Literacy & ABCsAll Ages22 Comments
Dig into early literacy skills for your toddler or preschoolers with 20+ cool hands-on ways to start learning letters together!
We’re on a quest to start reading, so we’re continuing with reviewing and learning letters right now. They have to know their ABCs before full-on reading, right?
But worksheets can get, well, a little stale and boring. So I found a whole bunch of awesome activities to work on learning letters!
20+ Activities to Start Learning Letters
The very first step is to recognize letters. But, I can even put this into three categories:
- Simply introducing letters to the child. Maybe telling them what one is here and there. But that’s it. Just having the letters available is the first step.
- Matching letters. Maybe they don’t know what the letter is yet, but they can see that they’re different and match up one letter to the same one in another place.
- Knowing their letters. I think this is the advanced step for recognizing letters and it comes in stages. I’ve noticed that my kids usually find a few letters that they recognize right off the bat, but the others come along later, sometimes much later.
Introducing & Matching Letters with Toddlers
For the beginning stages of learning letters, I’m focusing entirely on numbers 1 and 2 with George. Number 3 will come in time and we’ll get to that when we do.
Right now, we’re making sure letters are available to him and we use them in many of our activities, whether we’re really learning them or not.
They’re there.
He often asks me what the letters are. This is my time to share with him and teach him.
We’ve done this in several of our learning activities already, but we’ll be doing more all summer long. I’ve collected some of the activities we’ve done along with a few others I’ve found that I want to try out to help George learn his letters.
The very beginning. Focusing on introducing letters and matching up letters.
20+ Favorite Activities to Work on Learning Letters
Learning letters, here we come!
50 Incredible Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers
A Halloween Alphabet with Skeleton Bones
Learning Letters Lineup. Squirt!
10 Active Activity Ideas to Learn the Alphabet
Find the Letter & Swat It! Active Way for Learning Letters!
Tammy says
January 24, 2019 at 5:14 amThese are some great hands on activitiest
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'Ellen says
November 28, 2016 at 9:16 amSorry to say I cringed when I read this post as all your others are amazing. As a reading specialist, with over 30 years experience, I can tell you it is not developmentally sound to teach letters prior to children learning most of their initial & ending sounds. “Just having the letters available is the first step.” is not a good idea, though most people without a background in education believe it is. The research does not support it. Doing so with children , who later, learn to read without much effort, is not a problem, but if your child does struggle, teaching letters first is deadly. Please tell your readers that good teaching is to teach sounds first!
Thank you,
Jamie Reimer says
November 28, 2016 at 10:27 amThanks for the input Ellen! I’m glad to have someone chime in that knows :)
Denise says
October 28, 2015 at 5:59 amGreat list! I really like the ‘alphabet soup’ idea. Kids always love pretending to cook/eat things.
Lydia says
September 21, 2015 at 6:50 amThis is awesome. I have 4 daughters. My 3 yr. old is wanting to learn more and more . She is just having a blast and is enjoying everything. This is my first time homeschooling and she is picking up everything pretty fast. Thank you for all your great ideas.
Lydia says
September 21, 2015 at 6:45 amEverything is awesome so far. I have a 3 yr. old daughter. She is ready to learn and she keeps wanting more. This is my first time homeschooling. So thanks for your ideas.
Kristin says
December 29, 2013 at 8:55 pmI like this post and what your blog is about, but are you aware of the advertisement appearing at the bottom of the page? A youtube video frame that looks like a zombie attacking a young man in a car…Just thought I’d let you know because I would want to know if an ad on my page were that awful! Sorry :(
Luz says
November 12, 2013 at 2:42 amThank you so much for taking time and shareing this blog. Great activities for my little son.
Jamie Reimer says
November 13, 2013 at 10:03 pmYou are very welcome Luz.
Karen says
June 3, 2013 at 9:33 amWonderful collection of ideas! Thanks, Karen
Jamie Reimer says
June 5, 2013 at 7:41 amThank you Karen!
Erin- The Usual Mayhem says
May 31, 2013 at 7:02 amI always enjoy your activities, but I think the the letter pounding in particular is a stroke of sheer brilliance! I’ve used it with sight words (ie pound the peg into the sight word) since seeing your original post and the glee on my son’s face as he hammers is always hilarious.
Erin- The Usual Mayhem says
May 31, 2013 at 7:03 amI meant to leave this comment on I Can Teach My Child’s page – put it down to not enough coffee, Jamie! Thanks for sharing a great collection!
Jamie Reimer says
June 5, 2013 at 7:40 amI’m glad you realized it. It always makes me nervous with roundups! :)
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says
May 31, 2013 at 6:39 amWhat a great list! We are going to try the squirt a letter today! Thanks for sharing.
Jamie Reimer says
June 5, 2013 at 7:40 amThanks Jodie! Hope you had fun with squirting! It was a huge hit here!
Shaunna (@Shaunna_FFL) says
May 31, 2013 at 6:23 amGreat collection of ideas! Thank you for including our bear game.
Jamie Reimer says
June 5, 2013 at 7:40 amThanks Shaunna! Thanks for submitting it here. I love being able to find ideas from the ‘hands on moms’.