Egg Shakers are one of my go-to instruments to use in Singing Time! I’ll show you How to Make Egg Shakers Instruments so you can affordably add these to your own Singing Time Supplies.
They’re easy to store, fun to use, and not too loud for sensitive Primary children. Plus, they are quick and easy to make. Just follow the simple steps below and you’ll have a dozen egg shakers in minutes!
This post originally was published on my parenting blog, A Mom’s Take here.
It has been updated and republished on Primary Singing.
Affiliate links are included in this post.
Should I Buy or Make DIY Egg Shakers?
Music Egg Shakers are a great way to incorporate adding living music learning style into your Singing Time Lesson plans! They help keep Junior Primary children’s hands busy and active while you get to focus on teaching the lyrics to your focus song.
Whether you choose to follow along and make your own DIY music shakers or opt to just pickup an inexpensive set of Egg Shakers on Amazon, you’ll be so glad you have them!
I personally started with homemade Easter egg shakers. It was close to Easter time and I had the eggs on hand so it cost me next to nothing. I used them a handful of times with my Primary children without any problems.
While they work great and are cheap to make, there are some negatives to consider before you get started. I’ve listed these below to help you decide:
| Homemade Egg Shakers | Purchase Egg Shakers |
| PROS: – Inexpensive ($3-5/dozen) – Easy and fun to make – Make as many as you need – Choice of colors and patterns – Ready to use the same day * Best option for small Primary’s | PROS: – Consistent sound – Sturdy and durable – Small investment for quality – No mess or collecting supplies * Best option for large Primary’s |
| CONS: – Inconsistent sound – Can break or open – Messy when they break – Avoid getting wet – Need to gather supplies | CONS: – More expensive ($8-12/dozen) – Must purchase as a set – No custom options – Will need to wait for shipping |
There’s several factors that can help you best decide, but for me I would choose homemade if I had a small Primary or just wanted to use them with my own children, wanted to use the egg shakers this Sunday, or wanted to try them out before investing in an actual set.
Ultimately, I retired my homemade music shakers and purchased this egg shaker set from Amazon. I switched because I had a leftover Primary budget and I did have one of mine crack and I was worried about the mess and little kiddos putting the shaking ingredients in their mouths!
My homemade egg shakers served me well while I had them, but I do love my store purchased egg shakers, they are just much, much stronger! I do think they can be a great option if you’re tight on funds or want to test them out!
How to Make Homemade Egg Shakers
You’ll only need a few basic supplies, and likely have many of these things on hand already. You can use what you have, but you will want to purchase a new set of Easter eggs to ensure they are not weakened or aged from use.
Egg Shaker Instrument Supplies:
- Plastic Easter Eggs — pick these up around Easter for cheap!!
- Noise Maker Filling — Rice, wheat, dry beans, beads, popcorn seeds, etc
- Duck tape or Electrical tape — look for 1″ wide and choose something colorful!
- Scissors
DIY Egg Shaker Instrument Directions:
Fill your plastic Easter eggs with something that will make noise. You could use dry beans, rice, wheat, popcorn seeds, beads, or whatever else you can think of. Try a few different fillers, if you’d like, to experiment with the sound they make – then choose your favorite or keep a variety.
Most plastic Easter eggs have small holes on the ends, so keep that in mind when considering your filler, as rice may occasionally sneak out the little holes.
I decided on popcorn seeds because I had them on hand, they are cheap to purchase, and don’t create terribly loud music shakers I wanted a sorta soft sound as I have 20-25 kids in primary each week which is a lot of potential noise to be created.
Fill one side of the plastic Easter eggs about halfway full. You’ll want to leave room for the fillings to be able to move around and make noise. Once your eggs are filled and ready, close them back up tightly making sure they are closed all the way around.
Now, you can tape them closed and seal the seam to keep them from popping open during music time. You can use electrical or duck tape. I found this fun rainbow colored duck tape that matched the six colors of my eggs really nicely, so I went with duck tape.
If you’re using a wider duck tape, you’ll want to cut the tape down the middle width wise to create two skinnier strips of tape out of the normal width. Start a small cut in the tape, then pull upward sharply and it will rip down the line of tape to save your scissors from the messy tape residue.
Now, cut your tape the other direction creating pieces about 4-5″ long – enough to wrap all the way around the egg in one piece.
Press the tape down around the seam, then smooth it up and outward towards the rounding of the egg as needed so that it is flush with the egg to make your new music shakers more secure. You should be able to make a dozen in about 5 minutes!
I also always warn the kiddos that if they’re messing around with their music shakers, or any other props I hand out, their teacher will take it away and I may not be able to bring them back out again. It works like a charm!
How to Use Egg Shakers in Singing Time
One of the reasons I love using egg shakers in Primary is you don’t have to over think it! You can simply pass them out and let the kids shake to their hearts content. Fast, slow, high, low, whatever they choose and it doesn’t turn out sounding like chaos!
The kids will LOVE being able to have some undirected time to just explore how their different movements make different sounds. Maybe you sing through the song once with a little Taylor Swift inspiration…
“I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake… I shake it off, I shake it off…”
See the printable cards below that will help you match that same level of enthusiasm!
Then, you can easily direct the Junior and Senior Primary children back into focus with a guided pattern. Try following the melody, the beat, the lyrics, or shake on specific keywords! There is lots of flexibility to use them just how you’d like.
To help you gain a little confidence to dive right in using egg shakers in Primary, you can read through our current lesson plans and use them as is with these specific Primary songs, or adapt the patterns and lesson plans to fit whatever song you are teaching!
See all of our Egg Shaker Singing Time Lesson Plans here:
- 6 A Child’s Prayer Egg Shaker Patterns
- Families Can Be Together Forever Egg Shakers
- Seek the Lord Early Egg Shakers
- Gethsemane Egg Shakers
- 4 When He Comes Again Egg Shaker Patterns
Using Egg Shaker Rhythm Cards
To get even MORE use out of your egg shaker instruments in music time, you’ll love our set of Egg Shaker Beat Rhythm Cards! They include a variety of 30 different beat patterns and actions to try with your music shakers!
I created these to help me break out of the default of just using my egg shakers to follow the melody. They can be used in SO many ways!
You can use these printable cards to quickly plan a pattern and post the egg shaker pattern up on the board so your learners can follow along easily and feel confident. Or, let the kids come up with their own sequence using the cards on the fly.
These Egg Shaker Beat Cards are available on my website shop here or you can shop over on the Primary Singing Etsy shop if you prefer.
2 BONUS Egg Shaker Beat Cards
Inspired by Swift’s lyrics I posted above, I had to make 2 more printable cards to add to the set! I’m giving these away as freebies here, but they perfectly coordinate and match with the set in my shop.
Shake-Shake-Shake – Shake your egg shaker in any and every direction!
Shake It Off – Raise it up high and thump the egg shaker forward like your flicking water off of it.
To access the free in-post printables for this post, you’ll just need to create a free account or login with the Grow.me tool. Then, confirm by email and refresh the page and ALL my free printables will automatically unlock in every post!
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For TONS more information on these Egg Shaker Cards, head over to see this post where I share a bunch of different ways to incorporate egg shaker cards and more tips for using egg shakers during Singing Time! Plus, a video demo with the egg shaker cards.
Have you made your own homemade egg shakers? What other tips would you add? Do you prefer homemade music shakers or store-bought?
