I bet I know what you’re doing this week, early childhood
professionals! You’re coloring eggs! Since I’m a music
teacher, I’m not personally dealing with in the whole-
‘nother-dimension of messiness that dying eggs with
preschoolers involves. Butthat doesn’t mean I don’t have
a great tip for you! Save those  egg cartons for music
time!

You’ll often find me banging out rhythms on
whatever’s handy (tables, cardboard boxes, Tupperware
and so on), and that’s how I discovered, purely by
accident, the extraordinary musical properties of
styrofoam egg cartons, a few years ago.

With one egg carton, you can tap on any hard surface,
like a floor or atable, to get a great sharp, hollow sound.
Even a light tap produces a satisfyingly loud noise, which
makes it especially appealing to young children. They can
also bop it on their knees or toes, on the palm of their
other hand, or even on their heads! It’s so light that it
doesn’t hurt in the least. Phenomenally fun!

With two egg cartons, you can tap them on the floor, or
both knees, or tap them together. Some children like to
squeeze them a little and them rub them against each
other to produce an interesting squeaky sound.

Of course, you’ll need to wash your egg cartons
thoroughly before the children play with them.

You may want to show your class different ways to
make sounds with the egg carton, then pass them
around the circle  for everyone to have a turn. (I find
that if I show them a few ideas first, it kind of “allows”
them to try out new and  creative ways. If I just let them
play it without showing them ideas, they usually just
copy the way the first child plays it.)

And next year, you might want to start early collecting
egg  cartons, after your family is done frying and
scrambling. By coloring-eggs time, you could be
conducting an egg carton orchestra!!