Today I want to talk about teaching different alphabet activities for kids. I have recently been working with an older student to teach him his letters. It certainly got me thinking about writing this post to help parents that are struggling to teach the letters to the alphabet to their own kids.
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I have already written this year about how I taught my toddlers their letters by age 2. However, teaching letters to my students that are a bit older and I only see for a short period of time requires a different approach.
When should my child know their letters?
The truth is most children will start to recognize letters by the age of 2 and most children will be able to identify all of their letters by age 4. However, it’s not a requirement for kindergarten. Kindergarten teachers are more than used to having children come into kindergarten with a variety of different skills and abilities.
Your child should be able to identify all of the letters of the alphabet by the end of the first half of kindergarten. If you are concerned about your child’s abilities please talk to your child’s teacher.
In this article you’ll learn about alphabet activities for kids to teach letter identification.
What are Some Alphabet Activities for Kids?
When teaching letters of the alphabet to children that are in the primary grades (Kindergarten through second) you want to start with what they already know. If you don’t know what letters your child already knows, ask a teacher if they have a recent letter identification assessment.
Otherwise, you can easily create one by writing down the letters of the alphabet in a mixed up order making sure to write all of the uppercase letters together and then on another paper writing the lowercase letters. Next you can simply ask your child to identify the letters written. Make sure you make note of the letters they don’t know or are incorrect in identifying.
When working with children that are learning their letters, I always start with around 3-5 new letters at a time. I also include some letters that I know they know. This will help build confidence and reduce frustration. If you are finding that your child is showing a lot of frustration, I would use less letter that they do not know. Instead use more letters that they do know.
Poetry
I love using simple poetry with my students that have rhymes and rhythm. To add letter identification into this I have students seek and find the letters we are working on by highlighting or coloring them.
Puzzles
Having students complete alphabet puzzles allows them another opportunity to use the letters of the alphabet and put them in order. Specifically for the student, I’m working with, every time he does the puzzle it requires him to say the alphabet again.
The puzzle I linked for you is nice because you can use just the pieces without the puzzle board if it seems too childish for your child.
I also really enjoy the idea of this Melissa and Doug alphabet puzzle because it includes both uppercase and lowercase. This might be a nice activity to practice matching upper and lowercase letters for older children. I would also use this as an idea for centers in a classroom.
The repetition of using the letters and saying them again helps support his knowledge of the letters he does know. It also increases repetition with the letters he doesn’t yet know.
ABC Order
Similar to using puzzles, I have created small, laminated ABC letter cards. His task every day is to put them in order of the alphabet.
He is also required to tell an adult all of the letters before putting them away. This takes a couple of minutes to total a day. However, again the repetition and doing it daily is making an impact. I have him do the uppercase letters first and then match them up with the lowercase letters.
Seek & Find
I love using this idea for my students when their teacher does a “write the room” activity. But I modify for this student to “write the letter”.
The student goes around the room looking for the letters of the alphabet in order. He has to later show me where he found the letters. You could even do this in your gone or give your child sticky notes to mark the letters as they find them.
Write in Jello or Sand
Use jello or sand in a small pie or cake pan to have your child write the letters in it. You may have to show them a visual of the letter but I would require the child to say the letter as they are writing it. This gets them writing it in sensory and saying it to help their brain process it and eventually remember it. Sensory activities make some of the best alphabet activities for kids.
Use a Sensory Table and Magnet Board
During my time as a primary teacher, I was blessed to have a sensory table in my classroom. We filled it with rice, beans, and pasta. I loved using it during center time. Since I was teaching a blended class of kindergarten through second graders my students were all working on different skills.
They were still able to practice their academics using the sensory table. I would put magnetic letters into the table and their task was to pull them out and put them in alphabetical order on the metal cabinet of the classroom. Some of the students were working on spelling words, while others were simply working on letter names.
You could do this with a small sensory bin in your house and have them put magnet letters on the refrigerator or a cookie sheet.
YouTube Videos
Have Fun Teaching and Jack Hartman are excellent videos on YouTube for the primary grades. In my kindergarten, through second-grade classroom, we watched the Have Fun Teaching letter songs as we reviewed and learned the alphabet. I would build listening to these songs into our school day.
In fact in my post “How to Teach your Toddler the Alphabet” I mention that my son knew all of his letters by age 2 in part to these videos.
Books
There are a variety of books on the market that focus on teaching the ABCs to babies and young toddlers. These books are also wonderful for building vocabulary with this age.
I love this highlighter tape for when I want children to find something in a book but not write or mark in the book. It allows them to highlight letters or words without ruining the book itself.
However, as children get older they may refer to these books as “babyish”. In my article “Alphabet books for Toddlers”, I mention several books that would be appropriate for this age and focus on the letters.
Make Letter Connections
The good news is that letters are everywhere! I use this at school by continuing to point out letters as we see them in the hallways and around the building. I have a teacher in my building that tapes letters or words children are working on, on their desk. This allows the student to see the letters each day and as the teacher comes by she can ask him to tell her those particular letters.
You can definitely use that as an advantage by teaching letters driving down your road on signs, in the grocery store, or even at home making dinner. It’s important that we allow children to make the connection that they need to use these letters to read and spell words.
Next time you are out and about with your child, make it a point to tell or ask your child what letters they see.
Rainbow Writing
I use rainbow writing for students learning sight words and letters. I love it because it engages younger children by making work more visually appealing.
Rainbow writing is giving a student a paper with letters (or sight words) written usually larger on it. Children then use crayons, colored pencils, or markers to write over the letter you have written for them with 3-5 different colors. The result makes it look like a rainbow over the letter.
If you are doing this activity in a one-on-one or small group setting you can easily ask the child to tell you what letter they are writing. The more they hear the letter name, see it, and write it the better they will be to remember it.
Crayon, Marker, Pencil
Along with rainbow writing, this activity is typically used with sight words but is easy to change to letters. Crayon, marker, pencil allows children to write the letters they are working on 3 times each using different tools. When using this activity it is important to have the child say the letter each time they write it.
There are 11 alphabet activities for kids to start practicing and learning their letters today! What are your favorite activities or something you are going to try today to help teach your child their letters?
I’d love to hear from you in the comments below!
Love, Ashley E
