Easter Preschool Activity – Letter Recognition Egg Craft {Free Printable}

Inside: This Easter preschool activity includes a free printable that gives children a chance to practice letter recognition

My whole classroom was quiet recently while my little preschool Sunday school class painted with watercolors. Each child created and investigated the colors with the utmost concentration at his or her own level of development.

I had one student exploring control of the paintbrush, another trying out lots of color blending, and yet another painting representative objects. They were all equally enthralled.

It reminded me how perfect painting activities are for that age group.

 

Easter Preschool Activity

When we dye our real Easter eggs here, one of our favorite decorating methods is drawing on the eggs with a white crayon before dipping them into the dye. The patterns we draw suddenly appear once the color sets everywhere else.

However, eggs are kind of a tricky writing surface – difficult for little hands to manage. So for this Easter preschool activity, I created a free printable that works kind of the same way.

RELATED: Easter Egg Alphabet Activity

 

 

First, children color in the letters with a pastel-colored crayon. Then, they paint over it with watercolors. The crayon resists the paint, making a magical effect.

(I don’t recommend using a white crayon with preschoolers because it’s hard to see which areas they’ve already colored and what spots they’ve missed.)

 

The process is similar to the watercolor letter recognition worksheets in my store:

Children learn so much better when they’re motivated and engaged!

 

Instructions & Materials

To grab your copy of the Easter printable, click here –> Easter ABCs

You can print out the whole set, or just choose the pages with letters you need (there are 4 letters per page, so 7 letter pages total).

You can make even plan to make this activity super-relevant by giving each child the letter their name starts with.

Once you have your pages printed and cut apart, set out your supplies:

• Pastel colored crayons
• Watercolor paint
• A small cup of water
• A paintbrush for each child

Then, you can let the kids choose exactly how they want each of their eggs to look.

When they’re done, you can cut out each egg to spell names or simple words. Or string up the letters of the word “Easter”!

 

 

More Thoughts on Art for Preschoolers

I think there’s a lot of value in giving children a blank sheet of paper to paint on freely. They get to practice decision making, planning, and focus. Process art gives them a chance to relax and express themselves, and it can build their self-esteem.

I also think there’s a place for more structured art activities.

These alphabet Easter eggs fall on the more structured side, but they are still lots of fun! …and fun is often what’s needed to motivate children to work on necessary skills like letter recognition.

 

I hope that your kids find themselves completely immersed in making each Easter egg their own.

 

-Heather