Alphabet Ideas
Books
Letter Formation Activities
Letter Roads
I have a box of mini toy cars and large foam letters from Lakeshore. Children practice letter formation by driving the cars around the letters.
Sand Boxes
Children practice writing letters in the sand boxes. Our sand boxes were a donation from a parent who got them from a factory lab. These boxes are about 5"x5", clear plastic Petri dishes with a lid. I prefer colored sand rather than salt because if a child has a small cut on a finger, the salt will burn.
Painting a Letter
Write large letters on a sheet of paper in pencil. The children trace over the letter with tempera paint.
Wax Resist Letter
Write a letter in pencil. Children trace over the letter with an oil pastel (they work better than crayons), then paint over the paper with water color paint. The waxy oil pastel resists the paint, so that the name shows through. You can also use a Q-tip dipped in oil instead of the oil pastel.
Clay Letters
One of my students came up with this idea during free exploration with clay, but it's also a good idea for small group letter formation practice. She rolled out small pieces of the clay and attached the pieces together to form letters. We placed them on wax paper to dry. To save money, you can roll the used clay back into a ball and put it in a tightly sealed container to be reused again.
Find the Letters in Your Name
The children really enjoy this game because they love to wander around the room. I folded a paper in half and wrote "Letters in my name" on one half and "Letters not in my name" on the other half. Children attached these to clipboards and walked around the room looking for letters in the classroom. When they found a letter, they determined which half of the paper to write it on.
Letter Rubbings
Children clip paper on the rubbing plates with clothespins and rub over the paper with the flat side of a crayon. The letter will "magically" appear on the paper. Rubbing plates were made by writing letters on pieces of poster board and tracing over them with hot glue.
Yummy Letters
Write a letter on a graham cracker with icing and have children trace the letter with their finger. Use letter cookie cutters to cut letters out of cheese, bread, or fruit roll-ups.
Light Letters
Write a letter on a piece of construction paper (I use a half sheet). Children sit on the carpet and use a toothpick to punch holes along the lines of the letters. Turn out the lights, and hold a flashlight to the back of the letter to see the light shining through (or hold the letters up to sunlight from a window).
Salt Letters
Write a letter with pencil. Children trace the letter with glue, pour salt over the glue and shake off the excess. Children carefully touch a small paintbrush dipped in watercolors to the salt. The color is immediately absorbed. You can also use liquid watercolor paint with eyedroppers.
Glue
Write a letter on a half sheet of construction paper with black marker. Children trace the letter with glue and add small items, such as beans, popcorn kernels, sequins, colored pasta, colored sand, etc.
Shaving Cream
Children spread shaving cream on the table and practice writing letters with their finger. To clean up, we just rub the shaving cream on the table until it disappears.
Musical Letters
This is a fun game we play if the children are interested in writing letters. We place the chairs in a circle, and I place a letter and a different colored marker on each chair. While the music plays, children march around the circle holding a clipboard with paper or a dry erase board. When the music stops, they must find the closest chair, take the letter and marker and write that letter on their paper or dry erase board. My class's favorite music for this activity is the Madagascar soundtrack.
Letter Identification Activities
With several of these activities, I use the Lakeshore A-Z Classroom Letter Center:
Alphabet Path Game
I made these path games using stickers bought at Michael's, and I made individual mats with about 10 letters on them. Each child gets a mat, a game piece,
and some plastic chips to cover the letters on their mat. They roll the dice and count out the spaces to move their game piece. If their game piece lands on
a letter that is on the mat, they cover that letter with a chip. Play continues until they have covered every letter.
Other ways we use the path games:
*Children identify the letter they land on, then find that letter somewhere in the classroom.
*Children find an object in the classroom that begins with that letter's sound.
ABC Sorting Box
Label a craft storage box with letter stickers. Children sort letter manipulatives into the sections of the box.
Letter Tumble
Place letter manipulatives or letter tiles in a bowl. Children toss the letters onto a mat (piece of felt), then match the letters to the letters on an
alphabet chart.
*To teach letter sounds: Make individual letter sound charts by putting stickers or clipart on a large index card or card paper.
Children match the letter manipulatives to the items on the sound chart.
Letter Hunt
Children choose any 10 letters from the letter manipulatives. Go through a stack of shuffled letter cards, calling out each letter to the children.
As the letters are called out, children look to see if they have that letter, and if they do, the letter is put back in the letter tub. We see who is first
to clear all of their letters (like a bingo game). If the kids are too competitive, we play until everyone has cleared all of their letters.
*To teach letter sounds: Call out a word and have children identify the first letter of the word.
Letter Matching Uppercase to Uppercase
Each child chooses a colored letter box. Children work in pairs to match the letters that are the same.
Letter Matching Uppercase to Lowercase
Each pair of children choose a colored letter box. Children work in pairs to match the letters that are the same.
Stamping Game
Write about ten letters on a piece of paper for each child. Put the same ten letters in a bowl or bag, and pass it around the table.
Each child has a turn to pull a letter out of the bowl/bag, and announce the letter to the group. Children find the letter on their paper and stamp
it out with a rubber stamp.
Other ways we play this game:
*I put every letter of the alphabet in the bowl or bag and children determine if the letter is on their paper or not.
*I place small objects in the bowl and children identify the beginning letter (i.e. B for ball).
Alphabet Bingo
Each child looks for the letter the teacher calls out on their bingo card. If they have it, they cover it. Play until a card is full.
Candy Letter Match
Write pairs of letters on sticker dots and place them on the bottom of several Hershey's Kisses. For my Pre-K kids, I usually put out about 5-10 pairs of letters at a time. Children take turns lifting two Kisses at a time. If the letters match, they keep those Kisses. If they do not match, they have to put them back. At the end of the game, all of the Kisses are put in the middle of the table, and children can choose about 3 pieces to eat. We use this game to practice matching uppercase to uppercase letters, lowercase to lowercase, or uppercase to lowercase, depending on what we are working on.
Alpha-Band
Label each rhythm instrument with a letter. An easy way to make instruments is to put rice inside a plastic Easter egg, and hot glue it closed. We sing the traditional Alphabet Song, or another alphabet song, such as Dr. Jean's "The Alphabet's in My Mouth" or "Who Let the Letters Out" or Jack Hartmann's "Animal Alphabet Cheer". Children shake their letter shakers only when they hear their letter called out in the song.
Letter Clips
To make these, cut a circle from poster board and write each letter of the alphabet around the circle. Write each letter on a clothespin. Children match
and clip the letter clips to the letter on the circle. These can be used to match uppercase to uppercase letters, lowercase to lowercase letters, or
uppercase to lowercase letters.
*To teach letter sounds: Place stickers or clipart around the circle and have children match letter clips to the stickers that have the matching beginning sounds.
Letter Basketball
This is one of my class's favorite activities. I cut copy paper or newsprint paper in half, and write letters on several pieces. I make enough papers for each child, plus one or two extra. I make a line with masking tape on the floor and place the trash can about 4 feet away. As each child has a turn, I tell them which letter to find. They pick up the letter, crumble the paper into a ball, and stand on the tape to toss it into the trash can. If they miss, they get as many chances as needed to get the "ball" in the basket and can move closer if needed. We always cheer when they make it in the basket! This game could also be played with alphabet bean bags if you have them.
License Plate Game
Each child gets a turn to be the "driver". A piece of paper with a letter written on it is clipped to the driver's back. The child drives around the table, and parks in his seat. Children find the letter among their set of letter manipulatives.
Memory Game
Place about three letter manipulatives on a tray, cover them with a cloth, and take one away. When the letters are uncovered, children guess which letter is missing. Children find the letter that is missing among their own set of letter manipulatives. If the children are very interested in writing, they can write the letter that is missing on a dry erase lap board. To increase the difficulty of this game, place three letters on the tray, cover them, and ask the children to recall all three letters that were on the tray.
Alphabet Soup
Children take turns scooping up a letter from a bowl with a spoon or soup ladle. Child identify the letter, and walk around the room searching for
the letter somewhere in the classroom.
*To teach letter sounds: Children search for an object in the room that begins with that letter.
Letter Sound Games
Sound Cups
Children sort each object into a letter cup by its beginning sound. The labels for the cups were printed from The Virtual Vine.
Mystery Bag
Three objects beginning with the same letter are placed in a bag (such as ball, bug, and button for B). The leader pulls each item out of the bag, names each item, and the class guesses the mystery letter.
Erase the Sound
Draw a picture of something, for example a house. Call children up one at the time to erase something that begins with R (roof), something that begins with D (door), something that begins with W (window or wall), etc. until everything is erased.
Acka Backa Soda Cracker
Each child is given a large letter. Recite the rhyme:
Acka Backa Soda Cracker,
Acka Backa Boo,
Acka Backa Soda Cracker,
Pass to you!
Children pat hands on legs for each word. On "Boo", clap hands. On "you", everyone passes their letter to the person on the left. Call out a letter and
each child with that letter stands up. This game can also be played with objects from around the room to help children learn beginning letter sounds. For
example, the teacher calls out the sound /b/ and the child with a block or a bear would stand.
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