How to teach writing alphabets

5 Easy ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers | Daycare Blog

Teaching children the alphabet is foundational to learning how to read. Before children can put together sounds or draw together lines that make words, they need to know what they are. If you’ve never taught the alphabet before, the concept may sound abstract: how do you teach something that comes so naturally to you? Teaching letters can be really fun and simple. In this article, we’ll give you easy ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers.

1) Sing alphabet songs

Obviously, we all know the English-language, “A-B-C-D, E-F-G,” song. That’s a great place to start. However, there are more alphabet songs, which can add variety to your tunes, and help kids learn the alphabet in different ways.

This article lists a whole bunch of alphabet songs to try. And, if you saw our article on YouTube channels for toddlers and preschoolers, you can find letter-related songs there too. The visuals in videos can show objects that start with each letter, and sometimes the songs also pronounce sounds too.

One important note brought up by this early childhood educator, is that kids should go from singing the song, to being able to say and point out the letters without a tune. So don’t stop at singing!

2) Play letter matching games

Letter matching games are easy to set up. You can have a poster board with the alphabet printed on it in large letters. Have separate letter magnets or paper letters cut out at the same size as the print letters. Ask the preschoolers to match their cut outs to the letters on the chart. Where does “A” go? Place the letter “A” cut out on top of the printed “A” on the poster board. Get them to practice doing this with all the other letters.

As the early childhood educator mentioned above noted, you can also have an alphabet ‘arc,’ where one end of a half-circle shows the letter “A”, and the other end the letter “Z”. In between you can have other letters in the alphabet shown, but not all of them. Ask the preschoolers to put down their block letters in the right sequence, using the pre-filled in letters as clues.

3) Open a new ‘alphabet box’ each week

You may have seen us post on Facebook that a certain week is brought to you by a letter we’re covering. It may be “C,” and you’ll see photos of us painting the letter C at daycare, or learning about animals that start with the letter “C.” Weekly letter themes are common in preschools.

You can take your weekly letter curriculum a step further by creating a box that children can open to discover objects that relate to that letter.

For example, on the week covering the letter “A,” your preschoolers can open (or even unlock) a box that contains an apple, a toy airplane, a toy alligator, an acorn, an arrow (a safe one!), and so on. In fact, don’t tell the children right away what letter the box of ‘treasures’ represents. Ask them if they can guess the letter they’ll cover that week by observing the objects in the box alone. This can be a fun and whimsical way to have your children get excited about the week ahead, and work together to come up with an answer.

3) Use interdisciplinary learning with each letter, to strengthen letter associations

Since repeating a letter over and over again can get boring, you can mix it up a little by bringing in related lessons. You can start with a week’s letter as your core subject. Then, throughout the day, teach interdisciplinary subjects that still relate.

For example, if you are on the letter “R,” you can learn about the colour “red” too, since it starts with “R.” Ask the children, ‘what things are red?’ If you are on the letter “A,” you can learn about apples. We’ve done this before, where we teach children about the types of apples there are, as well as explain that seeds are inside an apple, and so on.

This blogger lists a whole bunch of crafts you can you incorporate into your letter learning. For example, you can make holes with a hole punch for the letter “H.” This can then lead into learning about the circle shape. You get the idea…

4) If you use flashcards to teach the alphabet, use logical ones

Flashcards are a great memorization tool, and the alphabet is all about memorizing. However, this teacher warns that sometimes, pre-made flashcards can get really confusing. If you are teaching the letter “D” and there is an image of something that simply uses the sound of “D” somewhere in the word, but doesn’t start with “D”… well you can quickly see how even adults would be confused by that.

Remember, at this stage, you’re not teaching phonetics or complex vocabulary and pronunciation. First, children need to recognize and know the alphabet. Use the simplest flash cards, with the simplest pictures of the objects and animals that preschoolers can recognize.

That said, sometimes you want to use lowercase and uppercase letters in your flashcards…and yes, that can be confusing for the very young learners, especially when the upper and lowercase look so different, but are called the same thing. But if you’re using a set of magnets, for example, you can just use their uppercase versions, that’s ok (they may only come in that form). For very early learners, you can start really basic. Just don’t forget to start showing them the lowercase and uppercase letters together at some point in their alphabet learning journey.

5) Eat foods shaped like letters to help preschoolers learn their alphabet

Speaking of interdisciplinary alphabet learning, why not do a baking session with the kids at preschool? They can use letter-shaped cookie cutters to make a fun and yummy snack. Meanwhile, there is a host of lessons you can teach with the baking activity. Chemistry, cooking, nutrition…the list goes on.

If you want the easy route, try commercially-sold letter-shaped biscuits. IKEA has a version of these. Ask your toddler or preschooler to name the alphabet letter they’re about to eat. Eating it can be the reward for getting it right!

And of course, there is alphabet soup, or noodles shaped like letters. You can make mealtime fun, and educational, with these edible alphabet manipulatives.

So there you have it, 5 easy ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers. They may even be fun for you, too! It is super cute to hear little ones pronounce letters, and guess what object goes with each letter. When your preschoolers are learning the alphabet, be sure to take every teachable opportunity you can to encourage them to recognize letters in the world around them. If you’re on a field trip, ask the children if they can spot their letter-of-the-week on a street or building sign. If you’re reading a book, see if they can spot the letters you’re reading to them. Keep pushing letter recognition throughout the day, so the lessons can really sink into their memory.

See more on our blog:

• How to teach digraphs to preschool children (6 ways)
• What is the best way to teach word recognition to early childhood readers?
• Why is literacy crucial in the early years? How can parents and preschools help with reading skills?
• How to teach toddlers and preschoolers to count, and learn their numbers
• Ideas for teaching shapes in preschool and daycare

Teaching Preschoolers to Write Letters At Home – Blue and Hazel

Are you wondering how to teach your preschooler to write letters of the alphabet? You can do it! We do this as part of our homeschool preschool and continue practicing for homeschool kindergarten.

Maybe your child is already scribbling down nonsense and calling them letters? That’s a good sign they are ready for more. I’ll share what we’ve done/are doing and my kids’ ages. Each one has been on their own timeline, and I think it’s important not to push that too much.

Writing starts way before letters are formed (think coloring/scribbling), and it will continue to be perfected long after preschool. Writing letters is a process that takes lots of practice! Hopefully this post gives you the confidence to start helping your child learn to write their name and the whole alphabet.

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What age do kids learn to write letters?

Personally, I’m a fan of waiting till at least age 4 or 5 to begin learning to write letters. But it really depends on your kids eagerness to begin.

My oldest son learned at age 5.5 ,my daughter was ready by age 4, and my 3rd (a boy) is 4.5 and just starting to show signs he is ready. I’ll probably wait with him till he turns 5 because there is NO RUSH.

If anything, starting too soon and expecting too much too soon can put some serious negative pressure on them when they just aren’t ready yet. I’ve learned this the hard way. Instead, focus on hand strength and coordination through coloring, legos, drawing, and Play Doh.

Learning to write all the letters in their first and last name is one of my goals by the end of our homeschool preschool. Kids begin to do a lot more writing in Kindergarten so it is helpful if they can write some letters by then.

Signs that your child is ready to learn to write letters

Before a child learns to write, they are going to come to the conclusion that letters have meaning.

They see it in books, when you write, on road signs, through shows and apps, and through seeing their name on everything.   If you feel unsure if your preschooler is ready to write, ask yourself:

• Can they recognize letter names when they see them?
• Are they interested or asking how to write a letter? That was my hint!
• Do they pretend to write making scribbles or symbols for their “letters”?
• Do they know how to hold a pencil correctly from drawing and coloring?
• Are they experimenting trying to write letters in their name, even if it’s upside down and backwards?

I love this post on the stages of learning to write and draw. You will be able to see what stage your child is at and if they are developmentally ready!

How to teach a preschooler to write letters

Once your preschooler can recognize certain letters, it will make teaching writing easier. They’ll know what it is supposed to look like, and be familiar with it’s name and general appearance.

I tell everyone to use Busy Toddler’s Playing Preschool for a fun and worksheet free way to do preschool at home. It’s my favorite route to exposing them to the alphabet, songs, books, and more. Each day is short and mapped out for you! Here’s my full review on Busy Toddler’s preschool curriculum.

But to teach letters, I like to casually show them “their special letter”, which is the first letter of their name. Point out letters on cereal boxes and coloring books. Here are a few ways I like to begin teaching them to write letters at home.

1. Do TONS of pre-writing activities before attempting to write letters.

As preschoolers get older, they go from making marks on paper to being able to make circles and lines (or round faces with stick legs)!

Eventually, they can also draw shapes like triangles that use tilted lines. My favorite prewriting booklet is the purple Doodle booklet by The Good And The Beautiful. My kids both loved it. In fact, my reluctant oldest child even enjoyed doodling with this, after we backed off of formal handwriting. I saw he wasn’t ready and needed more hand coordination and strength!

2. Strengthen their hands

Anything that works on fine motor skills will help with hand writing later on, like:

• Drawing
• Coloring
• Tracing straight lines, tilted lines, and shapes like circles
• Painting
• Threading fruit loops
• Do A Dot Letter Stamping
• Drawing in salt, dirt, sand, or flour
• Using scissors
• Picking up pom pom balls with tongs
• Tracing fingers over glitter glue letters

3. Show them how to write the letters using sensory activities

Sensory letter writing is a fun way to make letters without having to use a pencil and paper yet. Think forming letters in the dirt or sand.

They can learn the motions and it’s fun! It’s helpful for kids to see you forming a letter, and to have an example to look at. Note that just because they watched you write the letter B top to bottom doesn’t mean they’ll think to do it that way.

There are lots of fun ways to get preschoolers to start forming letters on their own! Some I’ve seen are:

• Forming letters out of shaving cream or sprinkles in a pan.
• Write out a letter with glue and let your kid place noodles or beans on the glue.
• Bath paint on the wall writing out the letter with their finger

3. Write on blank paper

Since kids tend to start out writing BIG letters, I’ve found it’s easier to start on one letter at a time on a large blank piece of paper.

I usually write out the uppercase or lowercase letter somewhere on the blank paper so they have an example to look at. They can take a different colored marker and trace over your letter.

4. Trace letters on paper

Practicing on lined tracing paper teaches them to pay attention to proportions within the lines, and it’s what they’ll be using in kindergarten.

This is a tracing notebook we have used.  I like this book because the letters are already there to trace, which saves me from having to make a ton of dotted letters by hand.  And, the first page of each letter has arrows and numbers to show the hand strokes.

A lot of lined notebooks have just one letter for kids to trace and a bunch of blank lines for them to fill in the letter by memory. These are too advanced to start with, because they haven’t had enough practice yet to remember the motions.

My son needed to trace at least 10 of the same letter before really being able to draw it from memory. If blank lined paper is all you have, then you can fill in letters by hand. I dotted in one full line of capital B and one line of lowercase b.

Or, write the letters for them in pencil and have them trace over them with a marker.

A printable tracing workbook designed to be used side by side with the “Teach Your Child To Read In 100 Easy Lessons”

Update January 2020: We recently tried these new printable letter tracing pages with 100 pages of practice with my 4. 5 year old.

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Teach preschoolers to write their name

If you want to motivate your preschooler to write, then start with fun ways to teach them the letters in their name! 

Kindergarten classes like to have kids able to write their name coming into kindergarten with the first letter being a capitol and the rest of their name in lowercase.

I found these awesome FREE printable name tracing worksheets and loved how easy it was to customize the font, size, you can even save the file to print over and over, or just bookmark the page.

We also love these dry erase letter tracing cards! They come in uppercase and lowercase. Note that if your child has two of the same letters in their name these ones only come with one of each.

Be encouraging

While it’s easy to want your kid to do it right (and I do think the  hand strokes are important), handwriting takes A LOT of practice. If they feel criticized and corrected instead of encouraged, they could easily be too frustrated to keep going.

I tried to use phrases like “That’s almost it! Make sure the b touches the middle line next time” or “Good start! Now try again making the loop a little more round.” I found encouragement worked better for my son (who gets discouraged easily) rather than saying, “don’t do that” or “the loops aren’t round enough.”

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Should you start with uppercase or lowercase letters?

Don’t worry too much about this.

Some people start with all uppercase letters first and lowercase letters second, since uppercase letters are a bit easier.

It’s a good time to introduce that names are always spelled with a capital letter if that’s new to your preschooler. It’s also good when reading out loud to make the connection that every sentence starts with a capital letter.

Just want a handwriting curriculum?

I hope you see that for preschool level…you truly can teach your kid to write their name and learn to form letters.

But if you are like me and want something you can whip out once a day to practice that’s planned out for you…we are LOVING Handwriting Without Tears. It’s a SOLID program used by homeschoolers and in elementary schools.

This is their pre-k version called Kickstart Kindergarten. We buy the workbook and chalkboard. Nothing else, and you don’t need the teacher’s guide.

DO buy their official chalkboard and a pack of chalk snapped into 1 inch pieces. The smaller pieces encourage proper grip, and the chalkboard helps them write the BIG version of the letter and focus on which stokes come first.

Then, using a tiny sponge cut up, they’ll erase it using the same chalk strokes getting to form the letter twice.

We are now using Handwriting Without Tears as our main way to teach letter formation

I actually am having my now 1st and 2nd grader go back and do the kindergarten and 1st grade levels.

Somehow they’d slipped into some wonky habits and were doing a lot of bottom to top letters, which isn’t great for neatness or speed or cursive later on.

They do 1-2 pages a day. The orange kindergarten book was so easy for my 1st grader she flew through it in 1 month. The boxes and letters are larger in that book than the 1st grade book. And there’s more repetition for each letter.

I feel good knowing they are reviewing letter formation, and it’s helping me to teach them things like bumping the top line and bottom line. Plus, I’m loving the memorable phrases like “Frog jump” for letters you have to pick up your pencil. Or “Magic c” for letters that begin with that curve.

I’ll probably gently introduce my 4.5 year old to letter tracing letters this year using sensory bins and play…and start him on Kick Start Kindergarten next year around age 5 or 5.5 towards the end of preschool. He has to be ready though, or I’ll wait. Sometimes preschool is just too early, especially for boys!

Handwriting mistakes to avoid

Sometimes kids are capable but uninterested.

My philosophy is that if they are not interested, but capable, I don’t force it unless it’s something I deem necessary. I want my kids to be writing letters by Kindergarten (age 5.5-6). But, if they are 4 and uninterested, then wait 6 months and try again!

The majority of writing begins in the Kindergarten years anyway.

Doing worksheets before any pre-writing activities.

If they are interested in letters but can’t seem to follow directions to trace or copy, then back up and do some fun pre-writing activities.

I didn’t realize that “pre-writing” was an official thing, because kids naturally do some of these things first. Think drawing shapes and lines (my 3.5 year old currently draws mama as a big round circle with about 5 lines of hair).

Also coloring, holding a paintbrush, beading, drawing letters in the air, or anything that strengthens hand muscles and makes writing easier later on is considered pre-writing.

It can be a lot more work to correct a bad habit than to make sure they learn the strokes correctly the first time. I’m living this. You can’t hand them a worksheet and walk away. You’ll have to stay at watch till a habit is formed.

One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen all my kids try to do is write from bottom to top.

Some examples are writing the letter O starting at the bottom instead of top, or my son wanting to write the tail of the lowercase “g” in his name before circle on top.

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How to teach a left handed child to write

My oldest is a clear lefty and my middle is a righty. There is not a huge difference when teaching them to write letters, so don’t be too intimidated!

• Make sure they have a proper pencil grip. I have them pinch the pencil with their thumb and index finger, resting the pen on their middle finer.
• Hold the pencil close to the tip for better control, but far enough away that they can still see what they are writing without having to bend their wrist all wonky.
• Tip the paper a tad, so the bottom right corner of the page is bit down. This is opposite of the way I tilt my page being right handed.

This is an excellent in depth post on Tips for teaching left handed kids to write if you want to read more.

You can teach your child to write at home

If you are beginning your homeschool journey and feel overwhelmed, know that you have what it takes to teach your child to write their letters! Homeschoolers have the freedom to go at their own pace, and it’s a great way to spend one on one time with your child. 

If your child will be attending kindergarten, then there will be PLENTY of letter practice there. Or, consider doing kindergarten at home! Kindergarten teachers know that some kids can write many letters and others only some or none at all.  They really try to meet kids where they are at!

Either way, helping your child to learn their letters at home will help them so much! What is one thing you worry about when it comes to teaching handwriting? Let me know in the comments!

Follow Blue and Hazel on Instagram!

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How to teach a child to write in words

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Is it possible to teach a child to write beautiful capital letters? Of course! The main thing is to arm yourself with patience and pay attention to simple exercises that will help the baby successfully master capital letters and, ultimately, become the owner of an even, beautiful handwriting.

You have taught baby to keep posture while sitting at the desk, picked up the right writing supplies and practiced preparatory exercises, it's time for copybooks.
It is absolutely not necessary to wait for the start of school - the more confident the child will write by the beginning of school, the easier and more pleasant it will be for him to get high marks in writing lessons.

How to learn to write in cursive?

Step one. Start by showing your child how to write the basic elements that make up all letters. Among them there are vertical sticks, and sticks rounded at the top or bottom, and other "squiggles". Discuss with the baby the appearance of each element, pay attention to the position of the stick relative to the line - after all, all elements of the letters should not go beyond the lines. Start writing these elements - first at pre-set points, then on your own. Second step . Choose any printed letter, draw the child's attention to it. Do an exercise with this letter - for example, ask your child to find this letter in the text, or cut it out of paper.

Third step . Continuing the game with the letter from the task above, show your baby how it magically turns into a capital! This metamorphosis is of great importance, because often children do not see the connection between "concise" printed letters and intricate cursive cursives. In order to consolidate the comparative stage, proceed to writing this letter. For now, do it yourself - slowly, slowly, commenting on each movement: "I put a dot over the line and move my hand up," etc.

Fourth step . Be sure to use motor memory in your writing lessons! Using the same letter, write it in the air . Ask the child to carefully follow your movements - he must guess which letter you are depicting. Letter guessed? Ask your child to repeat your "air pas" writing letters. Help him for the first time - take his hand in yours and move it in the air, drawing the desired letter and commenting on the movements. Then ask your child to do the exercise on their own. Repeat the task several times.

Step five . And now, finally, the most crucial moment has come! Ask your child to write this letter in cursive. To begin with, point by point, then independently. Help the kid with your comments in difficult places, and then, after several attempts, ask him to comment on each of his actions.

Syllables and words . When each letter of the alphabet is familiar and learned with the help of such games, it will be possible to move on to writing syllables and even whole words. Be sure to accompany these reading classes and games to develop attention - this is how you will achieve real success!

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step-by-step instructions with expert advice

And then the first letter, the first word, appears on a piece of paper. Uneven and uncertain. But long-awaited. How to teach a child to write? How can I help him develop writing skills at home? Answers-in our material

Alena Gerashchenko