Learning the alphabet can be so much fun
! There are so many great ways to teach kids letters and sounds. I've made a list of some of the things we've loved doing
!
1. Sing the ABC song (and find fun versions on YouTube to watch).
2. Use magnetic letters on a white board or the fridge.
3. Go on an alphabet letter hunt around the house - find each letter.
4. Go on an alphabet letter hunt while riding in the car - look on license plates and signs.
5. Do a scavenger hunt around the house and find objects that start with each letter.
6. Skywrite the letters - stand up and use a straight arm to write the letter as big as you can in the air.
7. Make letters out of playdough.
8. Paint letters freehand - or paint in bubble letters (get some printables
here).
9. Fill bubble letters with objects that start with that letter (ex: bandaids on B, popcorn on P)
10. Rainbow write letters - trace letters over and over with different colors of crayons.
11. Draw letters on a chalkboard or whiteboard, and have kids erase them as you call them out.
12. Letter hopscotch - write letters on the sidewalk with chalk, or inside, just put paper circles with letters on them spread around on the ground. Call out letters and have kids hop to the right one.
13. Write letters on a big beach ball with permanent marker. Throw the ball for your kids to catch. When they catch it, they look at the letter closest to their pointer finger and say it - they could also name something that starts with that letter.
14. Form letters from string or yarn
15. Sound shoot out - say a letter, then the kids tell you the sound it makes, or something that starts with that letter, then if they get it right, they can throw a ball into a basketball hoop or bucket.
16. Play with foam letters in the bathtub
17. Use a (clean) fly swatter and have kids splat letters as you call them out.
18. Make an alphabet parking lot on paper, writing one letter in each space, then have kids drive their cars and "park" on the letter you call out. Or put a small piece of masking tape on the cars with the lower case letters and have them park in the space with the capital letter.
19. Write letters in salt or sand on a tin pie plate or tray.
20. Get a letter puzzle and bury the pieces in a tray of rice. Kids dig through the rice to find pieces and put the puzzle together.
21. Write letters on ping pong balls, put them in a container of water, and use a little net to go fishing for letters.
22. Paint letters with water on a sidewalk, fence, or chalkboard.
23. Get letter cookie cutters and make alphabet cookies.
24. Get some old magazines and cut out letters. For an extension, gather a lot of one letter, then arrange and glue them on a piece of paper in the shape of that letter.
25. Invest in some great resources! While there are a multitude of free things you can do to introduce the alphabet, there are also some great resources that you can buy for just a few dollars to take your kids to the next level after they recognize letters and sounds.
I've created some fun ways to practice letters, like this adorable
Animal Alphabet Emergent Reader and Interactive Notebook Set, which includes a colorful class book, student book to color, cut, and put together, and pieces to make their very own animal alphabet interactive notebook
!
I've also created these fun
Dot Marker Mystery Pictures that use Do-a-Dot markers (also known as bingo daubers) to find and dot letters to create a mystery picture
!
And when your kids are ready to practice writing the letters, I've created this fun
Alphabet Letters Practice Pack of worksheets where kids can trace, write, find and dot, cut and sort all the letters of the alphabet
!
I hope your kids have fun with all these activities!
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