family. With everyone getting involved looking for eggs. Although the adults generally don’t find anything but come up with lots of ideas of where they may be. Lots of family fun with everyone having a good time.
Dark egg hunt
If you are looking for an idea for older children, then you may want to add a different dimension to your egg hunt. By adding glow sticks to your plastic eggs and doing a dark egg hunt. It would make a great indoor egg hunt.
What are your ideas for Easter Egg Hunt, I would love to hear all about them in the comments below?
Related Blog posts – Easter Activities
If you have enjoyed this post about our quick Easter sensory bin, then you may enjoy these other great ideas:
- Sand Covered Easter Eggs
- Egg Shaker Sound Match
- Easter Sensory Bin for Preschoolers
- Marbled Egg Hanging Decorations
- Make your own Yarn Easter eggs
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Easter egg hunt toddlers
20 Responses
We love Cadbury Easter eggs they’re so delicious! I am hoping to do an Easter egg hunt with my kiddies – those packs are great value.
My kids still ask about Easter egg hunts. They are 12, 10 and 6! My Mum will often do one at her house and leave clues out for them. I’m a Creme Egg girl and I’m a bit partial to Mini Eggs too 😉
I love that egg hunt pack. I will be grabbing one of those as soon as I can. I love the Cadburys Easter trails they do. We did one last year in the New Forest and my boys loved it.
Cadbury Easter Eggs are my fave! We are doing an Easter egg hunt this year. It’s the first time we have had a garden since moving to Jersey so the girls are really excited to do it.
I’m still doing them and my eldest is nearly 16! I know it’s just a ploy to get as much chocolate as possible.. Great egg hunt advice – when they get a bit older, we found setting clues went down well. Though it took us a lot longer to write them than it took the kids to find the eggs! Love your son’s jumper!
Great tips lovely, we have got our eggs all ready for our Easter egg hunt on Sunday! Although you have reminded me that I need to get a few more mini eggs!
What a fun Easter Egg hunt! The Peter Rabbit set is gorgeous. It’s nice to include some non chocolate gifts too! The kids are looking forward to the big Easter egg hunt on Easter morning 🙂
So sweet! We have always done an egg hunt for the children, we had to contend with cheeky squirrels running off with the eggs in London and one very snowy Easter in Munich where all the eggs got hidden!! 😀 Hope he enjoys his egg hunt! 🙂
The Peter Rabbit toy and egg is so cute – I love Peter Rabbit and so does Max! I love the idea of bunny footprints too. We did our first Easter egg hunt at home last year and Max hasn’t stopped talking about it since, so we’re all geared up for another one on Sunday. Although it’s looking like it might be an indoor egg hunt!
Oh how fab! Cadbury’s have some fantastic Easter Eggs, perfect! Shame our never last long enough to even set one up! 😉 Sim x
We always have an Easter egg hunt at home too. Each boy get a little basket to find, with some personal gifts in them, and the rest all gets pooled together and shared out at the end.
We’re not at the age for Easter egg hunts yet (little one loses interest) but I’m looking forward to the day that we can. The egg hunt pack is such a good idea for convenience and variety. Although, I’m not sure how many of them would reach the hunt. Chocolate usually disappears quite quickly in our household, especially Cadbury’s!
We are planning on doing an Easter Egg hunt this weekend with Piglet and 2 of his cousins. The eldest is always happy to help Piglet, as he is seen as the “baby” but is not so generous with his brother! Telling them how many there will be each in advance is a great idea.
What a fab Easter themed post. Love the Cadbury Peter Rabit egg with plush teddy so cute x
Yum Yum! Love cadbury chocolate. Great tips too. Have a lovely Easter
Great ideas! We normally just let the kids loose (mayhem) and then get them to ‘even out’ the winnings at the end! Love the idea of non-choccy prizes too!
We have loads of those plastic eggs and each child has a different colour to correspond with their basket so they know which treats are theirs. We fill each plastic egg with a few mini eggs and then they have a bigger egg at the end. We also try to do an NT hunt each year. They are great!
Love these tips! Our neighbours are organising an egg hunt for this weekend for the children in our courtyard but the weather is just awful. Hopefully they can still go ahead. I’ve told them I’ll leave my garden gate open so they can hide some eggs in there, give the kids some extra space to explore.
Katie xoxo
My two love a good Easter Egg hunt and it is such a fun family activity to do on Easter Sunday. That Peter Rabbit egg is so cute!
My boys are obsessed with Easter egg hunts at home too. At any time of year tbh! Love the idea of expanding it with a story:)