Alphabet Activities
for Teachers of Young Children
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Gayle to
include your favorite alphabet activity in this theme!
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Alphabet Activity Theme
If you need more alphabet activities, you'll find another alphabet theme in theRainbow Resource Room.
"My
B Balloon"
Help preschool children recognize the letter
"B" and words and objects that begin with the letter "B" with this pre-school
activity by Lisa B.
Materials: Old magazines, picture books,
scissors, glue, balloon, marker.
Description: Teacher sits with child and look through a magazine, or picture book. Find as many items as you can that begin with the letter "B", and cut them out. You can even look for the letter "B" and cut them out as well.
Show the child his / her balloon and explain to them that balloon also begins with the letter "B". Blow the balloon up and glue the pictures onto the balloon. When you are done you have a fun toy that is also educational.
You can ask each child "Where is" questions and have the child find that particular picture. And you can have the child think of other words that begin with the letter "B".
You can bat the balloon back and forth while saying your ABC'S with each hit and see how far down the alphabet you can get without letting the balloon touch the floor.
B
is for Butterfly
Heidi L. combines
art with letter recognition in this creative activity.
Materials: Large B cut out of construction paper. glue. paper towel or toilet paper tubes.
Description: Have the children glue the B's to the toilet paper or paper towel tubes like butterfly wings. Children can also glue confetti, tissue paper or have them color the wings to add a little creativity.
Cut two small strips of dark construction paper, roll them around a pencil and have kids glue them on as antennas. If you use wrapping paper tubes you can cut different sizes. They look very cute hanging from the ceiling.
A Caterpillar
and Butterfly Theme is in the Rainbow
Resource Room.
Name
Bingo
Young children practice
writing their names and learn the letters of the alphabet as they participate
in this Bingo game from Amy B.
Materials: Markers, paper and alphabet flash cards which can be teacher made.
Description: Have each
child write his or her name on a piece of paper with a marker. The teacher
then shows the alphabet flash cards one at a time. When a letter
comes up that is in the child's name, the child crosses it out using his
marker.
When all the letters
are crossed out, he or she wins! I do this until all the children
have won a sticker.
There's a Name
Recognition Theme in the Rainbow
Resource Room.
Sneaky
Snake!
The aim of this alphabet activity by Joy
H. is to reinforce the sound and form of the letter "s".
Materials: Round white stickers, black construction paper, white labels for writing children's names.
Description: Teachers give each child a set of stickers and a piece of construction paper. Ask them to create a snake with the stickers. Their stickers can go anyway they like because a snake can be in any form. When they are finished talk about how the word snake starts with the letter "S", Put a label on the bottom of their paper and write their name on it.
Gayle's Hint:
Also talk about the hissing sound the snake makes and the slithering movements
of snakes. As an extension to the art
activity and discussions try a movement activity. Put on some soft
music and ask children to move like Sneaky
Snakes
Slithering
in the grass.
File
Folder Letters
Sue Y. promotes
early literacy and social skills as she encourages preschool children to
help each other when matching the letters of the alphabet.
Materials: File folders, erasable markers, velcro and contact paper.
Description: Write alphabet letters on file folders then laminate with clear contact paper. On a piece of construction paper, teachers write a capital letter and on another piece of construction paper, write the lower case letter then laminate both. Cut these in squares. Above each letter on the file folder put a small piece of velcro. Do the same on each square letter that is laminated. The children can now try to match the letters.
After the children have learned to match the upper case letters, challenge them by giving them the lower case letter squares to match with the upper case letters.
Comments: I use the capital letters for about a week. Then we use the lower case letters for a week. Some children still forget, but all the kids get together and help each other learn. Great for social skills and sharing time!
Story time Alphabet
Books are listed in Preschool Books
Listed by Theme.
Memory
Game
Jennifer P.
offers this game saying, "This is a good activity for kids to make and
play. It helps their memory and visual skills. It is also good
for developing fine motor skills. Kids try to match the game pieces that
are the same. You can have one or more players."
Materials: Metal juice can lids, stickers, small pictures (small school pictures work well), buttons or other small objects and clear contact paper (optional).
Description: In advance teachers take the juice can lids and place a sticker on each lid (make two of each kind). I like to make these to coordinate with my themes. The kids can help with this activity. After you have made 5-10 different pairs, the kids can play the memory game. Just turn the lids over so the pictures are on the bottom. Try and match each pair of pictures.
Comments: My kids love this activity. I can adapt it for the different age groups in my care by the type of memory game I use. I use less game pieces for smaller children and more for the older kids. The older kids like to match upper case alphabet letters with the lower case letters and adult animals with their babies.
Erasing
with Water
This easy preschool education activity by
Amy
C. encourages fun practice for writing. Use it to practice letters
of the alphabet and numbers or specific words such as the child's name.
Materials: Chalkboard space for each child, paint brushes and containers of water.
Description: Teachers write, with chalk, the letters, numbers or words for the children to practice on the chalkboard. Have the children dip their brush in the water and "erase" what you have written by painting over it with the water.
Comments: I have used this activity with 3,4,5 and 6 year old children. We practiced with shapes in the younger groups and moved on to letters, numbers and our names in the older groups. Often the older children started writing their own letters to "erase", therefore getting double the practice!
Blind
Pick
Preschoolers learn letter, number and shape
recognition during this early childhood activity by Cheralyn C.
Materials: A large sheet of paper, colorful pens and a wall where you can hang the paper at the level of the children's' eyes and hands.
Description: On the sheet of paper write down letters, numbers and shapes (whatever you are learning) all over and all mixed up. Hang the paper up and cover the eyes of the children, one by one. Get them to put their finger on the paper wherever they want, kind of like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Then get the child to open his or her eyes and tell you what letter, number or shape they have picked. The kids find it very entertaining and willingly cover their own eyes!
Comments: I teach a very multinational class
of pre kindergarten students at an international school in China. This
activity is great because it isn't hard to explain to a group with very
low English levels.
Dramatic
Play: The Letter "G"
Reinforce money concepts and promote letter
recognition with this early childhood activity by Annette H.
Materials: Large sign labeled "Mr. G's Garage Sale", items children bring from home and play money.
Description: Who doesn't love a garage sale? When we study the letter G I have my children bring one or two items from home for the sale. A note is sent to parents with the information concerning the sale.
The day of the sale the children price their items ex. $1.00 -10.00. The items are displayed and play money is given to each child. The children take turns shopping for their treasures and counting out the correct money for each item they purchase. Of course I add extra toys, books etc. Parents have enjoyed this activity also.
Name Song
Preschool and kindergarten children learn
how to spell names and states with this song by Margaret T.
Materials: Children's names that are five letters and states with 4 or 5 letters to the tune of "Bingo".
Comments: Children will go around singing other children names.Example For Names
There is a child that I know best
And Noah is his name oh,
N O A H, N O A H, N O A H
And Noah is his name oh.Example For States
There is a state that I know best
And Texas is its name oh,
T E X A S, T E X A S, T E X A S,
And Texas is its name oh.
Name
Recognition Activities are in the Rainbow
Resource Room.
"Alphabet
Album"
Arline K. suggests this preschool
activity that encourages youngsters to recognize and write the letters
of the alphabet.
Materials: Old photo album, pictures (out of magazines or old books) for each letter of the alphabet, large upper and lower case alphabet letters, wipe off markers and a few old socks.
Description: Take the photo album and make one page per alphabet letter. Put the upper and lowercase letters and one or two pictures (whatever will fit) into the page. Do this for each letter.
After the book is done. Let your children use a wipe off marker to practice tracing the letter (and say the letter). The kids love it! Give the children an old sock so they may wipe it off and do it again.
Description: This is a fun activity to do
with your class. It will be a day filled with giggles. Go out
to the play ground and get your kids in groups of 2 or 3 and have them
make there bodies in the shape of the letters of the alphabet. Take a picture
of each "letter" and this will become the talk of the school. The kids
and parents love it.
I suggest being on a chair while taking your
picture so you can look down and get the right angle. Good luck and have
fun!
Erasable
Alphabet (and Numbers too!)
This terrific early
childhood education activity is contributed by Karen, who often
shares her ideas.
"We're doing this next week for "T", but you could use it anytime as a good alphabet center. Buy 2 of the "sports cards" plastic pages ( .25 ) for each student. These are the pages that they use to display baseball cards, Pokeman cards, etc. Make a letter of the alphabet using an index card and magic marker to fit in each pocket. If you use the back and front of each page, you will have 36 pockets, which is enough for the entire alphabet and the numbers 1-9.
We plan to tie these together with yarn as our budget is tight, but you could use an inexpensive ring binder, etc. Each set of pages will come with a dry erase marker ( I can buy 6 fine line dry erase markers for $4 at Wal-Mart ) and a 3'' x 6' piece of cloth to erase with. Students can trace the numbers on the plastic and erase as many times as they like to practice their letters and numbers."
MORE Alphabet Activities are in the Rainbow Resource Room!
Do you have an alphabet
activity or an early childhood education idea
that you'd like to
share...
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Gayle
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