This post features many helpful activities for teaching the alphabet the fun way. These hands-on activities help to engage the youngest PreK, Preschool, and Kinder learners.
I have been teaching the alphabet to my son at home. His name is Jackson, and he is 3 1/2. He is busy and loves to learn new things, but he is a little boy with not a very long attention span. I knew that to get him to learn the letters, sounds, etc. I needed to design activities that would be FUN and ENGAGING! He is also still quite young, so I knew these activities had to also be QUICK and EASY for him!
Teaching the Alphabet to Little Ones
I created a series of products to help little ones, like my son, that are developing their phonemic awareness. These activities help younger children learn to identify letters, form letters, and identify things that start with different letter sounds.
These activities are great for homeschooling, preschool, or early learners in the classroom. Each activity can be used in many ways. They work well for literacy centers, morning work, fast finisher activities, and much more!
Alphabet Spot the Letter Mats
One of J’s favorite activities is the Spot the Letter Mats. He was immediately drawn to the bright colors and all of the pictures of things he knows. When I introduced these mats, he could identify most of his letters, so the plan was to use these to help him build his phonemic awareness.
I made sure to laminate each mat before, and I gave him a choice of using a whiteboard marker to circle things he found that started with a particular letter or to point to pictures on a mat.
Each mat features lots of things that start with each letter, including that letter in upper and lower case form. There are many clip art images, as well as some real photographs.
I love hearing him say, “C says ccc” as he scans a mat and then, “Ccc Crab! Ccc Cake!” for each letter. He is learning and having fun too!
Letter Search Pages
Another fun activity that is super quick and easy, yet fun and made J feel super successful, is the Letter Search Pages. He loves using Do-a-Dot markers (Bingo dabbers work great too!) to dot all the upper and lower case letters he sees of a given letter.
Since using this activity, J can now identify letters (written in different fonts) wherever he goes. He’ll say “mommy, look a ‘B’!” at a sign in a restaurant, for example.
Alphabet Strip Crafts
J loves making crafts, and Alphabet Strip Crafts are a perfect way to make a craft and learn at the same time. He is a little reluctant to color and has not yet learned how to cut, so we make these crafts together, while I gently and slowly help him learn many new skills (cutting, gluing, coloring, identifying pictures, etc.).
With these crafts, your students can color pictures that start with a letter, cut out the pictures (we cut in a circle to make it easier) they’ve colored, and glue them down. I suggest using a long strip of construction paper with the letter at the top. For variation, have students sound out and spell the pictures.
Alphabet Letter Posters
One of my favorites and J’s as well are the Alphabet Letter Posters. Each poster is a large image of something that starts with that letter. For example, for ‘C’ the poster is a camera with 3 ‘C’ pictures on it (candy, cookies, crab).
J loves having any races with me. He loves racing to name the letter too. Whoever guesses the letter first gets the poster in his or her pile. Let’s say I pretend to forget the letter unless he forgets.
There are tons of ways to use letter posters. Use the posters on your wall to create a display that students can refer to all year long. I hang the posters on a wall and encourage my students to refer to them when thinking of words that begin with each letter (for our printing books, etc.).
Alphabet Photograph Posters
To help J learn to identify his letters quickly, I turned to use Alphabet Photograph Posters. I love that each poster displays the letters big and bold and that each poster features a real image of something starting with that letter (bananas for the letter ‘B’).
He liked using these posters to play name the letter again. He could make connections easily with these posters because they displayed real objects that he knew next to the letters.
Alphabet Non-Fiction Books
J loves books, and I wanted to create books, simple, patterned books that he could read. These Alphabet Non-Fiction Books have four real images of things that start with a given letter (objects, animals, and more).
While reading these mini-books, J is developing his phonemic awareness and understanding of things in the world that start with each letter. After learning the pattern and knowing the letters and pictures, he can “read” the books!
Alphabet Letter Puzzles
J got excited when I pulled these puzzles out to try. Alphabet Letter Puzzles are a big hit! I chose four-letter puzzles at a time and would mix the pieces up and put them out for J to put together.
He started with finding the two-letter pieces (upper and lower case). Next, we practiced the sound together. Then, J looked for two pictures that made the same sound. Once he found all four pieces, he put the pieces together.
Alphabet Letter Ties
I created the Alphabet Letter Ties with my son in mind. That’s because I knew he would have fun creating these ties and then wearing them around the house. I wasn’t wrong. He loves them! He is learning and reviewing different things that start with each letter.
We work together to make these. I do the cutting and gluing, and I help him with the coloring and tracing/writing of each letter. To create these, I suggest printing them out on card stock for durability. I used strips of construction paper for the wrap-around neck part.
Resources for Teaching the Alphabet
The activities in this post are available in the following UPDATED resource.
ALPHABET ACTIVITIES MEGA BUNDLE
This Alphabet Activities Bundle includes 17 different alphabet resources in one giant bundle with over 700 pages of alphabet activities. Great for teaching children about identifying and forming the letters of the alphabet, learning what starts with each letter, and building their phonemic awareness. Watch it in action below!
Try the FREE Letter A Activities
Help kids learn the letter A with this sample pack featuring tons of engaging activities they will love!
Grab the 19-page FREE letter A activities pack by clicking the image below.
MORE Ways to Teach the Alphabet
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FREE Alphabet Email Series
Join the FREE Alphabet Email Course Sign up for the alphabet email series with ideas on exactly what to teach and how, creative strategies, engaging activities, and resources (books, videos, & freebies) to building important early literacy skills. Everything you need to help kids learn the alphabet and have fun at the same time!
I LOVE all of these, Elyse! Your son is lucky to have such a creative mommy!
Ashley
One Sharp Bunch
Thanks so much, Ashley! You are the sweetest!!
Elyse 🙂
Oh, I love those letter mats! We are working on beginning letter sounds with my 4-year old and those look perfect for him!
~Cherie~
Fluttering through the Seasons
Yay, Cherie! So happy to hear to hear this is something you can use with your little guy!! Enjoy!
Elyse 🙂
The links don’t work.
Thank you for the heads up. The links have been fixed!