Alphabet knowledge activities
26 Easy, Fun Alphabet Activities That Give Kids the Practice They Need
Alphabet activities make learning your ABCs more fun. There are so many ways to practice your ABCs, you might be able to do one alphabet activity a day for a year without repeating. We’ve gathered over 25 super fun alphabet activities so kids can play and learn every day.
1. Write letters on dried beans
Large dried white beans are inexpensive to purchase and easy to write on. Grab a sharpie and write all the upper and lower case letters on them. Then put each set in a pile (or baggie) and ask your kids to match them.
2. Letter sort with sticky notes
Write individual letters on sticky notes and then place them all over your house or just on every stair in a staircase. This practice game has a lot of variations—all tied to sorting. Ask kids to sort by:
- lowercase
- uppercase
- letters in their name
- straight lines (H)
- curved lines (c)
- both curved and straight lines (B)
- consonants
- vowels
For even more practice: have them sort their finds into ABC order, match lowercase letters to uppercase letters, and then, find a way to sort them that’s new.
3. Write letters in shaving cream
Squirt shaving cream on a table and let your kids write letters in the cream. Smoothe it out to erase and start again. Bonus: their hands and your table will be cleaner than ever!
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Source: Rose and Rex
4. Bend letters with pipe cleaners
Pipe cleaners have always been a trusted source of good fine motor practice as well as a fun craft resource. Now use them to have kids create uppercase and lower case letters.
Learn more: make and takes
5. Make sensory ABC bags
This one is great because you can change up what you put in here and even move to sight words. You’ll need a gallon bag with a ziplock top. Add letters written on pieces of paper, magnetic letters, scrabble tiles, or anything else you can think of with letters. Then fill the bag with rice or oatmeal and seal it. Kids dig through the rice through the bag to find the letters.
When they find them, they write down the letter they find until they locate all 26 letters of the alphabet.
For more sensory ideas: Little Bins Little Hands
6. Find invisible letters with watercolors
This is a classic. Using a white crayon, draw letters on a piece of white paper. Give your kids watercolor, let them paint the paper, and watch the letters appear.
Learn more: Gift of Curiosity
7. Play musical alphabet
Set up letters in a big circle on the floor. You can use magnetic letters or just write them on index cards. Put music on and have your child walk around the circle to the music. When the music goes off, your child tells you the closest letter. Expand on it: ask your child to name three things (colors, animals, etc) that start with that letter.
8. Sponge the alphabet
Cut sponges into letters and use them for sponge painting letters or playing in the tub.
Learn more: Learning 4 Kids
9.
Put together name puzzlesWrite the upper and lower case letters in a name and then cut them apart in a simple zigzag. Mix up the letters and ask a child to match them up and put them in the right order.
10. Make letters from nature
Find the alphabet right outside. Choose natural objects that already look like letters, or arrange them to look like them.
To learn more: Right Brained Mom
11. Eat your ABCs
We know from Alphabet Soup that eating your ABCs is plain old fun. So think of all the ways you can practice the alphabet at mealtime. Pancakes can be made into letters, jello can be cut into letters, and noodles can be used to make letters (just to name a few).
Learn more: Parent Map
12. Go on an alphabet scavenger hunt
The fun part about this for grown-ups is that there is no prep. Tell kids to go find objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. To make this game take longer, designate spots for them to bring each item back—one at a time.
Every item must be approved before they can move on to the next. This allows for fewer meltdowns at the end when an item is deemed inaccurate.
13. Make your own ABC book
Personalizing the ABCs helps kids process and retain their learning. One of our favorite alphabet activities starts by creating a book out of 26 pieces of paper and staples or hole punches and a ribbon. Have kids write an uppercase and lowercase letter on each page. Finally, have them draw or cut out pictures of things that start with each letter. Voila!
Learn more: Teach Mama
14. Create ABC popup books
Use the following tutorial video to learn how to make different kinds of pop up pages. Then, create a page per week for 26 weeks for each letter. At the end, use a glue stick to glue them all together to make an ABC popup book!
15. Stamp letters in playdough
Roll out playdough and push letter stamps right into the dough. This is both tactile and great for practicing ABCs.
Learn more: I can teach my child
16. Make tactile letter cards
There’s lots of research (and experience) to support the value of using all the senses to learn. Making these tactile alphabet cards will be fun and have lasting benefits.
Learn more: All About Learning
17. Trace letters in spices
This one combines touch, smell, and sight. It gives you an opportunity to talk about what we uses spices for as well. Put the bottle in front of a child and have them write the spice name in the spice to make things a bit more challenging.
Source: Frog in a Pocket
18. Study a letter of the week
Many PreK and Kindergarten classes do a letter of the week, and for good reason. Teachers all share that instant recognition of letters and practice writing them is so important for learning to read. Doing alphabet activities for one letter each week reinforces knowledge and recollection.
For weekly activities: Preschool Mom
19. Do the yoga alphabet
Show kids this video and take the time to learn each yoga pose. Connecting the mind and the body is great for learning.
20. Sing songs about the alphabet
Everyone loves to sing the alphabet song, but did you know there are lots of other songs to sing that can help you remember the alphabet? Try out this Sesame Street favorite:
21. Draw pictures from letters
Using letters as a starting point, teach kids how to draw. If this is too difficult at first, just write a letter and then draw a picture around the letter.
Learn more: Felt Magnet
22. Highlight letters on a page
Print a page of text or grab your favorite magazine and a highlighter. Ask kids to highlight as many of one letter as they can find. This is also great for sight word recognition.
Here’s a freebie from The Inspired Apple to get you started.
23.
Do-A-Dot letter tracingThese dot markers make tracing letters more fun and help kids with directionality and remembering how to write and recognize letters.
Free Dot tracing sheets: DTLK’s Educational Activities for Kids
24. Play letter slap
Make 2 sets of index cards with all the letters on them (52 cards in all). Shuffle the cards together and deal them so each kid holds 26 cards. Together each player takes their top card and turns it upright. The player with the letter closest to A wins the hand and takes the card. If two of the same letter are played, the players slap the card. The one on the bottom of the slip wins the hand. The game ends when one player holds all the cards.
25. Match plastic Easter egg letters
Surely you have some plastic Easter eggs hanging around your attic. Use a Sharpie or letter stickers to put an uppercase letter on one half and a lowercase letter on the other. Then separate the two and throw them all in a basket.
Kids pull them out and match them up. Tip: Add difficulty by not coordinating the colors.
Learn more: Crystal and Co.
26. Create loose part letters
What are loose parts? Loose parts are exactly what they sound like—a collection of loose materials or objects. These can be small pebbles, bottle caps, random LEGO bricks, seeds, keys, anything. Draw big letters on a piece of paper and have kids line up loose parts to make the letter.
Recognizing letters is a fundamental part of learning how to read. Without it, children struggle to learn letter sounds and identify words. Beginning readers who know their alphabet have a much easier time learning to read. Making alphabet practice a part of every day in fun ways helps create a lifelong love for letters and words.
What games and activities do you like to use for practicing the alphabet?
Plus, our favorite activities using alphabet beads and the best alphabet books.
Top 10 Activities for Letter Knowledge + FREE Downloads!
by Marie Rippel
What Is Letter Knowledge?
Letter knowledge–one of the first stepping stones on the path to reading–develops as a child is exposed to letters through play and through planned activities. A child who has achieved letter knowledge recognizes all the letters of the alphabet, in both capital letter and lowercase form, and knows the names and sounds of each.
Five Signs Your Child has Letter Knowledge
10 Fun Ways to Develop Letter Knowledge
The best way to develop letter knowledge is through a variety of fun, hands-on alphabet experiences. Here are ten activities to enjoy with your child.
Explore Alphabet Books
For a fun and cozy way to increase letter knowledge, grab some picture books and a blanket and enjoy reading together! Check out our BIG list of Alphabet Picture Books!
Explore the Alphabet with Refrigerator Magnets
Interacting with letters helps children get ready for reading and spelling.
Check out 8 Ways to Use Refrigerator Magnets for hands-on activities that can be used again and again to help your child learn his letters.
Cut and Paste the Alphabet
Children should learn and master uppercase letters first and then lowercase letters. Our ABC Crafts for Uppercase and Lowercase Letters are the perfect way to learn them!
Sing the Alphabet Song
Sing the alphabet song to your kids when they are very young. When they get a bit older, they will naturally start singing along.
Match Different Fonts and Styles
Children need to know that letters in text can look different in different fonts, and that printed letters look different from handwritten letters. The activities in this blog post will help!
Associate Letter Names with the Sounds They Make
Help your child associate letter names with the sounds the letters make. For example, point out the word pizza on the pizza box and say, “We’re having pizza tonight. Pizza starts with P.
P says /p/ as in pizza.”
Wear the Alphabet
ABC Bracelets are the perfect letter-of-the-week craft activity. Your child will love being able to admire his letter just by glancing at his wrist.
Feed the Puppy Some Letters
If your little one loves puppies, this is sure to be a hit. Our Feed the Puppy Alphabet Game helps kids practice the alphabet in a fun way.
Inch Through the Alphabet
Practice recognizing letters and placing them in a-b-c order as you inch your way through the alphabet with this colorful caterpillar.
Letter Knowledge Is One of the Big Five Skills
Letter knowledge is one of the five critical skills for reading readiness that we call the Big Five Skills. The other four skills are:
- Print awareness
- Phonological awareness
- Listening comprehension
- Motivation to read
If you’re ready to tackle the rest of the Big Five Skills, be sure to check out the All About Reading Pre-reading program.
Your student will enjoy special games, crafts, and story time read-alouds, and you will love the way your student effortlessly learns essential pre-reading skills.
Do you have any questions about letter knowledge? Post in the comments below!
| Stage | Teacher actions | Student activities | Universal action |
| 1. Organizational moment (1-2 min.) Motivation. Purpose : Inclusion in the curriculum activity | Teacher's oral communication - Hello guys. Have a seat. Everyone has it there are 3 smileys of you on the table, choose the one which suits your mood. nine0028 - I'm glad you're in a good mood. | Choose an emoticon to show off their mood. | Personal : self-determination; regulatory : goal setting; communicative : planning educational cooperation with the teacher and peers |
| 2. Knowledge update (5-6 min.) Stage goal: Detection level knowledge. Identification of typical weaknesses. nine0028 | - Please tell me which section do we study linguistics? What is studying phonetics? - On the slide E, Yo, Yu, I are letters or sounds? Why do you think so? - On the slide and in front of you on the desks of the image (fig.1 and fig.2). Try to decipher them. Work in pairs.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2 - Why can't we come to a common solution? - Guess the riddle: Black birds Listen to the song. What is it about? What do you think the topic of the lesson is? | - Phonetics studies speech sounds, vowels and consonants. - These are letters that can represent 1 or 2 sounds, we write them and see them, and we hear sounds and pronounce. - Because there are no general rules for reading such drawings. You need to know exactly what every item. nine0028 - These are letters. Highlight a feature. Formulate the topic of the lesson (alphabet) Read the letters of the Russian alphabet correctly, speak out. | cognitive UUD: search and selection of the necessary information, conscious and arbitrary construction of speech utterance in oral form, semantic reading, extraction necessary information from the text, text transformation to identify common laws; analysis, ability to prove; nine0104 communicative UUD: the ability to express with sufficient completeness thoughts in accordance with tasks and conditions communications, educational planning collaboration with teachers and peers. |
| 3. Setting learning goals (2-3 min.) Purpose : Providing motivation schoolchildren, their acceptance of the objectives of the lesson, actualization of subjective experience of students (personal meanings, basic knowledge and methods of action, value relations) | Guess the riddle: Thirty-three little sisters - What is the main goal of the lesson? | purpose: to repeat the definition of the alphabet, learn what the purpose of the alphabet is, learn use it with a dictionary. | personal: personal choice; regulatory UUD:, planning, goal setting, reflection, self-regulation; nine0104cognitive: self-selection and formulation of the cognitive goal; communicative : asking questions |
4. Acquisition of new knowledge and methods of action (8-9 min.) Purpose : Ensuring perception, comprehension and primary consolidation by students of the studied material, helping students learn the ways that led to a certain conclusion, the creation of conditions students mastering the reproduction technique the material being studied. nine0028 | Try to guess why the alphabet so called? - To start the “opening of a new knowledge”, we turn to the textbook. Find alphabet definition. - This knowledge is enough for you to complete independent work? - What else do you need? - Each group is given lists of words to put in alphabetical order missing letters. Imagine, you need to explain a first grader, for which he needs to learn everything letters? Alphabet? nine0028 - Make sentences with the given words (simple complicated and complex) | Find the definition in the textbook. - Training exercises. Work in groups. Answer at the blackboard. | personal: self-determination, motivation to activity; regulatory: drafting plan and sequence of actions; cognitive: conscious and voluntary building a speech statement in oral form |
| 5. Physical education minute (1-2 min.) Goal : relieve emotional and mental stress | Warm up From each group 1 person out. Their job is to build. They can line up according to their height By last name, by first name in alphabetical order | ||
| 6. Primary fastening. Inclusion of the new in the knowledge system. nine0024 (4-5 min.) Purpose of : To establish the correctness and awareness of the studied material, identification gaps in the primary comprehension of the studied material, correction of identified gaps in students' comprehension of the studied material | - Why do we need alphabet? Name situations where knowledge alphabet you may need. - Who is faster? (group work) Before you are the cities of the republic. Put titles in alphabetical order. nine0028 |
Work in pairs. | Regulatory : planning, forecasting; educational: modeling, problem solving, building logical chain of reasoning, proof, hypotheses and their justification; communicative: proactive cooperation in the search and selection of information |
| 7. situations (11-12 min.) Purpose : Organizes students to explore the problem situation. | - Are Russian letters always like this? called? Why do you think their creators did they give them names? Video “Slavic alphabet” - Is the Cyril and Methodius alphabet convenient now? Why? | Speak out their versions. Recording self answer to the question. | Regulatory : control, evaluation, correction; nine0104 cognitive: skill structure knowledge, the choice of the most effective ways of solving problems, the ability consciously and voluntarily build speech statement, reflection of ways and conditions actions; communication: behavior management partner - control, correction, evaluation of actions partner |
| 8. Activity reflection ( 2-3 min.) Purpose of : Initiate reflection students of their psychological and emotional state, motivation of their activities and interactions with teachers and classmates ensure that students understand the principles self-regulation and cooperation | Purpose: Organizes reflection. - How did you work in class today? - What topic was studied in the lesson? What kind understood concepts? did you manage to solve assigned task? How? What kind got results? What else needs to be done? Where Can you apply what you learned in class? Evaluate your work in class. Select your mood emoticon. Has changed whether it? Why? | Assess their mood using emoticon. nine0007 | Communicative : skill with sufficient completeness and accuracy to express their thoughts; personal: meaning formation |
| 9. Lesson summary (2-3 min.) Goal : give a quality assessment of the work of the class and individual students | - There is an expression in Russian ABC truth. What does it mean? | Carry out self-assessment of their own educational activities, correlate the goal and results, the degree of their compliance. nine0025 Answer to teacher questions. Evaluate your work for lesson, the work of their comrades. | |
10. Homework (1-2 min. ) Goal : ensure that students understand the purpose, content and ways to do homework | Ex. 293 Compose a fairy tale about the alphabet Answer the question: “Why did the letters disappear?” | personal: - evaluate the result educational activity. regulatory: - correlate the result with the set goal. personal: striving for verbal self-improvement; regulatory: self-regulation. |
So at we can do it all today. 
Class work. Russian alphabet, or ABC. Using the alphabet when working with dictionaries. | Plan-summary of the lesson in the Russian language (grade 1) on the topic:
A detailed summary of the lesson. nine0028
| Organizational information. | |
| Lesson topic | Russian alphabet, or ABC. |
| Subject | Russian language. |
| Class | 1 |
| AUTO/Hess (Name, Position) | Solovyova Lyudmila Mikhailovna, Primary school teacher |
| Educational institution | MKOU secondary school No. 11 |
| Federal District of Russia (or CIS Country for Middle Name) |
|
| Republic/territory | Tula region |
| City/settlement | Uzlovsky district, Maisky settlement |
| Methodological information. | |
| Type of lesson (events, classes) | Lesson for consolidating and developing knowledge, skills and abilities. |
| Lesson objectives (events, classes) (educational, developmental) | Educational: to practice the ability to correctly name the letters of the alphabet, determine the place of the letter in the alphabet, write words in alphabetical order. nine0028 Developing: develop students' speech, verbal and logical thinking, instill love for their native language. Educational: to instill diligence, patience, love for work, a sense of camaraderie in children. |
| Learning objectives of the lesson aimed at achieving personal learning outcomes |
Development of cooperation skills with peers. |
| Learning objectives of the lesson aimed at achieving metasubject results |
|
| Learning objectives of the lesson aimed at achieving subject results |
Learn to apply knowledge of the alphabet when working with dictionaries. |
| Pedagogical technologies, methods and techniques used problematic situation. nine0028 | |
| Lesson implementation time (activities, classes) | 45 minutes. |
| Knowledge, abilities, skills and qualities that actualize, acquire / consolidate / other students during the lesson (events, classes) | Knowledge about sounds, their similarities and differences is consolidated; knowledge of letters, their correct naming, knowledge of vocabulary words. |
| Equipment and materials required | Computer, multimedia projector, interactive whiteboard. |
| Didactic support for the lesson (events, classes) | Cards with tasks, workbooks "Russian language", colored parachutes with letters written on them, album sheets, felt-tip pens. List of educational and additional literature O.N. Krylova, Exam Publishing House, 2013 nine0028 |
| Additional required information. | The proposed lesson can be useful for primary school teachers working on different educational and methodological complexes. Preparing and conducting a lesson requires the teacher to have knowledge of AMO technology (active teaching methods) |
| Expected / obtained results of the lesson | Active teaching methods made it possible to activate the process of developing students' communication skills, educational and informational and educational and organizational skills . The teacher acts as a moderator. When organizing work in a group, children learn to distribute actions among themselves. During the work, students were able to realize their potential in communication, in overcoming fear, shyness. During the game and solving the problem, the children received positive emotions of discovering new knowledge. |
Using the alphabet when working with dictionaries. 
nine0028 The course and content of the lesson (activities, classes),
the activities of the teacher and students.
| Lesson 9 steps0028 | Teacher's activities | Students' activities |
| Organizational moment. Updating knowledge. Goal setting. | Come on, check it out buddy Are you ready to start the lesson? Is everything in place, is everything in order? Pen, book and notebook? Is everyone sitting correctly; Is everyone looking carefully? nine0028 Everyone wants to receive Only a five. -How many letters are there in the Russian alphabet? -What are the letters for? -What two letters do not represent sound? -What is the alphabet? Method of dividing into groups. Purpose: to learn how to cooperate, develop communication skills. Participants: all students. Necessary materials: various parachutes according to the number of groups sheets of paper, felt-tip pens. nine0028 Conduct: The division into groups is planned in advance by the teacher. In groups of 4 people. -I see that most of you are in a great mood today, and if someone feels unwell, let our smiles and friendly participation help him. - Look at the parachutes that are on your tables.. - What do you think we will do at the lesson today? -Today you will consolidate the ability to correctly name the letters of the alphabet, determine their sequence, exercise in the arrangement of given words in alphabetical order. | At the beginning of the lesson, the children are divided into groups. Students choose parachutes and determine which group they fall into. The head of the group, speaker (speaker) is selected. It is unacceptable to form groups of "best", "worst". |
| Entry or immersion in the topic. | Purpose: to help every child realize what he knows and what he must learn. Participants: all students. Task 1. Look at the letters on your parachutes. Try to guess why they ended up on your parachute. Name them correctly. Write them down in alphabetical order. Notebook entry: 1st group: L, m, n, r, s, f. 2nd group: B, c, d, e, f, h, p, t, c, h. 4th group: E, yo, yu, i. 5th group: K, x, w, w. - By what principle were the letters divided? Why do the letters "go down" on different parachutes? - Why do you need to know the alphabet? - Note the remaining parachutes. - What problem do you have? Why? (We have not yet memorized well the arrangement of letters in alphabetical order.) - What educational tasks will we set for ourselves? | Children face a problem. They must guess why such letters are written on their parachutes. Students remember what they know about letters. Children formulate learning tasks. nine0028 (Learn to correctly name the letters of the Russian alphabet, their sequence and use knowledge of the alphabet in completing the task, we will learn to communicate, listen and hear each other). |
| Primary comprehension test. Organization of the assimilation of methods of activity by reproducing information and exercises in its application. Physical education minute. Creative application and acquisition of knowledge by solving problematic problems. nine0028 Summarizing what was learned in the lesson and introducing it into the system of previously acquired knowledge and skills. Physical education minute. | Work according to the textbook (p. 55, exercise 6) Task 2. - Read the text. Who mispronounced the letters? Why? How should they be pronounced? - Write the names of the two "students" in alphabetical order. Notebook entry: Lamb, Goose. - What did you learn about letters today? Group work method. nine0028 Purpose: to learn how to share your ideas, develop the ability to reason, draw conclusions. Participants: all students. Necessary materials: textbook, cards with a brief description of the work algorithm, notebooks, pens, sheets of paper, felt-tip pens. Conduct: The teacher invites students to explore pairs of words and justify the performance of the task in a group. Work in groups. Task 3. Work according to the textbook (p. 55, exercise 7) Each group chooses any pair of words, writes the words in alphabetical order. - How did you guess which word should be written first, since they both start with the same letter? - What conclusion can be drawn? -To write words in alphabetical order, you need to compare all the letters in these words one by one. Here we spread our hands, As if we were surprised. And to each other to the ground They bowed to the waist! Bent over, straightened up, Bent over, straightened up, Lower, lower, don't be lazy, Bow and smile. Work with vocabulary words. (PC use). -Guess who we are talking about? • A boy who is in school. • A girl who goes to school. • A person who teaches a subject in a school. nine0028 View on PC "Vocabulary work". Task 4. - Write the given words in alphabetical order. Student, student, teacher. -Make a sentence with these words and write it down, underline the letters in the dictionary words that you need to remember. Task 5. Game "Guess the word". (exercise 8 in the textbook on page 56) Game method. Purpose: to form students' ability to find letters in alphabetical order. nine0028 Participants: all students. Necessary materials: alphabet, landscape sheet, felt-tip pens. Work according to the textbook (p. 57, exercise 11) Task 6. - Decipher the words by writing them in alphabetical order. Guest, day, hedgehog, braids, elk. Test method: PC. Decoding game. If we work hard, let's have a rest, Let's get up, take a deep breath. Hands to the sides, forward, Left, right turn. nine0028 Three bends, stand up straight. Hands up and down. Hands lowered smoothly, Everyone was given smiles. Work with explanatory dictionary. Task 7. Work according to the textbook (p. 56, exercise 9) -Make a conclusion, how are the words in the dictionary? | Students analyze the text, find the answer to the question and complete the task. The guys build arguments about pairs of words, find out how they differ, speak orally. Then they make a note in a notebook. nine0028 For example: Olga - Olya, good - good. Children in groups discuss options for proposals, choose the best, listening to the opinion of their comrades. The students read a riddle about the letters that make up a word. Students write their answers on landscape-sized pieces of paper, then post them on the board. A speaker is chosen by the students from the group, who will defend the opinion of his group. Each group, one at a time, reads the resulting words and explains what helped them cope with the task. nine0028 Children report their observations. All participants in the discussion express their opinion. Draw conclusions and discuss. |
| Studying the content of the topic | Work on the textbook (p. 56, exercise 10). 
|
nine0028 
Why are there so few letters on them? 
