Twenty fun hands-on ways to learn the alphabet at preschool, kindergarten or at home.
At preschool and kindergarten, learning about the alphabet - being able to recognise letters and the sounds they make should be fun, engaging and hands-on for this age group particularly.
Preschoolers don't need flash cards or worksheets to help them learn letters. They will benefit from being exposed to a varied vocabulary and print from an early age so they grow up appreciating how valuable language is for communicating effectively with others.
Children need to learn both letter recognition and the sounds the letters make. Many of these playful alphabet activities are suitable for small group or independent work at school or can be tried at home.
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You can create your own resources simply and cheaply.
I made these letter rocks years ago with a permanent marker and they've been a hit every time we use them in class. Start out simply by matching lower case to lower case then when your children are ready, have them match lower case to upper case for greater challenge.
If you have any Duplo blocks you can use them to create a similar letter matching activity. Just add the upper and lower case letter to the side of different blocks to match. I make it a little simpler by using the same colour for both letters.
Once children have matched all the letters, they can work together to put them in alphabetical order too.
Once children have matched all the letters, they can work together to put them in alphabetical order too.
Car crazy kids? Try these alphabet car parking mats to get them looking at letters.
Add either lower case letters to match 1:1 or add upper case letters to the cars to change the task. You can download these car park mats from here.
Add either lower case letters to match 1:1 or add upper case letters to the cars to change the task. You can download these car park mats from here.
When introducing letters, I like hands-on activities best. These alphabet cards with real photo have proven to be the perfect addition to our playdough table. Or if you don't like using playdough in your space, pair them with small objects to build the letters instead.
If you still have children mouthing objects, avoid the small objects and use wool or pipe cleaners instead.
These same mats are perfect as posters too. Display them at child height so your children can trace over them with their finger. You can find these alphabet tracing mats here.
Magnetic letters are a must have resource in the Early Years. We use them frequently in class and we have another set at home.
Here we paired them with these initial sound match cards. These are perfect for children being introduced to beginning sounds as they just have to work to isolate and identify the first sound in the picture word then find the letter to match.
Here we paired them with these initial sound match cards. These are perfect for children being introduced to beginning sounds as they just have to work to isolate and identify the first sound in the picture word then find the letter to match.
You can find these printable cards here.
These initial sounds cards have been a great starter for children learning letter sounds too.
With only three objects to choose between, you can more easily eliminate the incorrect sounds. You can find these cards here.
When they're ready for greater challenge, these initial sounds alphabet mats are the next step. With more words to work through, they provide children with practice at differentiating between beginning letter sounds in words. And with no all pictured words starting with the same sound, they will need to select only those with the beginning sound to match the centre letter.
Print, laminate (if you want) and add some counters to mark the words that start with the letter.
Print, laminate (if you want) and add some counters to mark the words that start with the letter.
Alternatively, add some play dough so children can make the letter as well as search for the correct sounding words.
Want these alphabet mats for your classroom? You can find them here.
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I finally got around to making my own set of letters and numbers to play SPLAT with.
Originally I used our Jolly Phonics sight word flowers but there's just something extra fun about splatting giant flies! I've made a set of upper case and lower case letters along with numbers from 1-20 for my class.
You can grab our Fly Swat cards from here.
Game play is always popular with my students. They loved trying to find their way through these beginning letter sound mazes which are a little more challenging!
They're a fun way to help reinforce initial sounds either in literacy centres or work stations.You can find these mazes mats here.
One letter sorting best saved for a warmer day, this invitation to sort letters was perfect for some of the sensory seekers in my class.
To play, just add some alphabet threading beads to a shallow tub of water and then use either large slotted spoons or a plastic cup with holes in the bottom to catch the letters before sorting them.
These FREE letter matching wheels have been part of our literacy centre rotations for years now.
Perfect for building fine motor strength, with three different types, they make differentiation easier within each group. You can find them here.
Different fonts can sometimes confuse young learners as they can change the shape of some letters quite dramatically.
To work on this, I created this simple printable using various fonts for children to sort the letters.
Sorting letters is an easy way to practice letter recognition and visual discrimination skills.
Do it with just lower case letters or mix upper and lower case letter together to sort.
Do it with just lower case letters or mix upper and lower case letter together to sort.
Our Say It, Make It, Write It Mats have been used so many ways in our classroom.
Here we used an old Leapfrog toy from home to hear and then make and write the letter. You can download your FREE copy of our Say It, Make It, Write It mats from here.
Some other fun ideas we've used from around the web -
