Literacy & ABCsAll Ages29 Comments
Dig into early literacy skills for your toddler or preschoolers with 20+ cool hands-on activities to start learning letters together!
We’re on a quest to start reading, so we’re continuing with reviewing and learning letters right now through games and play.
They have to know their ABCs before full-on reading, right?
But alphabet worksheets can get, well, a little stale and boring.
So I found a whole bunch of awesome activities and creative ideas to work on learning letters!
20+ Activities to Start Learning Letters for Kids
How Do You Teach Alphabet Knowledge?
The very first step to help a toddler learn literacy is to recognize letters. But, I can even break this down 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 in activities 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.
Otherwise I don’t try to push the alphabet. Its just time to show him that there are letters and that each letter is different.
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 ABCs 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 of teaching literacy. Focusing on introducing letters and matching up letters.
20+ Favorite Activities to Work on Learning Letters
Learning letters, here we come!
50 Simple & Fun 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!
Rachel Simone says
My daughter will be three in February and I’m trying to get her to learn the alphabet. Im wondering how long should I do these activities with her?
She goes to an early headstart Mon-Thurs 9-3pm.
Tabitha Lightfoot says
Hi Rachel! I would recommend following her lead! Sometimes, kids will be really into an activity and it will last a long time. Other times, they will be done after 5 minutes. Either way is totally okay – it’s all about spending time together!
Tammy says
These are some great hands on activitiest
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'Ellen says
Sorry 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
Thanks for the input Ellen! I’m glad to have someone chime in that knows :)
Denise says
Great list! I really like the ‘alphabet soup’ idea. Kids always love pretending to cook/eat things.
Lydia says
This 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
Everything 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
I 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
Thank you so much for taking time and shareing this blog. Great activities for my little son.
Jamie Reimer says
You are very welcome Luz.
Karen says
Wonderful collection of ideas! Thanks, Karen
Jamie Reimer says
Thank you Karen!
Erin- The Usual Mayhem says
I 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
I 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
I’m glad you realized it. It always makes me nervous with roundups! :)
Jodie @ Growing Book by Book says
What a great list! We are going to try the squirt a letter today! Thanks for sharing.
Jamie Reimer says
Thanks Jodie! Hope you had fun with squirting! It was a huge hit here!
Shaunna (@Shaunna_FFL) says
Great collection of ideas! Thank you for including our bear game.
Jamie Reimer says
Thanks Shaunna! Thanks for submitting it here. I love being able to find ideas from the ‘hands on moms’.