What’s the Best Easter Egg Dyeing Method? – An Easter-Themed STEAM Activity

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Do your kids know what the best method for Easter egg dyeing is? Have them find out for themselves using the scientific method with a fun Easter STEM activity!

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When you’re a homeschooler, everything you do is part of your education, including Easter Egg Dyeing. In fact, Easter egg dyeing is one of the simplest ways to enjoy a fun, Easter-themed STEAM activity with your kids.

Forget the fact the hard-boiled eggs are a STEAM experience all on their own. When your kids are encouraged to come up with their own Easter egg dyeing methods, using their own thoughts, ideas, and experiences, you’re sure to enjoy some holiday STEAM fun.

We decided this would be a fun time to go over the scientific method with the kids. We didn’t do anything super formal and we didn’t write any of our hypotheses or observations down.

But we did discuss and talk about what was happening and what we thought about it. In the future, we will use these free scientific method worksheets to perform our experiments.

The first thing we did was have the kids brainstorm different hard-boiled egg dyeing ideas.

The two rules they had to abide by were:

1. All ingredients used to dye Easter eggs had to already be in the house
2. All ingredients used to dye Easter eggs had to be food-safe

(We threw in that second rule because Spencer was talking about spray painting the eggs. Nice idea kid, but I want to eat these things!)

The kids discussed it for a while and bounced different ideas for ways to dye Easter eggs off of each other. They finally settled on three simple methods.

Three Simple DIY Easter Egg Decorating Ideas:

1. Dye Easter eggs in a cup full of water and food coloring
2. Dye Easter eggs in a cup full of vinegar and food coloring
3. Dye Easter eggs in a pan full of Cool Whip and food coloring

Ben and I approved these methods and sent them to get out the proper materials. When they told us they were ready, we got out the cameras. We wanted to take lots of pictures for the grandparents. (And for my Chatbooks!)

We also wanted to get lots of picture and video for you guys to enjoy! My kids love seeing other homeschooling kids work so we just had to share the love. After all – we’ve never seen an Easter egg dyeing homeschool science experiment anywhere online before. Plus this was a good way to formally use the scientific method and learn about STEAM in a young-child-friendly way.

Method 1 for Dyeing Easter Eggs: Water and Food Coloring

We took a cup full of water and dropped in 4 drops of green food coloring.

Method 2 for Dyeing Easter Eggs: White Vinegar and Food Coloring

We then filled a glass full of vinegar. We added 4 drops of green food coloring to this.

Method 3 for Dyeing Easter Eggs: Cool Whip and Food Coloring

We put a spoonful of Cool Whip in a pan and added 4 drops of food coloring. We gently swirled this around. We wanted a marbled look to our Easter eggs.

The STEAM Experiment:

We put a white egg in each container and let them sit for 2 minutes.

At the end of the 2 minutes, we pulled out each egg. We gently dried/wiped them off with a paper towel and then talked about the results.

You can watch the kids’ observations and opinions about their experience decorating Easter eggs in the video embedded below. The top dyed egg was dyed in water, the middle dyed egg was dyed in white vinegar, and the bottom dyed egg was dyed in Cool Whip.

As the kids get older, we will probably do this STEAM activity again and have the kids think of more fun DIY Easter egg ideas using more sophisticated methods such as red cabbage, onion skins, turmeric, and other natural dyes. But for now, this was the method that matched our kids’ ages.

After our experiment was over, we set the kids free dyeing the rest of the eggshells different colors. It was a fun way to incorporate science and STEAM into an otherwise typical Easter tradition.

NOTE: You can use shaving cream instead of Cool Whip. We used Cool Whip because then the kids could safely lick their fingers if necessary. Little (and adorable) Elisha happily took advantage of this.

We didn’t use these Easter Egg holders in the above experiment, however, we plan to this year. I just barely finished creating these and am happy to share them with you now!

Download your free printable Easter egg holders and you will find 4 pages worth of both secular and Christian egg holders in which to place your eggs, either for drying or for displaying.

Happy Easter everybody! I hope you enjoy this sacred holiday with your families! Remember to check out our other Easter-themed posts.

Tell me – What are some of your favorite methods for Easter egg dyeing? What fun ideas do your kids have for decorating Easter eggs? Share your ideas in the comments below! I’d love to include some more ideas.

Scientific Method Worksheets – Free Download

Before you move on, we’ve got some free scientific method worksheets for you to download and enjoy. These printable worksheets are useful for any science experiment, science project, STEM challenge, or STEM projects your students might be engaging in.

Turn every science project and STEAM activity into a thought-provoking STEM challenge. Plus give left brain and right brain kiddos alike a chance to utilize their strengths and improve their weaknesses. Get yours now!

STEM Resources Delivered to Your Inbox Every Month

If you liked this edible STEM activity, you are going to love the STEM Made Easy Digital Subscription. Each month, you’ll receive 5 fully-planned STEM project guides along with worksheets and instructions for how to make them fun and engaging for kids ages 3-19. Check it out now!

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