As a teacher, I love to make a themed activity that goes beyond a simple craft (though I love a good craft too), and an Easter egg hunt is a fun option to mix up our playground time when spring rolls around. But if I gave my four-year-olds a bunch of candy in the middle of the day, I’d have kids bouncing off the walls like pennies in a tin can!
So I created this sight-word Easter egg hunt, instead. Why sight words? Well, sight words—also called high-frequency words—are words children come across often, but which aren’t easy to sound out. For example, kids will see the word come a lot, but imagine trying to sound that out as a brand-new reader. Or they learn that A makes the “short vowel” sound like in apple and then can’t understand the word are. Some very common sight words are: a, are, the, he, she, we, I, no.
We teach children to recognize these words by sight, hence the nickname. This means that the more children are exposed to these words, the faster they’ll pick them up and add them to their reading arsenal. This egg hunt literacy game is a fun way to celebrate the season (without the sugar rush), get kids active, and keep them learning in a playful way. Ready? Let’s hop to it!
Sight Word Easter Egg Hunt Tutorial:
Materials Needed:
- Plastic Easter eggs
- Easter basket or other container for collecting eggs
- Paper (multiple sheets)
- Pencil or marker
- Scissors
- Tape
Step 1: On a piece of paper, write down 10 to 12 sight words (or words your child is working on). If you aren’t sure which sight words to use, you can ask your child’s teacher for a list or review websites like Sightwords.com for a comprehensive list. For pre-readers, you can also do this activity with uppercase or lowercase letters to help your child learn their ABCs.
Step 2: Write the target words (or letters) on a second sheet of paper and tape it to the wall, at your child’s eye level if possible.
Step 3: Cut out each individual word or letter from the first sheet of paper, and then place each in a plastic Easter egg.
Step 4: Hide the eggs around your home or yard.
Step 5: Show your child the list of target words or letters on the wall and review each one with them. Then send them on an Easter egg hunt!
Once they’ve collected their eggs, have them bring the eggs back to the posted list and match what’s inside to the writing on the wall. Which words or letters did they find? Have they found all of them? Can they remember what each one says?
Optional: If your kid is going to expect sweets once you’re dabbling in Easter eggs (we get it!), or if you have some leftover Easter candy to dole out, you can give out candies as prizes in return for their found sight words or letters. Just let them turn in each paper that they successfully read for a piece of candy. (And let them try to read each as many times as it takes to succeed!)
Like many of my favorite activities, this is one you can do again and again—it doesn’t have to only be at Easter. You can change up the sight words as your child gains mastery. And being a Dollar Store Diva myself, I love that I can get these plastic eggs on the cheap.
Now, have fun … I hope you have an egg-cellent time!
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