Letter name games

10 Games to Play With Names

Whether you’re on the playground or at the table with a paper and pen, tons of sneaky games exist to help our little ones learn to recognize, spell, and appreciate one of the most important gifts they will ever receive — their names!

From the letter sounds to writing, here are ten games to play with names:

Name Tic-Tac-Toe: There’s no reason that this old standby needs to be stuck hanging with Xs and Os. Use the letters of your child’s name to really make Tic-Tac-Toe interesting!
Sound Clap: Emphasizing each syllable of your child’s name as he’s swinging, jumping rope, or tossing a ball out back will help him develop an awareness of sounds that will help build a solid foundation for early literacy. Clap once for each syllable, or give him a push on the swing for each syllable. Talk about how Madeline’s name has three syllables, Ella’s name has two, and Max’s name has one. Think of as many one-syllable, two-syllable, and three-syllable names you can!

First-Letter Love: Get your child to love, adore, be proud of — his letter, the first letter of his name. Hunt around your house for every single place you can find “his letter,” and place a tiny chart sticker next to it. Then count the stickers and celebrate!
Letter Mix-Up: Take out the letters of your child’s name, place them in front of your child, then mix up the order. Switch the first two letters, and have your child help you build her name again. Then mix up the last two letters, and do the same thing. Try turning one letter around, upside-down, or sideways, and then ask your little one to help you get her name back in order. For a challenge, mix up all of the letters or introduce your last name.
Food Names: Using a handful of alphabet crackers or alphabet cereal letters, have children search for as many “first letters” as they can. Find all of their letters, build their name, and then eat it.
Water Name: On a sunny day, let your child paint her letter — or her whole name — on rocks, on your steps, on your back porch, or on the sidewalk using water and a paintbrush. Have her work toward painting her whole name before it evaporates.

Crazy Name: Find something your child normally doesn’t write with — a huge poster marker, a toothbrush, a feather pen, a branch from a tree, or a super-skinny paint brush — and invite him to write his name using those items.
Letter Search: Using magnetic letters, letter stickers, or any other letter manipulatives, grab the letters of your child’s name and 3 to 5 extra letters. Lay them out in front of him, and search for his letters. Hold up the correct letter along with another letter, and ask him to help you hunt for each letter, one by one. To “up” the fun factor, have your child use tongs or chopsticks to pick up each letter.
Cookie Tray Name: Spread dry Jell-O mix, shaving cream, rice, or sand on a cookie tray, and write names using fingers. Shake the tray and begin again!
ABC Name Book: Brainstorm all of your friends’ and family members’ names. Write the “A” names on one page, the “B” names on another, and so on. Clip the pages together, and you have an ABC Name Book, perfect for reinforcing beginning letter sounds!

Names are the very first gifts parents give to their children, so names should be celebrated in every way possible. As a teaching tool, there’s no stopping when it comes to name games, especially these super-easy games that can be played on the fly, with little to no prep or cleanup.

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50 ABC Letters and Sounds Games • Kids Activities Blog

Today we have a whole bunch of alphabet fun with letter and sounds learning games and activities for toddlers and preschoolers to help you young students prepare to read with fun pre-reading playful learning ideas.

ABC Games & Alphabet Sounds

Many parents have kids that are soon to enter kindergarten for the first time and are wondering what their kids should know before they head out to school on their own.

As a mom who once taught Kindergarten, I always wanted to make sure my kids are well-prepared and ready to begin their school career with a bit of an advantage by knowing their letters and sounds.

Related: Grab our free Kindergarten readiness checklist as a guide

I have seen the value in children knowing their letters early.

That said, I also recognize that kids are kids, and I want to make sure they have time to play – both independently and with me.

Let’s learn our alphabet through playing games!

Learning Through Alphabet Games

Children acquire knowledge through play, so learning letters at our house is rarely a sit down structured time.

It’s a time of play and games!

The kids have fun and don’t even realize they are learning at the same time. I don’t believe we should leave teaching up to the schools. You get the great honor of being an educator of your child, and you can supplement what is happening at school by engaging your child in enjoyable yet educational ways.

Related: Check out our huge abc letters resource that has letter activities, letter crafts, letter printables and more for every letter of the alphabet!

I hope these resources help you feel equipped to take the reins in your own child’s education.

This article contains affiliate links.

Let’s play a hands on letter game!

Hands On Letter Games

1. Letter Toss Game

Muffin Tin Learning – Want to make learning fun? This game involving throwing pennies and will keep your kids engaged. They will barely know that this is actually a lesson.

2. Growing Letters Game

Alphabet Flower Garden – This garden is full of letters and learning opportunities. It is definitely a great way to explore and grow in alphabet knowledge.

3. Unlimited ABC Games for Kids

ABC Mouse – This site gives kids tons of alphabet and phonics practice through interactive games and printables.

4. Matching Letter Game

Magnetic Alphabet Board – This letter matching activity is self-contained and is a tool to get kids to match up letters and help with identification.

5. Touch and Feel the Alphabet Game

Play Dough and Magnet Letters – Letting kids explore using their senses is a great way to learn. Play Dough is a tactile way to watch this happen.

–>Need a Set of Alphabet Magnets? I like this Magnetic Letters Alphabet Fridge Magnets Set that comes in a handy carrying tub.

6. The Great Alphabet Race

Race the Alphabet – Do you have race tracks and a child that loves playing with cars? This activity is for you! If you don’t have your own track, here’s another version.

Let’s have some fun with preschool learning games & our ABC’s.

Preschool Alphabet Games

7. Fishing for Letters

Magnet Letter Fishing – Take your magnet letters and make a simple fishing pole. With a pond full of letters, your kids will have a lot of fun casting their line for another catch.

8. Pirate Vowel Game

Gold Coin Vowel Sound Drop – Your little pirate will have fun learning his or her vowels be playing this game.

9. Letter Stacking Game

ABC Letter Stack Game – Stacking up letters has never been so fun. They get to stack and stack until they fall, which I am sure will become the favorite part.

Related: Use these with our playful preschool homeschool curriculum

10. It Begins With…

Initial Sounds Blackout Game – Want kids to be able to identify the beginning sounds of words? This fun game will help them do exactly that.

–>Need a Wooden Alphabet Set with Flashcards? I really love the cuteness of this Tangame Wooden Magnetic Letters Alphabet Refrigerator Magnet Flash Cards for Preschool Kids that comes in a magnetic tin.

11. Letter Scavenger Hunt

Architecture Letter Scavenger Hunt – Have you seen those photos that find letters in architecture? Your kids get to go on their own letter scavenger hunt with this fun activity.

Let’s play a creative alphabet game!

Creative Letter Games for Alphabet Sounds

12.

Interactive Alphabet Learning Games

A-Z Letter Learning Activities – This post brings you over 90 activities for each and every letter of the alphabet. What a great resource!

13. Climb the Word Ladder

Word Ladder – Kids get to “climb” to the top of the ladder as they successfully identify letters and sounds. They don’t need to worry if they “fall,” they have the opportunity to try again.

14. Flashlight Alphabet Game

Flashlight Alphabet Game – My kids are obsessed with flashlights. I know my preschooler would love this game!

–>Need Foam Alphabet Letters for Practice? This Gamenote Classroom Magnetic Alphabet Letters Kit comes in a plastic organization case and magnet board and would be great for home too.

15. Make a Letter Game

Letter Formation Activity – Using materials you probably have at home, your kids will have a lot of fun forming their letters.

16. Hungry Hungry Letters Game

Alphabet Monster – This hungry monster will only eat letters if you can say the name or sound of a letter. What a fun craft to make that also turns a great letter learning opportunity.

Let’s play a game that helps us learn letters!

ABC Games that Help Kids Learn Letters and Sounds

17. Let’s Host a Reading Hop

Reading Hop – This letter learning game will keep your kids active and hopping all around. If you are looking for a way to take learning outdoors, you have found it.

18. Alphabet I Spy

Alphabet “I Spy” – Take the classic and beloved game of “I Spy” and turn it into an alphabet search activity. Brilliant!

19. Can You Catch the Letters Game?

Runaway Letters Game – Your child gets a chance to grab letters and runaway while you creativity beacon the letter’s return. This is a great way for moms, dads or teachers to interact with their kids during the educational process.

–>Need a Fun ABC Game? I love this ABC Cookies Game from Goodie Games that is a fun alphabet learning game for toddlers and preschoolers.

20.

LEGO Spelling

Lego Spelling – If you add letters to duplex legos, you have a great way to work on sounds and words.

21. Letters Inside of Letters Activity

Making Letters with Letters – Learning letters will be reinforced over and over again as your kids use letters from magazines to create their own larger letters.

Fun Pre-K Learning games for kids!

ABC Games for Pre-K

22. Letter Swat Game

Spider Letter Swat – Kids will enjoy learning their letters as they swat away at the flies in this entertaining game.

23. Letter Squirt Game

Squirt the Letter – This is a game I know my son, especially, would love. He loves anything squirt gun and anything water. Squirting the correct letter is right up his alley.

24. Letter Lacing Activity

Letter Lacing – This letter lacing, quiet bag activity works on fine motor skills while also developing the skills needed to develop in reading.

–>Need Letter Lacing Cards? I like this wooden set from Melissa & Doug that has both animals and letters on the sturdy lacing cards.

25. Alphabet Sounds Race

Letter Sounds Race – Get your kids moving with this letter sounds race. This is a great learning opportunity for your active kids! More alphabet sound learning activities are fun too!

26. Disappearing Letters Game

Disappearing Letters – Kids will learn to love to trace their letters as they see the trick to making them disappear.

Let’s play ABC Learning Games!

Alphabet Games for Learning

27. The Game of Bang

Bang – Bang is a letter identification game that will be a lot of fun for the little gamers in your life.

28. Letter Chomp Game

Mr. Shark Alphabet Chomper Game – I love the idea to make a shark out of an envelope in general. Add the learning aspect of having the shark chomp letters, and you have a great game.

29. Letter Tiles Activity

DIY Bananagrams Letter Tiles – Here’s a really smart way to make letter tiles. You can turn them into magnets or play the classic Bananagram game with your creation.

–>Need a Bananagram Game? Here is the original Bananagram game for kids.

30. Make Pretzel Letters

Soft Pretzel Letters – Kids can learn their letters as they have fun making pretzel dough. Through using both the sense of touch and taste, this becomes a fun activity for all.

31. Travel Alphabet Game

Alphabet Words Game – This is a learning game that can be taken anywhere. Keep your kids occupied working on their letters at restaurants, home, car rides and more.

Let’s play letter and sound games!

ABC Games for Letters and Sounds

32. Touchy Feely Letters

Sensory Bins with Letters – Sometimes the best way to help kids learn is to let them explore. This sensory bin will help kids do just that.

33. Alphabet Seek & Find

Seek-N-Find Alphabet – This letter game is like an eye spy for letters. It involves a plastic tube (easily substituted by a water bottle), and will keep your kids searching for their letters for quite some time.

34. Letter Formation Fun

Tactile Writing – Kids learn to write letters as they use rice and paint to feel their way through the process or writing.

–>Need a Wooden Letter Matching Set? I like this durable Alphabet flash cards and wooden letter puzzle set from LiKee Alphabet.

35. Homemade Domino Letter Fun

Craft Stick Dominos – These craft stick dominos are an easy, homemade version of a domino game with a focus on learning letters and matching symbols. What a fun idea.

36. Flashcard Games

ABC Flashcards – Flashcards can be used by a variety of games and activities like flashcard basketball. These ones are free. And so are these kids alphabet cards you can download & print instantly.

Related: Here are a bunch of ideas for flash card games for kids

Let’s play some more abc games!

How to Help a Child Learn Letters and Sounds Through Play

37. Make a Sun-Powered Letter Puzzle

Make a DIY shape puzzle using the sun with alphabet letters for a really fun matching game you can play inside or out. Or use this method without the sun to make this fun abc matching game for kids.

38. Collect Alphabet Treasures

Use these free alphabet labels to create small containers for each letter of the alphabet for a special letter collection activity!

39. Make Easy Alphabet Crackers

Making alphabet crackers has never been easier or more fun!

–>Need an Alphabet Snack? I like these Happy Tot Organics ABC Multi-Grain Cookies…yum!

40. Play Alphabet Zipline!

Use these alphabet printable letters to create your own alphabet zipline in your living room. It is really fun.

41. Play a Silly Letters Game

Try these alphabet games for preschool that are full of fun and a little silly…

42. Make Pipecleaner Letters!

Try to do some fun abc formation with pasta and pipe cleaners which is a fun way to explore letter shapes.

43. Make Bathtub Alphabet Soup

Use bath letters for a big big big batch of bubblebath alphabet soup {giggle}.

44. Color a Letter Coloring Page

Letter A Coloring Page
Letter B Coloring Page
Letter C Coloring Page
Letter D Coloring Page
Letter E Coloring Page
Letter F Coloring Page
Letter G Coloring Page
Letter H Coloring Page
Letter I Coloring Page
Letter J Coloring Page
Letter K Coloring Page
Letter L Coloring Page
Letter M Coloring Page
Letter N Coloring Page
Letter O Coloring Page
Letter P Coloring Page
Letter Q Coloring Page
Letter R Coloring Page
Letter S Coloring Page
Letter T Coloring Page
Letter U Coloring Page
Letter V Coloring Page
Letter W Coloring Page
Letter X Coloring Page
Letter Y Coloring Page
Letter Z Coloring Page

45. Let’s Play with Playdough!

These playdough pre writing activities are both fun and super hands-on learning.

Let’s make a yummy…I mean gummy…alphabet!

46.

Make Gummy Letters

This sour gummy recipe makes the cutest alphabet letters to learn and eat!

47. Try a Fun Alphabet Activity Book

There are so many quality workbooks for kids on the market right now so we narrowed it down to some of our favorites that just might fit your kid.

Let’s find the letters and make pictures with crayons!

48. Color by Letter Activities for Letter Recognition Fun

We have a whole bunch of color by letter printable pages for kids that help them recognize letters while playing a game:

Color by letter – A-E
Color by letter worksheets – F-J
Coloring by letters – K-O
Color with letters – P-T
Preschool color by letter – U-Z

49. Play the Missing Letter Game

Use one of our favorite preschool games, What is Missing? and use either letter flashcards or abc fridge magnet sets to create sequencing of the alphabet and then remove a letter or two.

Let’s have fun with letter recognition!

50.

Play Alphabet Beach Ball Toss

Modify our fun sight word game with letters instead of sight words. Your beach ball can be covered with the letters of the alphabet for throwing and catching learning fun.

Games for ABC Sounds

51. Learn and sing the ABC sounds song

I love this fun song from Rock ‘N Learn that goes through the entire alphabet with sounds for each of the letters.

52. Play an online ABC sounds game

Monster Mansion is a free online alphabet match game that kids can learn the abc sounds and match them with the proper letter on the proper monster!

53. Print & Play a letter sounds game

Preschool Play and Learn has a really colorful and fun letter sounds board game you can print and play at home or in the preschool classroom. Each player will pick up a card and identify the letter and /or say the sound that the letter makes.

More Learning Games from Kids Activities Blog

Now that we learned out letters, don’t miss out on our number activities for preschoolers!
When your child is ready, we have a big giant list of sight word activities that are fun too!
We have some really fun games teaching kids how to read a clock.
My favorite massive resource of fun is our kids science games here at Kids Activities Blog.
It doesn’t have to be October to play some frightful Halloween games.
Let’s play math games for kids!
If you need to work out the wiggles, we have the best indoor games for kids.

What was your favorite abc game? Did we miss some alphabet activities that you do with your kids?

Letter games

It is important to make learning to read interesting and fun for children. Letter games will help us with this. These games can be used both at the initial stage of learning letters, and to consolidate reading skills.

Memory game.

To do this, print cards with letters in two copies.

At the initial stage, all cards can be turned face up and just look for the same letters.

Then play according to the usual rules of the memory game. All cards are turned face down. Players take turns opening two cards. If they have the same letters, then the player takes them for himself, if not, then turns the cards back upside down. The one who collects the most pairs of letters wins. nine0003

You can vary the difficulty of the game - use from 8 to 33 pairs.

Game "Lost letter".

An adult lays out a few letters in front of a child. He asks him to look and try to remember them. Then close your eyes. When the child closes his eyes, the adult removes one letter. Then he asks the child to open his eyes and name the letter that is “lost”.

Lay out the letter game.

A letter is placed in front of the child. An adult asks to lay out this letter on the table from various objects (lids, pebbles, pompoms, beans, thread). nine0003

Run to the letter game.

This game will help you warm up a bit and make learning even more fun.

Several letters are hung around the room. An adult gives commands, for example, “Run to the letter K!”, “Run to the letter Zh!” etc. The child must find the letter as quickly as possible, run to it and cover it with his palm.

The game "Who is more?"

An adult randomly pulls out a card with a letter. Players take turns saying words starting with that letter. The player who does not name the word in turn is out. The one who lasts the longest wins. nine0003

Make a word game.

An adult offers the child several letters to form a word.

Match the word.

Players are given pieces of paper with words written on them (you can write by hand), it is desirable that the letters in the words do not repeat or print additionally more letters. An adult shuffles the cards with letters and opens one card at a time.

A player whose written word has this letter calls out "Yes!" and takes the letter for himself. The one who gathers his word first wins. nine0003

This game can also be made mobile. Children are also given written words. And the adult hangs the letters in the room on the walls. At the command of the adult “Start!”, The children walk around the room and collect their word.

Name the letter game.

An adult lays out cards with letters face down on the table. The child comes to the table and takes any card so that the other children do not see the letter, and calls the word that begins with this letter. Children must guess the letter that is written on the card. nine0003

Letter story game.

An adult draws a card with a letter at random. Then he turns to the players in turn with questions: “Who?”, “What did you do?”, “Why?”, “Where?”.

The task of the players is to quickly respond with words that begin with an extended letter. For example, an adult drew the letter H:

"Who?" - rhinoceros

"What did you do?" - dived

“What/Why?” - for socks

"Where?" - to Niagara Falls

It turns out: "The rhinoceros dived for socks in Niagara Falls." Or it could turn out like this: "Rhinoceros drew scissors on his nose."

The one who couldn't come up with a word is out. The one who can last the longest wins.

Word-maker game.

For the game it is better to print frequently repeated letters (A, E, I, O, B, D, K, L, M, N, P, R, C, T).

Any word of 5-8 letters is laid out on the table. The rest of the cards are dealt equally to all players. The players take turns. On their turn, the player can add a letter to the laid out word so that a new word is obtained. New words can be laid out horizontally and vertically. If a player cannot make a word, he skips a turn and can discard and draw 2 new cards. nine0003

The game ends when no one can move, or when all cards run out.

You can play with older children by counting points: the number of letters in the invented word is equal to the number of points. At the end of the game, the number of points from all players is calculated, and whoever scored the most is the winner.

Cards with additional letters often found in words for the games "Wordmaker" and "Make a word".

Illustrated by Olga Mezhevich

If the materials were useful to you, I will be very glad to comments! nine0003

Practice with joy! )

Playing with letters | Papmambuk

Playing with letters

Marina Aromshtam April 4, 2022 6033 Read in English

The ability to recognize the graphic image of a letter is one of the most important conditions for teaching a child to read.
Letter exercises and games wander from one pedagogical system to another, from one teacher to another, like folk songs or fairy tales. Therefore, it is impossible to indicate their exact origin. But all of them have been tested by practice and can be useful to both teachers and parents concerned about the problem of teaching children to read and write. nine0133 We recommend playing these games with children of five or six years old.

“We construct” letters
Letters can be laid out on the table, on the floor, on the ground from strings, matches, sticks, cones, pebbles, pasta; “draw” with a handful of sand or cereals, which are poured out in a thin stream from a paper bag. Such "man-made" letters can be given appropriate names: "stone", "forest", "pasta". Along the way, you can compose stories who needed to use such signs. nine0003

Labyrinth letter
Players choose a driver. The driver lays out a letter on the floor from long thick ropes. This is a labyrinth. The rest of the players are trying to get through the maze without slipping off the ropes. The game becomes even more interesting if you have to go through the maze with your eyes closed and guess which letter is laid out. The winner is the one who does not slip off the rope and correctly name the letter.

Breadfruit of letters
Letters can be baked from salt dough. Ready-made letter products can be painted and hung on the “letter tree”. Then you can play the game "Go there, I don't know where." nine0003

Game "Go there, I don't know where"
The king is chosen. He sits down on the throne and addresses one of the players: “Go there, I don’t know where; bring something, I don't know what." The player who was addressed approaches the tree and “rips off” the letter from it, while the king closes his eyes.
The player comes to the king: “I brought you a gift, king: do not open your eyes, what is the letter - guess!”
The king takes the letter in his hands, feels it and names it.
Players can guess a short word. The letters are laid out in front of the king in a certain sequence. The king, touching the letters, tries to guess what word they make up. nine0003

Letter-bas-relief
Letters can be molded from plasticine sausages and made into stucco bas-reliefs. Such bas-reliefs will become a worthy decoration for family coats of arms, knightly shields, fairy-tale castles. You can start a game: invite the children to guess the name of the character (knight, wizard, princess), on the doors of the castle of which (or which) such a coat of arms flaunts.

Unfinished letter
The leader draws part of the letter and asks the others what letter he has in mind. The one who guesses finishes the letter. This game can be played on paper, board, asphalt, sand. nine0003

I can't see the letter, but I can feel it
Two people play this game. One player turns his back to the other, and the latter “draws” on his back with a letter sign that needs to be guessed. If the letter is guessed correctly, the players switch roles.
Can also be played as a group. Two leaders are chosen. One turns his back to the rest of the players. Another calls the "scribe": he beckons someone from the group with his finger and instructs him to draw a letter on the back of the first driver.

Letters on loose background
Take a small tray with rims. Fine sand or semolina is poured into it. Children take turns drawing letters with their fingers on the loose material.

Letter upside down
The driver places the letter upside down in front of the players. You have to guess what letter it is.
The game can be made more difficult if there are several letters presented at the same time. And the most difficult level is when you need to read the word laid out upside down.

Mirrored letters
Children are given cards with mirrored letters. You can recognize them only by looking in the mirror. The game can be made more difficult if words are written on the cards in mirror letters. nine0003

We grow the letter
Two teams of two or three people are selected.