Just because Easter is over doesn’t mean you have to put away the plastic eggs. In fact you can use them for all sorts of play and learning activities year round. Here we are using them in a fun ABC game that combines letter recognition practice with pretend play.

Set up the ABC Game

We started with a full set of plastic eggs that were labeled with the uppercase letter on one half and the lowercase letter on the other. I cheated a little and used the set we created for our bunny hop ABC game, so if you don’t have a set already be sure to save this one for other activities.

We also made a “nest” out of a large paper bag and filled it with paper shred.

Before inviting the little birdies out to play I hid all 26 of the eggs around the yard.

Playing the Game

You could play this as a regular scavenger hunt, but we added a little pretend play to make it even more fun. When I called the little birdies out, I showed them the empty bird nest and told them that somehow the eggs had been scattered all over the yard. It was their job to pretend to be birds and fly around the yard rescuing all the eggs. Before getting started with their mission we practiced “flying” around and squawking the letters of the alphabet so they could name each letter as they found it. This got a lot of giggles, and we were ready to play.

Each time a bird rescued an egg she squawked the letter name as loudly as they could. Not only was this fun, it also helped us practice naming the letters we found. Kids who already know the letter names can also say the letter sound to extend the activity.

Once the birds thought they rescued all of the eggs they worked together to line them up in ABC order to make sure none of the eggs were missing. And it’s a good thing they checked! We almost missed poor little baby bird Y hiding in the grass.

Use Alphabet Mats to Learn the ABCs

ABC letter mats can be a versatile tool to use in early childhood learning. They can be laminated and used over and over again for letter formation and writing activities. They can also be used to create alphabet books, posters and more. Letter crafts and process art activities related to a letter you are learning can be a fun way for kids to make connections between a letter and something that starts with that beginning sound. In our Alphabet Letter Mats set you’ll find two full sets of alphabet mats to use and tons of ideas for using them. There are over 140 ideas for using the alphabet mats in meaningful ways to reinforce letter recognition and learning letter sounds.

This 181-page resource pack contains the following:

1) Suggestions for Using the Letter Mats-These ideas include ways to use the mats for small group and center activities and can be done for any letter of the alphabet.
2) Process Art Ideas for Each Letter of the Alphabet-60 ideas!
3) Collage and Texture Art Ideas for Each Letter of the Alphabet-54 ideas!
4) Complete sets of alphabet mats in two different font options.