Alphabet activities for small groups, guided reading instruction, or individual practice, including alphabet bingo, board games, flashcards, and songs.
Alphabet Activities for Your Eager Small Group Learners
In this post, I will share a few alphabet printable activities you can use for small-group instruction. These activities would also work well during literacy centers or for individual practice at school or home.
The first group of printable activities is differentiated. Each activity has 3 or 4 levels of instruction. They are for children learning to identify lower and upper case letters, letter sounds, and matching letters to pictures starting with different sounds. You’ll also find YouTube alphabet videos, a DIY gel bag, and a Pinterest board of fun alphabet activities you can pin for later.
The hands-on activities are easy to implement and teach and provide much fun and engagement. Read on to see how to grab a FREE bundle of activities.
Board Games with Alphabet Activities Included
Kids love board games, and what a fun way to practice the alphabet. Children will practice identifying upper- and lowercase lowercase identifying pictures by moving spaces along the game board.
Alphabet Bingo
Alphabet Bingo is a game all children love and know how to play. Play as a whole group or in small groups, and provide each player with a bingo card appropriate for their level. Children can cover a spot on their bingo card when a letter or sound is read. Children can yell “Bingo!” when they cover a line straight across or the entire card.
Alphabet Search & Color
Alphabet Search & Color printable worksheets are perfect for practicing letter identification and locating pictures to color that start with a particular letter sound. Students must search for a specific letter (upper and lower case) and photographs, then color. Children will enjoy exploring the pictures!
Alphabet Flashcard Activities
There are many fun ways to use flashcards to review letters and sounds. These activities can be played alone or in small groups. These quick activities are great for small groups because they require very little prep and can be played whenever you have a free minute.
- Memory Match: Turn over the cards you want to practice with. Take turns turning over two cards at a time, looking for a match (upper- and lowercase or letter-and-picture pair).
- Order Up: Provide one card type (upper- or lowercase) and arrange the cards alphabetically.
- Drill: Pile the cards upside down, turn them over one at a time, and call out what they show. If playing in groups, flash a card one at a time at two students who race to call out the answer.
- Name It—Flash a letter card to students one at a time, and they can call out something that starts with that letter.
Here is a video I took at home with my son (4 years old) doing a flashcard drill. It is a simple activity that provides a lot of practice. Flashcard video from Elyse Rycroft on Vimeo.
Gel Bag for Tracing Letters
Creating a gel bag is super simple! Grab a Ziplock bag, buy a large bottle of hair gel, and something pointy to use for writing letters. I purchased green hair gel, but you could purchase clear and add food coloring and glitter. Squirt the gel into the bag and seal it tightly. We used the back of a paintbrush because it was readily available. I’ve seen other people use Q-Tips.
Put out letter flashcards or something to copy for letter formation. This way, your students will have a visual example to copy. They will enjoy practicing letter formation this way!
YouTube Videos to Teach Alphabet Activities
I love using videos to help teach important skills. YouTube videos are great for our visual learners and those who need to move. Children love to watch and move along with the songs and videos. The alphabet videos below are a few of my personal favorites!
The Sesame Street channel on YouTube has this fabulous video from Usher and the gang! What kid doesn’t love Sesame Street? Those lovable puppets and Usher came together to sing a new alphabet song to make your students want to dance and sing along!
It is essential to have a good selection of alphabet books available in your classroom and for your small groups. My favorite alphabet book is “Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom” by Bill Martin Jr. Here is a live read by a child that you can show your class.
Have Fun Teaching on YouTube has this simple video with a catchy tune that reviews the letter sounds, with upper-case letters flashing.
Are you looking to teach your class some actions to learn the letter sounds? Getting kids moving will help them learn and understand the sounds more easily. This video from Letterland explains easy-to-follow letter tricks for each letter.
Alphabet Activities on Pinterest
If you’re like me, you often head straight to Pinterest to search for an idea or activity for your classroom! It is the primary source of inspiration! I spend a lot of time pinning and building boards with activities teachers love. My Alphabet and Letter Activities board is no exception. It is jam-packed with many great alphabet activities for small groups to help you teach the alphabet!
Resources for Teaching Alphabet Activities
The printable alphabet activities in this post are part of Reaching Readers Differentiated Alphabet Games Unit 1. Click the images below to learn more about these products and view previews.
You can now grab the Reaching Readers Differentiated Alphabet Games Sample for FREE! It is 38 pages long, and you can try out each of the nine games included in the larger bundle.
If you need these differentiated games for your guided reading small group instruction, check out the game bundle HERE!
Check out the coordinating alphabet readers to help your students read independently.
More Ideas for Teaching the Alphabet
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