Make learning the letter E fun and engaging with our adorable Ernie inspired letter E craft. This easy craft project brings Sesame Street to life as children create their very own Ernie masterpiece in the shape of the letter E. Perfect for teaching letter recognition of the letter E and building fine motor skills.
I've put together a free printable template you can use to make this craft even easier for young children. This is a great activity to incorporate into your letter of the week learning for letter E, either at home or in the classroom.
LEARN THE LETTER E WITH ERNIE
Since it first started appearing on our screens in 1969, Sesame Street has been committed to nurturing early literacy skills, particularly letter knowledge. The show uses beloved characters like Big Bird, Elmo, and Cookie Monster, along with engaging songs and interactive storytelling, to make the process of learning the alphabet enjoyable for children.
Ernie is a regular on Sesame Street and one of the main characters starting with the letter E, making him a perfect choice for a letter E letter recognition craft. However, technically Ernie doesn't represent one of the proper phonetic sounds for the letter e as Ernie is pronounced with the /er/ digraph, so make sure to use this craft to teach the letter only and don't link it to the letter sound so children aren't confused.
Supplies Needed:
- Letter E template
- Orange paper
- Blue cardstock
- White cardstock
- Scissors
- Glue
I chose to use orange paper for this craft to allow children to tear and layer the paper to give some extra texture to the letter E, however if you don't have any you can get your children to colour the letter E with an orange pencil or crayon.
I chose to use an aqua blue piece of cardstock as the backing piece for the craft as it creates a nice contrast to Ernie's orange, however again you can use any colour you have on hand or simply plain white.
HOW TO MAKE A LETTER E ERNIE
1. Print off template. I highly recommend printing the template onto cardstock as it will make the face pieces sturdier and easier to glue on.
2. Tear or cut the orange paper into short strips. The more haphazard the sizes the better the texture will be. This is a great fine motor activity for children.
3. Cut out the letter E template. Younger children may need help with this step depending on how well developed their scissor skills are. If you're doing this craft as a classroom activity you may want to cut out all the templates beforehand to save time.
4. Glue the orange paper pieces onto the E template. If the children are using glue sticks get them to cover the back of the orange paper piece with glue then stick it onto the template. Don't worry if they overlap pieces when gluing. Set aside to dry once the entire letter E is covered with orange paper.
5. Cut out the 2 eyes, nose, mouth and hair templates. Some children may need help with this step.
6. Glue the eyes and nose together. Lay the 2 eyes slightly apart with the pupils pointing towards each other. Glue the nose onto the eyes so it's slightly overlapping them. Set aside until dry.
7. Glue the mouth to the nose. Place the mouth behind the nose and glue it together so part of the tongue is still sticking out below the nose. Set aside to dry.
8. Glue the letter E onto the backing sheet of cardstock. If you use a paper backing sheet instead of cardstock there's a chance that the paper may ripple as it dries.
9. Glue the hair template onto the letter E. Glue the hair so it's on top of the letter E but only partially covers the top arm.
10. Glue the face onto the letter E. Put glue on the back of the eyes and mouth pieces and glue the whole face into place over the E, leaving a slight gap between the hair line and the eyes.
Although this letter E isn't as 3D as the Elmo letter E we made, it's still slightly raised and has some texture thanks to the pieces of orange paper. I designed this one to be deliberately flatter as Ernie's fur is a lot smoother than Elmo's. It still gives children tactile feedback where the pieces of paper overlap.
The finished Ernie letter E can be displayed on a craft wall, as part of a classroom display or can be added to an alphabet or letter E portfolio.
DOWNLOAD ERNIE INSPIREDLETTER E TEMPLATE
Click the download template button below to download the letter E Ernie template. This will take you to the PDF that can be downloaded to your device and printed. The PDF is a single A4 page, however you can print as many copies as you need.
Please note that this free printable letter E template is for personal or classroom use only and may not be shared electronically, uploaded or sold on any platform. If you would like to share or feature this craft in a blog post please link back to this post directly.
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