Letters Archives - Empowering Parents to Teach

The Bunnies’ Alphabet Eggs by Lisa Bassett inspired us to make our own alphabet eggs just like the little bunnies in the story.

In the story, the Easter Bunny’s eggs are ruined the day before Easter. Mr. Rabbit was watering his garden and did not realize the water was soaking through the ground and spilling into the Easter Bunny’s burrow. Noticing all the color has washed off of the eggs, the Easter Bunny begins to worry that he does not have time to make new eggs in time for the morning. Mr. Rabbit suggested that his ten children could help him make more.

While the Easter Bunny really wanted beautifully crafted eggs, the kids had another idea. They painted letters on the eggs. With very little time left, the Easter Bunny let the children paint as they pleased. In the morning he was still nervous that the children would be disappointed with the eggs since they would be expecting finely decorated ones. Instead, the children were very happy to find the letter eggs and they started spelling words with the eggs too!

Inspired by this, we decided to make some letter eggs to hide too! I made alphabet eggs simply using glitter glue on hard boiled eggs.

Glitter glue

Squeezing that glue bottle took a lot of hand and finger strength! It made me realize that making the letters on the eggs are a wonderful fine motor skill for kids that can make the eggs themselves. To help, you can write the letter on the egg for them with a marker and they can trace over the letter with the glue.

Letter A egg

Time to hide the eggs and find them!

There are so many ways to use the eggs:

Find all the eggs and put them in alphabetical order
Spell words with the letter eggs
Sort them into vowels and consonants once they are found
Group them together into words and hide them as a word unit
Instead of writing letters on the eggs, write sight words!
If you write words on them- create sentences or phrases
Try some hands on math when you’re done- add, subtract, compare quantities, etc
Have your child trace the glue letter with his or her finger.

The possibilities are endless. Like the Easter Bunny in the story- follow the children’s lead! Their ideas may surprise you!

Following my boys’ lead, they wanted to smash the eggs when they were done. They smashed half of them and left the other half to do experiments- my 3 year old loves making up his own experiments.

Smashing the eggs, squishing them, and peeling them is a great fine motor activity and sensory experience! They even started hitting the eggs like baseballs with the carton as a bat! You never know where this activity can lead you

Linked to:

Looking to help your little one recognize the letters of the alphabet? Adding four essential toys to your playroom may help you! In fact, it may be things you already have.

To learn the names of the letters, your child has to see and hear it many times. The first two items on the list are materials that help add more exposure to the letters. By preparing the environment, you are increasing opportunities for your child to see letters in their everyday environment.

The ideas mentioned don’t take a lot of planning or work. They are easy to set up and play.

Recognizing the letters of the Alphabet

Alphabet Line and (Nerf gun)

Ways to use it:

Hang the alphabet line mid-height on the wall.

ABC Song- If the child is young, hold them up and sing the ABC song while pointing to each letter as you say it. If they are older, they can point to each letter as they sing independently or with you. Sing the song slowly enough to clearly hear each letter individually.
Tracing- Let them trace a letter with their finger (pre-writing skill). If they are young, you can trace the letter with your finger while verbalizing what you are doing.
Target Game- I created a game with a Nerf gun for my youngest when he was little. Boys especially will like this game. Using a Nerf gun, he would try to shoot the letters. Since he was so little (only 1), and not speaking, I would announce what letter he hit or missed. I would say things like, “Wow, you hit the ‘Y’ “, or “You almost got the ‘X’! ” Sometimes I would point to a letter and say, “Try to get the ‘S’ “. If your child is older, you can give them target letters. They can score points for every letter they hit!

Alphabet Poster

Just like the alphabet line, the poster is another way to introduce letters into the environment. Both the alphabet line and the poster show the letters in alphabetical order, promoting understanding of the sequential order of the alphabet. But, what I like about the poster is it’s size. Smaller than an alphabet line, it can be seen easier all at once, versus turning and moving your head to see the whole alphabet line. It may not seem like much of a difference, but I like having them both so that they can view the alphabet different ways. The poster also helps facilitate different uses. I would also recommend having the poster in a different room than the alphabet line.

Ways to use it:

Find the letter: Sing the alphabet, then ask the child if s/he can find a certain letter. If they are having trouble, you can say something like, “I see it. It’s right there” and show them.

What’s missing?: Put a post it note over a letter. Ask your child what letter is hiding. Start at the beginning of the alphabet, slowly sing the alphabet song, pointing to each letter, and stop at the covered letter. If your child is familiar with the ABC song, they may know what comes next based on the song lyrics. If they guess a letter, say something such as, “Let’s see” with an excited look on your face. Happily uncover the letter and cheer if the are correct. If they are incorrect, you may something such as, “Good try. It was a “V”, that V tried to trick us!”

These are just some starting points! If your child starts to take an activity in a different direction, that is wonderful! Follow his or her lead, you’ve inspired them and their minds are busy creating ideas just as they should.

I love that these things are inexpensive and easy! Remember it’s more about how you interact with your child than the toy itself!

If you have a local teacher store they will often have the alphabet line and poster, I’ve seen them at dollar stores, office supply stores, and sometimes craft stores like JoAnn Fabrics. If you are interested in purchasing any of the materials mentioned, I found an alphabet line and poster on Amazon.com. I looked for the Nerf gun on Amazon and I did not like anything they offered.

*These are affiliate links. If you make a purchase from Amazon, I receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

What Amazon has to offer:

This one is actually really cute. I have not seen this one personally, but from the pictures it appears to have the Dr. Suess pictures and words from the book Dr. Suess’s ABC.