Easter Themed Literacy Activities
Easter Themed Literacy Activities
Last week I posted seven Easter themed math activities…today’s post is all about Easter themed literacy! I’m sharing six fun reading and writing activities for preschoolers. And as usual, at the bottom of the post you will find my phonemic and phonics lesson plans for Preschool Co-op week 23.
Easter Themed Counting Phonemes – Using some colorful Easter eggs, fill each egg with a small Easter or spring themed trinket (I used the felt stickers from last week’s math post). Have on hand a counting manipulative. Invite your child to open the Easter eggs you have prepared. As each one is opened, ask your child to use the counting manipulative to show the sounds he hears in each word. For example, William opened an egg with a felt rabbit in it. So, he separated five manipulatives, one for each sound in /r/ /a/ /b/ /i/ /t/.
Rhyming Easter Egg Hunt – For this activity I cut out the images from rhyming worksheets I’d found online. (Click here for the link). I placed one image inside each egg, making sure each egg/rhyme had a match. Then I hid them around the house. I invited William to first search for all the eggs. Once he found them all I invited him to open them. Then we worked together to make the rhyming matches.
Easter Themed Upper and Lower Case Matching – Have available an Easter egg for each letter you’d like to include in this activity and also some letter manipulatives that will fit inside an egg. (I used some lower case wooden letters). Write an upper case letter on the outside of each egg. Leave the lower case letters in a basket of bowl. Set the eggs out for your child to see. Invite your child to find the egg and letter matches. Note: Because William knows all his letters, I included all 26, however you can choose to only focus on a handful of letters.
Easter Themed Letter Sort – For this activity you will need three bins and a set of Easter eggs, each one labeled with an upper case letter of the alphabet. Label the bins according to how they will be sorted: letters with curved edges, letters with straight edges, and letters with both curved and straight edges. Invite your child to sort the letter eggs according to their shape.
Easter Themed Sticker Stories – This is always one of my favorite writing activities to do with William. I invited William to choose three stickers from a stash and place them on a half sheet on construction paper, explaining that we would write a story about his stickers. Once he had finished writing his story himself (which looks a lot like the letters of his name), and asked William to read his story to me. While he read, I recorded his story as he told it.
Easter Egg Fine Motor Mat – I call this mat a fine motor mat instead of a play dough mat because I wanted to show that play dough mats can be used in various ways. In this case, I brought out our dyed pasta and invited William to decorate the egg using the pasta, and since the paper was laminated the pastas were difficult to keep in place, so this activity required a lot of patience and was amazing fine motor practice, even for me! Click Happy Easter! Play-doh Template.
***Want more ideas? Check out my Easter Theme Pinterest board!***
Preschool Co-op Week 23
Phonemic Awareness Skills: Medial Phoneme Isolation – Students learned to listen for the middle sound in a set of cvc words given. The teaching mother instructed the students to identify the middle sound of each word after she said them. For example, if the word was “sip”, then the students would identify /i/ as the medial sound.
Phonics: Letter Ww – Students learned to identify the letter Ww and it’s sound. The teaching mom used several color photos beginning with the /w/ sound. Examples: watermelon, wagon, wheel, whistle, etc. Students practiced saying each picture name, emphasizing the /w/ sound at the beginning.
After the above, the teaching mother used a random assortment of pictures from letter previously introduced and invited students to name the picture and it’s beginning sound and then sort them accordingly.
Next Week
- Easter themed crafts
- Easter themed kid snacks and treats
- Review of all previous phonemic awareness and phonics skills
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
In the United States, students who may benefit from special education receive services in
preschools. Since the inception of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Public
Law 101-476 in 1975 and its amendments, PL 102-119 and PL 105-17 in 1997, the educational
system has moved away from self-contained classrooms and progressed to inclusion. As a result,
there has been a need for special education teachers to practice in various settings in order to
assist children with special needs, particularly by working with regular classroom teachers when
possible to strengthen the inclusion of children with special needs. As with other stages in the life
of a child with special needs, the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) or an Individual Family
Service Plan (IFSP) is an important way for special education teachers, regular classroom
teachers, administrators and parents to set guidelines for a partnership to help the child succeed in
preschool.
I like the Easter letter sort activity. It will help my son focus on the different aspects of each letter (curve, straight line, etc.) Thanks for the great idea!
I love that letter sort game and the pasta Easter egg game. I am never disappointed by your ideas. I’m definitely going to print off some of those rhyming sheets to play a game with my preschooler. The Easter eggs will make it extra fun. Thanks for your amazing ideas!
These are such creative ideas. I can’t wait to put them to good use!