Literacy & ABCs
Move & LearnPreschoolers12 Comments
It doesn’t have to be boring, repetitive, and all about worksheets to learn the alphabet.
Older toddlers and preschoolers are soaking up all this information about letters and want to learn them! But they rarely want to sit and learn anything.
Why not get them up and moving and learning the letters of the alphabet without even realizing that they are?
Active ways to learn are my favorite! Why not mix in these alphabet activities for some crazy alphabet fun?
We are sharing some of our favorite hands-on ways for kids to learn, many of these can be applied to other areas of learning as well. Most activities that practice letter recognition can also be applied to number, shape, or name recognition as well.
Challenge yourself and your kids to do the same fun activities with a different skill! Ask yourself: Instead of letter recognition skills, can this activity work on name recognition skills?
However, today we’re talking about fun alphabet activities. We’re sharing activities that help recognize alphabet letters, phonemic awareness, lowercase letters, uppercase letters, working on all the literacy areas appropriate for preschoolers to learn.
But most importantly, they’re fun and they’re active, these alphabet games will get your child ready to learn in the most fun way possible. Have fun with these!
10 of my favorite active ways to learn the alphabet:
1. Use Alphabet Mats
If you have one of those ABC floor mats, use it to learn! (If you don’t have a mat, here’s an affiliate link)
Make a game out of it, or just call our letters for them to find and put it in alphabetical order. I often put the outside part of the puzzle pieces together and would ask George to find the letters to fill them in. It helps him recognize the letters and matching them up reinforces the letter recognition.
Henry and I also played this letter activity with the ABC mat and letter blocks! It was a fun charades game with learning letters and counting!
2. Add letters to blocks
Just playing with blocks, whether it’s wooden blocks, Legos, or Mega Blocks, kids can use this technique to learn the letters of the alphabet. I taped letters on the blocks!
I printed out letters that we were working on, several of each, and some that George didn’t know yet. Just playing with them gets kids to recognize the letters. Use the letters in conversation when building.
But you can take it a step further, click here to see how we added a little more learning to the process with an extra set of ‘letters’.
3. Make it a hunt to learn the alphabet!
Making anything into a scavenger hunt is always fun for the kids.
Create a little alphabet scavenger hunt by hiding letters around the house for them to find. Have a list of letters for them to find and check off.
Or make it on a big piece of paper for them to come back and match the letters up to. Click here to see how we did our letter scavenger hunt.
This can also be done for numbers or shapes, anything that you have the objects for.
4. Create an alphabet maze to learn letters
Making mazes is quite easy with some painter’s tape on the floor. First start at the beginning and make turns back and forth to the finish. Then add in more turns that don’t go anywhere.
Add letters to the maze for the kids to follow through the maze to find their way to the finish.
We’ve done this maze in alphabetical order (A to B to C all the way to Z) as well as following a single letter all the way through the maze (B to B to B) and the wrong turns are wrong letters (D doesn’t come after A, uh-oh, go back and start again. Or, oops, that’s not a B, that’s a G).
5. Turn that into a string maze scavenger hunt
Put the two together, the maze and a scavenger hunt. My kids love ‘string’ scavenger hunts. Where I string up yarn around a room, or between a ‘hallway’ of dining room chairs.
Clip letters onto the string for them to ‘find’ on their way through the maze to make an easy letter hunt.
We did it with lower-case letters matching to upper-case letters when they got through the maze. But just calling out the letters as they find them works too!
6. Big letter alphabet learning on the sidewalk
Sidewalk chalk is always a hit! Writing letters on the driveway is a fun way to learn them.
Write pairs of letters, either the same (uppercase or lowercase) or one of each, and have them match them up by drawing a line between the two. It is a great way for preschoolers to recognize the letters.
Add to it by talking about what letters they’re connecting, or asking what letter they’re trying to find the match for. Using the names of the letters in conversation will reinforce what they’re learning.
We’ve done this by matching lower case to upper case letters, as well as by matching two uppercase letters.
7. Connect the dots, I mean letters
If a large sidewalk or driveway is not available, you can do the same letter learning indoors on a roll of art paper (or butcher paper).
Not only is this helping preschoolers learn the alphabet, but it’s also working on their writing skills by holding the marker or pencil properly.
This can also be done by matching shapes or numbers (or work on counting by matching a number to a group of dots).
8. SWAT the letters!
What kid wouldn’t love swatting something? Give them a fly swatter and just watch.
Now add a large piece of paper with some letters on it and call out letters for them to swat. That’s it! How fun! Or turn it around and let them tell you what letters they swatted.
This activity can also be turned into other fun ways to learn, we’ve done letter swatting, but also sight word swatting!
9. Throw a ball
Grab one of the many balls that you probably have rolling around the house or garage. Take this outside.
Throw or roll the ball back and forth practicing letter sounds or beginning letters, or just calling out letters! Just for fun.
I’ve seen this done with letters written on the ball too. Kids can then call out the letter they see on the ball when they catch it and pass it back.
10. Make it a race
Use all those letter magnets that I’m sure you have (if you don’t, here’s an affiliate link) on the fridge to create a race!
Shout for them to run and grab the letter ‘B’ and race back to give it to you or put it in a basket. And repeat with another letter.
Great for recognition and fun because my kids love anything that’s a race! You can also advance this by using letter sounds or beginning letters (Run and grab the letter that BOX starts with).
More ways to learn the alphabet, active or not, can still be fun:
- Read, read, read! Alphabet books are lots of fun for toddlers and preschoolers.
- Make paper chain letters
- Magic letters
- Find the letter on the apple on PBS Parents
- 50 activities for preschoolers to learn their ABCs
That’s just the tip of some fun ways to get active while learning.
Many of our move-and-learn activities can be used to help preschoolers learn the alphabet as well.
More move-and-learn resources:
- Around the House Passport Game with Math Facts at Coffee Cups & Crayons
- Halloween Movement Activities for Kids at Toddler Approved
- See all our Move & Learn Activities
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Sophie says
I need to teach the alphabet for older students, near 11, what can I do?
Alana - eSpectacularKids says
in the classroom with the young ones we often sit in a circle and use the ball! it’s amazing how something so simple turns it into a game. sometimes we also stand in a circle, and if someone can’t remember or they’re too slow they sit down and the last one standing wins. At least for the older kids it adds some competition!
Jamie Reimer says
Love that Alana! It would be so much fun with a group of kids!