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PSPKK1238 Comments

10 Letter recognition activities

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These alphabet activities are perfect for helping your toddler or preschooler recognize the alphabet. Use these hands on letter recognition ideas at home or in the classroom!

10 letter recognition activities

(This post contains affiliate links.)

Today I’m excited to welcome Amy of Wildflower Ramblings!  Be sure to visit her blog for many hands-on activities for young learners.  Today she’s sharing a variety of letter recognition ideas for toddlers and young preschoolers.

Here’s Amy.

I used all of these ideas with my son when he was two and three years old. And all of the hands on learning, and use of fine motor skills, really benefits children in retaining their alphabet letters!

I wrote a free eBook titled Early Literacy Stages, which helps parents define and teach the six developmental stages of literacy learning. The first stage is recognizing uppercase letters.

We have chosen to learn uppercase (“capital” or “big” or “mama”) letters first for the following reasons:

  • learning the 26 uppercase letters will set your child up for success sooner than trying to learn 52 letters (lower and uppercase),
  • uppercase letters are more distinguishable from one another,
  • they have many more straight lines, so when it comes time to begin printing letters, children can excel, and
  • uppercase letters represent the majority of letters in print outside the home (on street signs, in the grocery store, etc), so learning uppercase will more readily expose your child to a world of print outside the home.

It is important for children to learn the lowercase letters and sounds too.  However, we choose uppercase first so they are not overwhelmed.  Choose what is best for your child. We also enjoy learning letter sounds and matching letters, both using Montessori materials.

Letter recognition ideas

Here are 10 fun activities that will help your child recognize the alphabet!

letter recognition1

You can make a simple alphabet slot game with a reused plastic container and wooden discs with letters either written in permanent marker (the easier choice), or with laminated letters.
 
 
letter recognition2

Help your child shape letters with play dough! We like to use play dough mats to inspire more creative learning — we are using Animal ABC mats here!

letter recognition3

Here, my son is using Lauri letter stackers. He loves these! They come in lower and uppercase letters.

letter recognition4

We put our sandpaper letters inside a little mailbox (from Target or Michael’s). Sometimes, we put them in envelopes to make it feel more like we’re playing post office. What letter will you mail today?!

letter recognition5

Placing magnets, pom poms, stickers, rocks, or using Do-a-Dot markerson dot pages is always fun for learning letters and fine motor skills! Anna has dot pages available for letters A thru Z.

letter recognition6

We like to create a sensory bin for each letter we study. Here is our letter Oo bin with various Os and O objects! You can see more of our sensory bins here.

letter recognition7

I set up a simple clothesline from our door knob to a bed post. I wrote letters on clothespins with a permanent marker and had my son match the clothespins to pieces of paper on the floor — we could have also put them in a basket or tub. You can find the free printable letters to cut here.

letter recognition8

Here we are matching foam letters to alphabet cards set in alphabetical order on the floor! He is so proud of himself after we’re done!

letter recognition9

We made a preschool letter book, coloring or painting the page with something that corresponds with that letter’s sound. Here, my son is painting his Y page with yyyellow paint! Anna has a whole list of ideas and free Block Letter pages.
letter recognition10

And lastly, we love creating letters with these free ABC Lego cards. How fun for kids to create letters with various tools such as Legos, blocks, or rocks!

These ideas are only suggestions for how you can make learning letters fun and exciting for children. Enjoy your time with your child, and I hope that you found some easy and creative alphabet recognition ideas and that they inspire you to create your own!

amy at wildflower ramblings

Amy Smith, M.Ed., writes about preschool and homeschooling at Wildflower Ramblings. As a former kindergarten teacher, she is passionate about interest-based learning and literacy. You can download her free eBook Early Literacy Stages or free ABC Lego Cards. You can connect with Amy through her weekly newsletter, on Facebook, and on Pinterest.

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Free Alphabet Printables

Join our email list and get this free sample of alphabet activities from our membership site! Students will practice identifying and forming letters, matching upper to lowercase, and identifying beginning sounds.

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Filed Under: Alphabet Tagged With: fine motor, preschool, Pre-K

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8 Comments

  1. Erin Purdie

    December 13, 2020 at 9:15 am

    For some reason every time I try to click the link, it sends me to the amazon page for the lego’s. Could I possibly get emailed to me? Thank you!

    Reply to this comment
    • Heather Groth, Customer Support

      December 13, 2020 at 10:13 pm

      Hello Erin! If you click this link, http://wildflowerramblings.com/printables-free/alphabet-lego-cards-uppercase-free-printable/, it will take you to the post about Alphabet Lego Cards by Amy at Wildflower Ramblings (this was a guest post). At the bottom of the post on her site, it looks like she asks you to sign up for her free newsletter and then the link for the download will be emailed to you. Please let us know if you try this and it doesn’t work! You can contact us at hello@themeasuredmom.com.
      Thank you!

      Reply to this comment
  2. Surya

    June 2, 2017 at 3:49 am

    These are great ideas! My oldest daughter is one of those “sit and learn” type kids, but my middle daughter definitely needs active learning ideas. I’ve come up with a few of my own and I love the ones you have posted here as well! I especially like the lego cards, so thank you!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      June 19, 2017 at 6:47 am

      I’m so glad you can use these ideas, Surya!

      Reply to this comment
  3. Liz

    February 7, 2016 at 5:17 am

    I’d love your Free Lego cards but the website has “malware” and is blocked at my school. Is there any way you can e-mail them? Thanks!!

    Reply to this comment
    • Anna Geiger

      February 7, 2016 at 6:06 am

      HI Liz,
      This was a guest post by Amy of Wildflower Ramblings. I’m quite sure she doesn’t email files – but she can look into what’s wrong with her site so you can access it. You can reach her at wildflowerramblings@gmail.com and tell her I sent you. 🙂

      Reply to this comment

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