KIDSPARKZ
  • Home
  • Theme-a-Pedia
  • Become a Member
    • Member Free Packs
    • Members Questions
    • Member Reviews
  • Login
  • Activity Packs Store
    • Bundles
    • Alphabet and Literacy
    • Math
    • Colors
    • Favorite Themes
    • Science
    • Social Studies
    • Holidays
    • Seasons
    • Songs and Rhymes
    • Fine Motor
  • Let's Sing!
    • Preschool Sings All About Me
    • Preschool Sings Dinosaurs
    • Preschool Sings Animals
    • Preschool Sings Ocean
    • Preschool Sings Holidays
    • Preschool Sings Seasons
    • Preschool Sings Traditional
  • Contact
  • About
  • Early Childhood Links
  • KidSparkz Blog
  • Toddler Curriculum

52 ways to teach the alphabet

8/5/2018

14 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
52 (Hands-on) Games and Activities to Make Learning Letters and Sounds Fun
​

Most of these activities and games can be used with any letter or letters, and can also be adapted for numbers and number names.  Play or do some of them every day! 

1.    Cut out a large letter shape; child decorates with stickers, stamps, markers or collage materials.  These could be related to the letter sound, such as glitter for G, sequins for S, pompoms for P.
 
2.    Write the same letter on some 2” circles or squares, and punch 2 holes in each.  Child strings with yarn to make a necklace or belt.
 
3.    Cut out some headlines from a newspaper or magazine. The child points out, circles or Xs a particular letter (or punctuation mark, or word).

4.    Hide 12 to 15 letters (printed on paper) around the room (house).  Have a treasure hunt.
 
5.    Try to make a letter shape with your body, lying on the floor.
 
6.    Tape a large written letter to the bottom of a laundry basket, and toss beanbags, balls or rolled up socks from a distance.
 
7.    Sculpt a letter with playdoh, clay, bread dough, or sugar cookie dough.  Bake and eat if appropriate.
 
8.    Help the child form letters with thick chenilles, and hang from the ceiling.
 
9.     Sing a well-known song, not with the usual words, but with only the sound of a particular letter. So Old MacDonald becomes: na na na na na na na, na na na na naa (remember to keep the sounds short).  Have the written letter visible while singing.
 
10.  Copy the shape of a letter using blocks on the floor.
Free alphabet activities and printables
11.  Large dot-to-dot letter shape.
 
12.   Make a 1.5’ wide strip of paper with the same letter written in a line.  The children cut between the letters and say the name as they cut each one.
 
13.   Crayon rubbing over a cardboard shape letter.  Use different sizes and colors for an interesting design.
 
14.   Teacher or child writes letters with white crayon, children wash over with watercolors and watch the letters appear.
 
15.   Write large letters outdoors with chalk.  Children hop, skip etc around them, chanting the name or the sound.
 
16.  Play Concentration with pairs of letters.
 
17.  Have a handful of foam or paper letters – throw them into the air! Find all the A’s…etc.
 
18.  Draw a letter with finger in cream cheese or peanut butter on an English muffin.  Line it with raisins, cereal rings, choc chips etc.
 
19.  “Sing, sing, sing an F, sing it loud and clear!  Tell the children everywhere the letter F is here!” Tune is Row Your Boat. Hold your F cards up and wave them.  Use any letter.
 
20.   Make mini puzzles with index cards.  Cut them in half, mix up the pieces. Don’t use too many at once.

21.  Search for foam, plastic, paper letters in sensory box (sand, cornmeal, etc).
 
22.  Chanting and clapping words and sounds; e.g. Dog, donkey, duck! Dog, donkey, duck! De de de, Dog, donkey duck! (Clap, clap, slap knees).  Adult holds up letter being chanted.
 
23.  Salt and sand trays: have a letter printed on paper under the sand.  Trace it with a finger, or a stick object.
 
24.  Some letters can be created with craft/skill sticks.  Place sticks over a large letter on paper, or make it freehand on a table or floor.  It can be glued together.
 
25.  Trace letters in finger-paint; in pudding; in shave cream.
 
26.  Put some items that begin with a particular letter in a bag. Children feel and guess e.g. marker, mouse, mint, marble
 
27.  Letter finger puppets: “2 little letters sitting on a (tree), 1 named A and 1 named B. Fly away A, fly away B, come back A, come back B.”
 
28.  Sprinkle baby powder on a table, and trace letters in it. Baby theme?  Letter B?
 
29.  Stepping stone letters – tape the paper ”stones” with letters written on them to the floor, children jump from one to the next. Or be frogs jumping on lily pads.
 
30.  Make paper airplanes with a letter written on the side.  Fly them, race them
Trace the alphabet with bingo dot markers
31.  Cut out a group of items, perhaps relating to the current theme or holiday e.g. balloons, shamrocks, cars.  Write the letter being studied on some of them, and other letters on the others.  Children find the directed letter.
 
32. “Oh do you know the letter (B), the letter (B) the letter (B), of do you know the letter B, that’s the letter (B)!”  Tune is Muffin Man. Children point to the letter being sung about.
 
33.  Trace a written letter with a squeezable pointed glue container.  Sprinkle with colored sand from paper bowls.  Shake excess sand back into bowl
 
34. “If you see a letter (any letter), then clap your hands (clap clap)”.  Tune is “If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”.
 
35.   Make letters on a window or glass door with window markers or finger paint with liquid soap added.
 
36.  Make a caterpillar with paper circles with a letter written on each circle.  It could be the same letter, letters in the child’s name, the full alphabet (that’s a long caterpillar!)
 
37.  Take a flashlight into a darkened room, and ”write” a letter on the wall or the ceiling with the light beam.  Can you guess which letter I am writing?
 
38.  Give children their own envelope with name written on it, containing paper, foam or magnetic letters.  Empty them out, and find the directed letter, letters in name, 3-letter word etc.
 
39.  Tape 3 or 4 learned letters to the wall. Jump to the A.  Crawl to the B. Tippy toe to the C etc.
 
40.  Gather together a set of products, packages and cans. Hold up a letter, or name one. Can you find this letter anywhere on the packages and cans?
Alphabet upper and lower case recognition
41.  Blending sounds – say the first sound of a word and then the rest of the word e.g. d-og.  Children try to blend the sounds and discover the word.
 
42.  Say the letters of the alphabet in sequence around a circle.  Each child says the next letter in the sequence.
 
43.  Go on a “letter walk” in the house/school or neighborhood.  Every 10 ft. or so, put a letter on the ground.  Go back the same way, looking for the letters, naming them and picking them up as you find them.
 
44.  Eat a Cheerio (or similar). Teacher/leader holds up a letter and says its name (or sound). If the statement is true, children eat a Cheerio. If it is false, they do nothing.
 
45.  Use a timer with a ring. Find all the as you can before the timer goes off.  Use a pile of paper, foam or magnetic letters.
 
46.  Fishing for letters – a magnet on the end of a string tied to a dowel.  Letters written on paper fish with a paper clip on nose or tail.
 
47.  Make letter puppets with craft sticks, and play games with them
 
48.  Designate a letter doll or teddy.  Tell a story about it, and give it a personality.  Have the children give the named letter (or letter matching a sound) to the teddy.
 
49.  Everyone wears a letter headband, or badge, or stamp on the back of the hand for part of the day.
 
50.  Playdoh activities: make letters by drawing with sticks; use letter cookie cutters; press magnetic letter shapes.
 
51.  Make a collage design with round colored stickers (from drugstore) on which teacher has written a letter.
 
52.  Dab circles along the lines of a large printed letter with colorful paint dabbers
 3 sets of large alphabet block letters

More about letters and literacy ...

  • Reading and Writing Play Materials
  • 52 Games and Activities to Make Learning Letters and Sounds Fun
  • Teaching Letters to Young Children (Letter of the week, or not?)
  • Alphabet theme page
  • ​Alphabet packs in the store
Picture
14 Comments
tho nguyen
8/21/2018 08:39:55 am

I want the alphabet games. thanks!

Reply
Irene
11/19/2018 06:48:12 am

Hi I am a grd R teacher and always open for new ideas please I want this. Thank you

Reply
Linda link
8/21/2018 12:45:53 pm

Hi,I am an Early Childhood Educator and I am interested In different and new ideas of materials and things to introduce and bring to the classroom of young children

Reply
Delgy
9/20/2018 04:13:31 am

I would like to have the alphabet activities, thank you

Reply
Jean
10/1/2018 04:32:44 am

I would like the games also.

Thank you!

Reply
Elda
10/22/2018 11:19:25 pm

Please I would like the different ways to learn the Alphabet! Great ideas!

Reply
Connie Cannon
11/24/2018 04:27:36 pm

Would love the alphabet ideas!

Reply
Lisa
6/16/2019 07:59:07 am

I am new to Pre-K and am looking for any ideas!

Reply
Ramlah link
7/11/2019 03:48:09 am

Would love to try the ideas, thank u

Reply
Sheronica
8/7/2019 02:18:11 pm

I would to teach my 1 year old ABC

Reply
Luz Solis
7/19/2020 03:18:55 pm

Thank you for the simple and productive ideas with practical items! Will apply a couple at a time to see which is effective for my granddaughter

Reply
Ursula Brown
9/3/2020 06:57:37 am

I am interesting in implementing these fun way to learn ABC with my 3 year olds student. Thank for sharing these free ABC lessons

Reply
Melania
6/30/2021 05:00:42 am

Pls share the alphabet ideas for my 😇😇
Thank you 😊

Reply
Valerie
3/8/2022 08:27:16 am

I wish I had these activities when I was teaching! I am helping to raise my two grandchildren (4 and 5). I haven’t been as active in helping them in school. I have medical problems. I LOVE your activities!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Susan Portman
    Hello, I'm Susan. ​My goal at KidSparkz is to offer instantly downloadable, free and low cost early childhood printables and activity packs to busy teachers and parents.
    ​Read more ...

    Categories

    All
    Alphabet
    Arctic Animals
    Art For Preschool
    Australia
    Back To School
    Bundle Super Deals
    Chinese New Year
    Christmas
    Early Literacy
    Earth Day
    Fall
    Farm Theme Activities
    Fine Motor
    Free Downloads
    Ladybugs
    Martin Luther King Day
    Member Library
    New Year
    Numbers
    Planning Curriculum
    Science
    Sequencing
    Songs And Rhymes
    Spring
    Summer
    Thanksgiving
    Valentine's Day
    Winter

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Wondering which activity packs from the KidSparkz store are available for free in your yearly membership?  Go here to find out.
Find out how to become a MEMBER
What preschool theme are you working on now?
​All About Me
Action Heroes
African animals
Air
Airplanes 
Alphabet
Amphibians
Animals
Ants
Apples
Arbor Day
Arctic Animals
Australian Animals
Babies
Back to School
Baking
Baseball
Bats
Beach
Bears
Bees
Bicycles
Birds
Birthdays
Boats
Bubbles
Butterflies
Camping 
Cars
Cats
Chickens
Chinese Lunar New Year
Christmas
Cinco de Mayo
Circus​
Colors ​
​Community Helpers​​
Construction Workers
​Cookies​
Corn
Costumes
Cows
​Dinosaurs
Dogs​​​
​Ducks
Earth Day
Easter
Elephants
Fairy Tales
Fall
Family
Farm
Father's Day
Forest Animals
Fish
Flowers 
Food
Friends
Frogs 
Fruit
Gardens
Gingerbread 
Grandparents
Groundhogs
Halloween
Hands
Hanukkah
Harvest
Hawaii 
Hibernation
Homes
Horses
Ice Cream
Insects
4th of July
​Kangaroos
Koalas
Kwanzaa
Ladybugs
Leaves
Light
Lions
Living Things​
M L King
Math​
Mice
Mittens​​
Monkeys
Mother's Day
Neighborhood
Neighborhood Signs
New Year
Night Sky
Nocturnal animals 
Numbers
Nursery Rhymes ​
​​Ocean​
Owls
Pancakes
Penguins 
Pets
Picnics
Pigs
Pizza
Popcorn
Pumpkins
Quilts
Rain
Rainbows
​Rainforests
Restaurants
Rocks
Scarecrows​
Shapes
​Shells
Shoes
Snakes
Snow
Space
Spiders
Spring
Squirrels
St. Patrick's Day​
Strawberries
Summer
Sun
Shopping
Teddies
Teeth
Thanksgiving
Tools and Machines
Toys
Trains
Treasure Hunt
Transportation
Trees
Umbrellas
​Unicorns
Vacations
Valentine's Day
Vegetables
Water
Watermelons
Weather
Whales
Wheels
Wind
Winter
Zoo

USEFUL LINKS

Picture
​Home
List of themes
Songs and rhymes
Activity pack store
​
KidSparkz blog

MY ACCOUNT

Picture
Become a member
Member log in
Feedback: Tell us what you think about the site.

SITE INFORMATION

Picture
​About
Contact and support
Early childhood links
​
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
Pre-K, Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Homeschooler - TeachersPayTeachers.com
See over 32,000 feedback reviews for KidSparkz resources at TpT.
Picture
        Copyright 2006-2022 KidSparkz.com
  • Home
  • Theme-a-Pedia
  • Become a Member
    • Member Free Packs
    • Members Questions
    • Member Reviews
  • Login
  • Activity Packs Store
    • Bundles
    • Alphabet and Literacy
    • Math
    • Colors
    • Favorite Themes
    • Science
    • Social Studies
    • Holidays
    • Seasons
    • Songs and Rhymes
    • Fine Motor
  • Let's Sing!
    • Preschool Sings All About Me
    • Preschool Sings Dinosaurs
    • Preschool Sings Animals
    • Preschool Sings Ocean
    • Preschool Sings Holidays
    • Preschool Sings Seasons
    • Preschool Sings Traditional
  • Contact
  • About
  • Early Childhood Links
  • KidSparkz Blog
  • Toddler Curriculum