Letters recognition for preschool
How to Teach Your Preschooler Letter Recognition Through Play
- Share
Helping your preschooler to gain letter recognition skills does not need to feel like “work!”
Learning through play in a fun, stress-free, and positive manner is always the best way.
What Letter Recognition Means
Learning letter recognition skills involves several different hands-on components.
Children need to distinguish the shapes of letters from each other (visually recognize them) and be able to point to and state the letter names, as well as the sounds made by each letter.
In addition, they must learn to form letters and write them.
These skills do not all need to be accomplished during the preschool years and in fact, preschoolers are not yet developmentally ready to learn to read and write.
By simply exposing your child in a fun way, you will begin the process of laying down foundational pre-reading and writing skills.
When Should a Child Recognize Letters of the Alphabet?
Although you can read about average ages when kids gain alphabet skills, those often vary widely.
Just as children learn to walk and talk at different ages, the same is true for recognizing letters of the alphabet.
They each learn at their own pace, depending on many factors.
How to Build Skills to Prepare Your Child for Letter Recognition
Through fun play activities, parents can help their children gain various developmental skills that prepare preschoolers for letter recognition.
Those types of skills include visual perception, memory, and auditory perception.
What this means is that learning the letters does not in fact start with exposure to the actual letters, but rather to play activities that develop these skills.
Visual Perception
Visual perception refers to your child’s brain making sense of what their eyes are seeing, such as details and shapes (shape recognition).
These skills also include visual-motor and eye-hand coordination.
Helpful kinds of activities include:
- those that exercise the large muscles (such as throwing/catching)
- small motor activities (like lacing)
- visual perception (such as building puzzles)
- and limiting screen time, which has limitations related to visual perception skills.
Memory
Memory development relates to storing and using information in the brain.
Stress-free activities to enhance these skills include:
- simple card games
- Memory card games (get your own by downloading the FREE set of printables at the end of the post)
- talking about fun memories
- story visualization
- reading and talking about books
- Visual memory games, like picture bingo
- Auditory memory games
Auditory Perception
Auditory perception includes the brain’s ability to distinguish sounds and words, which is important for learning the sounds of letters.
These are the kind of activities that can support this skill:
- listening to music
- distinguishing animal sounds
- clapping out copied rhythm patterns
[source]
How do I Teach My Child Letter Recognition?
Even before your child shows an interest in print,
- reading to them
- sharing poems and nursery rhymes
- talking to them
- telling stories
- and singing songs to or with them
are all meaningful and fun activities that set the stage for letter recognition.
Keep it fresh, keep it new, and be willing to return to their favourite activities when asked.
As your child shows a growing interest in print, make it available to them whenever possible.
Instead of keeping that book to yourself as you read to them, show children the words, running your fingers over them as you read. Let kids turn the pages of books.
Have books available in the home to which kids have constant access.
So many things around the house contain words, like packages, lists, letters, emails, screens, magazines, and greeting cards.
Point and touch as you read, showing children that you are using words daily, expressing how much can be learned through their use.
Write in front of your kids for all different purposes, at least sometimes spelling aloud.
Make drawing and writing tools and surfaces available to your child at all times, indoors and out.
Don’t just offer the traditional papers and crayons – include:
- Drawing with sticks in the sand
- Writing on clay or playdough
- Drawing on shower and bath walls with soap
Should I Teach the Letters in a Specific Order?
Instead of teaching letters in any special, prescribed order, focus on those that are used most often and in order of importance for your child.
They typically want to know about the letters:
- in their names
- in “MOM” and “DAD”
- in a pet’s name
- environmental print (like on STOP or WALK signs)
- and even outstanding words from a favourite storybook
Think about and pay attention to those letters and words that appear to be interesting to your kids, using them as the foundation to build upon.
[source]
Is it Better to Teach Upper or Lowercase Letters First?
For preschoolers, the field of occupational therapy makes a good case for beginning with capitals in handwriting letter formation.
They are formed from larger lines and curves that avoid retracing and changing directions, while still teaching top to bottom strokes.
If children try to form letters for which their visual-motor skills are not prepared, they sometimes build poor habits that can be difficult to break later on.
Of course, your child may be familiar with lowercase letters, seeing them in many print formats, and gradually learning to identify them.
When their motor skills are ready, they typically make an easy switch to including them along with uppercase when they write.
[source]
Letter Recognition Activities and Games for Preschoolers
Here are some fun ways to teach your preschooler recognition through play.
1. Point Out Environmental Print
Print is all around us.
Point out, talk about and stress the sounds of words on signs (such as favourite restaurants and traffic/street signs), cereal or other product boxes/labels, and familiar logos.
2. Share Rhyming Books
Read favourite rhyming books to your child, accentuating the rhyme and rhythm.
Afterwards, play an oral game of stating some rhyming words from the story and adding a new rhyming word of your own.
Challenge your child to come up with more words that rhyme. Either real or pretend “words” are okay, as it is the rhyming factor that counts.
3. Letter Hunt
Point out and talk about the letters in your child’s name, making them clearly visible in print.
Show them how you find one of those same letters in a magazine or newspaper and cut out as a rather square piece (not necessarily trying to cut out close to the letter’s edges).
Challenge them to find other letters from their name in print and cut those out, as well.
After all the letters have been found, they can arrange them in the correct order for their name.
These may be kept in a small bag for future use or glued onto a coloured sheet of paper to post on the fridge or in your child’s room.
Instead of cutting, another option is to use different colours of highlighters to mark various letters found in print.
4. Play with Plastic/Wooden Letters
Letters may be sorted and put into piles in different ways:
- those with curves
- letters with straight lines
- those from your child’s name or other important words
- letters they can name
- and those for which they can say the sounds
Letters with magnets may be used on the fridge or on a magnet board for sorting purposes.
5. Bake Letters
Use bread or pretzel dough to form letters with your child, then bake them to be eaten later.
While you work, talk about the letter names, sounds, and easy words (like their names) that may be formed.
Special baking tins and cookie cutters may be purchased to bake letters.
You can also bake oblong cakes and cut into large letter shapes, as well.
6. Form Letters with Familiar Materials
Offer kids various types and colours of pasta to form letters on flat backgrounds, either to glue into place or to leave loose and rearrange into different letters.
Other materials to explore might include:
- dry breakfast cereals
- buttons or pennies
- cotton balls
- dried beans
- mini-marshmallows
- toothpicks
- rice
- Yarn
7. Form Letters with Unusual Materials
Using a tabletop or oblong baking pan with low sides, spread shaving cream or pudding for your child to trace letters into with their fingers.
The same may be done with sand (or moved outside), to trace in with fingers or safe “sticks,” like pencils, dowels, or rulers.
8. Go on a Scavenger Hunt
Have children choose a letter card or cutout. Talk about how the letter looks and sounds.
Depending on your child’s level of development, challenge them to find things around the house that have that letter printed on them OR objects that begin with that letter’s sound.
9. Fish for Letters
Magnetic letter fishing games may be purchased or made with paper, magnets, paperclips, dowels, and string.
Name or pick a letter, focusing on how it looks and/or sounds. Kids then “fish” for the matching letters from the “pond.”
They can also just fish for a random letter and then name it once it is “caught.”
You can also use a version of this game later on, when children are learning to match upper and lowercase letters.
10. Play Musical Chairs with Letters
Add paper plates with letters or letters cut from cardboard right onto the chairs or onto the floor beneath.
Children walk around the circle and find a place to sit when the music stops. They each then name the letter on their chair or floor directly beneath.
11. Find Letters on a Keyboard
Make use of an old computer keyboard or typewriter. Your child names the letters as they touch the keys.
They can also find them to press as you say the names, sounds, or hold up cards, one letter at a time.
12. Spray or Write Letters Outdoors
Offer spray bottles with water for children to spray letters on driveways, sidewalks, or even the side of your house.
Another option is to use sidewalk chalk to write letters on the driveway, patio, or basketball court.
13. Form Letters with Bendable Materials
Get your child to bend pipe cleaners, chenille stems, or products like Wikki Stix (string covered in wax) to form letters.
Children often like to make multiple letters and form words, as well.
14. Find the Hidden Letters
“Bury” plastic or wooden letters in a sand table or sand box. Ask your child to name the letters as they are discovered.
Other materials may be used as alternates in sand tables or large trays, such as coloured rice, pasta, dried beans, or bird seed.
All of these ideas can help to strengthen your child’s early literacy skills.
Pay attention to where they stand in their development and keep raising the bar just a bit higher, while still returning to those games and activities in which they feel a high measure of success!
This is the key to learning.
Get FREE access to Printable Puzzles, Stories, Activity Packs and more!
Join Empowered Parents + and you’ll receive a downloadable set of printable puzzles, games and short stories, as well as the Learning Through Play Activity Pack which includes an entire year of activities for 3 to 6-year-olds.
Access is free forever.
Signing up for a free Grow account is fast and easy and will allow you to bookmark articles to read later, on this website as well as many websites worldwide that use Grow.
- Share
How to Teach Kids the Letters of the Alphabet
72 shares
- Share
- Tweet
Are you teaching letter recognition skills to your children? When it comes to pre-reading skills, Letter Recognition is an important part!
Learn how to teach and help your children learn their ABC’s with these tips and strategies!
If your kids are eager to learn the letters of the alphabet, provide them with a literacy-rich environment which includes letters and words around your classroom or home.
You can also add letters to your children’s play and introduce them to many different letter recognition activities.
What You'll Find On This Page
What is Letter Recognition?
One of the 5 Pre-Reading Skills Kids Need To Be Successful Readers is Letter Knowledge. Letter Knowledge begins with Letter Recognition which is also known as Alphabet Recognition.
Letter Recognition is the ability to recognize and name all of the lowercase and capital letters. Children who know the letters can also distinguish between them.
Why Is Letter Recognition Important?
Being able to say the names of the letters quickly in sequential order will help children learn the sounds more easily.
Sometimes, a letter name will give children clues as to the sound that it makes too.
Kids who can easily name the letters of the alphabet are also more motivated to learn about words and how to spell. They have an easier time learning to read too.
Is My Child Ready To Learn The ABC’s?
Just like learning to walk or potty training, children need to be developmentally ready to learn the letters of the alphabet.
Before they can begin, they need to visually discriminate or recognize the similarities and differences between the different letter shapes.
Children need to able to differentiate between straight and curved lines or tall and short letters.
They also need to understand the difference between letters, numbers, and other symbols.
What Order Should The Letters Be Taught?
When teaching your children the letters, you don’t have to introduce them in alphabetical order.
You should start with high-frequency ones like the letters in their names.
The letters in their names will have more meaning to them and give them more chances to practice recognizing those letters in different ways.
When first introducing the letters in their names and the rest of the alphabet, only give your children two unknown letters to work on at a time.
After they have mastered those letters, give them one or two more letters to learn until they know all 26!
Should My Child Learn Capital Letters or Lowercase Letters First?
Young children need to be exposed to both capital and lowercase and will need to learn all of them before becoming a successful reader.
Even though lowercase letters are more common in reading, it’s easier for children to learn capital letters first.
They don’t confuse them like they do lowercase letters, because capital letters are easier to visually distinguish.
If you look at all of the capital letters, the only ones that are commonly mistaken for one another are capital M and W.
When teaching children two letters that can be mistaken for one another such as capital M and W, teach one at a time.
After your children know both letters, give them activities to reinforce the differences between the two such as sorting the two letters.
Letter recognition is an important part of pre-reading! Your children are on their way to learning how to read!
Your May Also Like:
Are you looking for Alphabet Activities to help you teach and your children learn the letters of the alphabet? From Letter Dot Painting to Letter Mazes, there are so many printable activities that will give your children a fun, hand-on way to learn the letters.
These interactive resources will help your kids to work on letter identification, formation, and much more. Click on the picture to learn more about the activities included in this bundle!
Letter Recognition Resources:
Your preschoolers and kindergarteners can use these letter recognition resources to help them practice the skills that they are learning.
- Letter Recognition Activities
- Letter Recognition Games
- Alphabet Sequence Worksheets from Homeschool Preschool
- Letter Recognition Cards
- Letter of the Week Crafts from Crystal and Comp
Learning to distinguish letters: do not miss the important!
How well your child learns letters affects their ability to read and perform in elementary school. In the study of letters, it is very important to be consistent and systematically engage with the child, since at first the learned letters are forgotten very quickly, like any abstract symbols.
Learning block letters . This is the first and most difficult step. The child is still confused in letters, distinguishes them poorly and remembers with difficulty. Teachers recommend working with cards on which the letter is shown next to the subject for this letter. Such a hint will allow the child to independently remember the letter. Associative cards at first can be left in all prominent places until the recognition of letters is brought to automatism. In the learning process, you can use magnet letters, lay out letters from any materials (flowers, figures from Kinder Surprise, counting sticks, lids from baby food cans and much more) and make wishes to each other. This will not only help the child remember the letters, but also prepare the preschooler for the fact that the same letters can look different. Play games - invite the child to cross out all the letters A, (B, C ..) in a small passage from the newspaper; guess the letters written on its back or on the handle; choose the correct version of the letter from two letters, one of which is written in a mirror; write a familiar letter with a stick in the sand or with chalk on the pavement.
It is important to teach your child to distinguish between large and small letters. There is a simple rule "abeyoruf" - in a direct printed font, seven lowercase letters differ from capital letters not only in size, but also in shape: A, B, E, E, R, U, F. The last three tails go under the line. Therefore, you just need to show how small a, b, e, e are written and pay attention to the tails of the letters p, y, f.
Getting to know capital letters . After the child has learned the names and visually memorized printed letters, we begin to introduce him to capital letters. It is necessary to show both large and small letters at once. It will be great if a preschooler learns to recognize capital letters, correlate printed and written text. This also applies to uppercase numbers. Well, he will learn to write capital letters already at school.
Learning to recognize letters in different fonts.
The spelling of letters in different fonts is diverse and can vary significantly - the letters have a different slope, they can look like handwritten ones, for example, T is like M, they can be voluminous or hollow. Therefore, even a well-read child sometimes cannot read shop signs, book titles. Print out a sample letter page in two or three fonts, show it to your child, and keep it permanently. He has difficulties - call the letter and check with him on the "cheat sheet". Show your child flyers with interesting fonts, browse magazines and newspapers with him.
Aromshtam Marina | Learning to read and write in images and movements
Continued. See the beginning in No. 18, 19, twenty, 21/2008
Drawing by M. Ovchinnikova
Lesson 6. Letter Y
Lesson begins with a sound game (on choice) and a letter recognition game.
Talking to children
The teacher asks the children to look at a picture with a painted house near Bukvoedskaya fairy tale.
“What letters lived in Petya’s house? What happened when Grandfather-Bukvoed decided to cook in one cauldron letter o , a , y , e and the letter th ?
What letters are the result of this sorcery? What sounds does the letter and represent? What sound is sung when we sound the letter I ?
Tasks for children
embossed letters letter i ".
2. "Put the letter on the landscape sheet and circle around contour. Remember: the head of the letter i always looks to the left. Color the letter.
3. Before the children - rhyming cards. teacher reads the rhyme aloud:
| Yasha walked through the forest, |
“Find in the rhyme all the letters and . Circle them with an orange triangle. Then find in the text the letters and , about , for , and ".
4. The teacher puts up on the board or in middle of the circle demonstration pictures. Under them are words with a missing first letter.
“Look at the pictures. What's on them drawn? Words under the pictures start with the letter i . Enter the letter and instead of passes. The teacher calls several children who draw the missing letters in words.
It is proposed to say these words again. At pronouncing the word, the teacher each time indicates to the letter and at the beginning. It's convenient, so how all words begin with a stressed syllable.
5. “Choose any picture and draw a similar one. Sign her copying the word.
Homework for those who wish: draw capital letter i and turn it into your "letter" portrait.
The article was published with the support of IQ Card LLC. The company provides a full range of services in the field of distribution and maintenance of bank cards of major payment systems. The main product of the company is the IQcard Visa Gold bank card, which can be issued online at http://www.iqcard.ru/. There you will also find a detailed description of other products of the company and a complete list of services provided.
Sessions 7-9 (letters E, Y, Y)
Activity scenarios 7 (letter e ), 8 (letter y ) and 9 (letter - ) are similar to the scenario of session 6. The teacher, if desired, can vary the sound games and games with letters.
Rhyme in which to find the letter e :
| Children ate on their birthday |
Rhyme to find the letter y :
| Snowstorms are whistling in the north. |
To fill in the gaps in the words below pictures starting with the letter Yu , you need solve riddles:
“The first word is the name of the boy. His name is ... ( Yura ).
The second word denotes the direction of the world: not north, a… ( south ).
The third word means mobile home, made from animal skins… ( yurt ).
You need to guess what these words are, and write in them instead of gaps the letter and .
dedicated to the letter e , we answer the questions:
“What is shown in the pictures?” into words under the pictures, instead of gaps, insert the letter e .
“Which picture in the row is missing? Why?"
Lesson 10. The letters Y, Z, E, Y
The lesson begins with a sound game (on choice) and a letter recognition game.
Tasks for children
1. In front of each child is a card with contour house (, see No. 21 ). “Here is the house. Place the letters a , o , y , e , s into it.
2. “Draw another house next to it and populate it with Petya's new acquaintances: here you must live letters i , i , i , i ".
3. “Read the letters in the boxes of the new house. Can you sing the sounds that hide inside these letters?
Of course you can. After all, ours live in them old acquaintances - sounds [a], [o], [y], [e], those that stuck together with the sound [i]. So i , i , i , e - letters for vowels.
And since in them the sound [i] still lives, they are called iotized.
4. Game "What is the last letter?".
First option. Before children - cards with the letters i , i , i , e . The leader (teacher) comes up with a word, which ends with an iotized letter, and says: "In the word" family "...". Children should finish the sentence: "... the last letter is i " - and show a card with the letter and .
| Master: In the word "spear" ... | Children: ... the last letter of is . |
.. the last letter is and . text cards.
Second version slightly different leader's words.
| Master: I'll sing a song for you. | Children: Last letter y . |
When the children have mastered the game, you can offer them to try their hand at the game one by one.
Homework for those who wish: draw all the letters that were found in fairy tales.
Lesson 11. The letter I
Lesson begins with registration exhibitions and viewing of drawings. teacher asks children to read the drawn letters.
Letter recognition games are held, reading interjections, singing sounds.
Reading or storytelling text
The pencil squeaks slightly.
But the letters look great!
The one who knows these letters,
He will easily revive them:
Once - and read the letter,
The letter will sound right away!
How good are you at drawing letters and bring sounds to life! How can you not be happy here? don't smile! Do you know what sound is the most smiling? Come on, smile and try it yourself guess. Of course, this is the sound [and].
It is no coincidence that it is heard in a very important the word "peace". The word "game" begins with it.
There is a special letter for the sound [and] - letter and . ( The teacher shows a card with letter and . ) Perhaps she was born from our smiles:
Smile - and the letter and
Give us a gift!
Tasks for children
0043 and . Read it."
2. “What sound does the letter and represent? Can this sound sing? The sound [and] consists of voices, that means he…”
3. “Come up with words that start with to the sound [and], in which the sound [and] is heard in the middle, in the end".
Glossary : games, name, willow, spark, Ira, Inna; world, feast, shooting gallery, view, rice, reef, rhyme, rhythm; talk, take, wake up, sit, look, fly.
4. Rhyming cards in front of children:
| Cyrus the Ancient General |
"Find in the rhyme all the letters and , put a red dot under them. Then at icon help highlight others the letters you know to represent vowels. What letters for vowels were not in the text?
Lesson 12. The letter I and other letters for vowels
The lesson follows a familiar pattern.
Tasks for children
divided into boxes ( see
No. 21 ). "Place houses. In one house there will be live letters denoting vowel sounds in another - letters denoting two sounds - the sound [i] and vowel".
2. “Count the windows in each house. How many occupied apartments in the first building? How many occupied apartments are in the second building? A free window remained in the house for ioted letters. The letter will live with them and .
Settle her in an unoccupied apartment.
3. “The letter and can also represent two sound - sound [i] and sound [and].
Listen:
Sparrows made a noise -
“Whose are you? Whose are you? Whose are you? Whose?".
“We were awakened by rays
Sunshine, brooks murmur.
And now let's play.
Game "What is the last letter?".
In the word "nightingales" - ... the last letter is and .
In the word "sparrows" - ... the last letter is and .
In the word "ants" - ... the last letter is and .
In the word "brooks" - ... the last letter is and .
There is a rook. - No ... ( boats ). — The last letter is and .
There are hits. - No ... ( hits ). — Last letter and .
There is a tub.
- No ... ( tubs ). The last letter is and .
4. For children, cards with pieces letters they know. "Restore the erased letters." Tasks can be individual: children restore different letters and define them. You can suggest coloring and decorating recovered letters.
5. Find your house game: finished work to restore letters, children become holders of cards with the image iotated or non-iotated vowels. By wave of the "magic" wand for the time of the upcoming games they themselves turn into these letters.
"Letters" of each group are collected in their own "house". It could be a circle a hoop or rope, or a flag, another symbol, around which you have to stand, holding hands, or really drawn on a dense paper or fabric on a dense base house with cells like the classics.
On the first signal, children scatter around the room, on the second they gather to your house.
