Many of you have been following along as we explore the alphabet in creative ways. Since it takes us more than a week to do each letter, you’re also passing us by. We plan to have the entire alphabet and activities posted by mid-November. But if you’re zooming past us, I thought you might appreciate these giant block letters with ideas for filling them. What a hands-on way to learn the alphabet!
(This post contains affiliate links.)
We learn about letters in a variety of ways. When I’m first introducing the letter, I like to print a giant block letter and have my kids fill it in with objects that begin with that letter. As they’re working, we talk about what they’re using as a way to reinforce the letter and sound.
“Here’s a giant letter B! What are we going to fill it up with?”
“Buttons!”
“Buttons… /b/, /b/, buttons.”
Today I’m sharing over 150 ideas for filling up giant letters. At the end of the post you can download your own free set of giant block letters. Throughout the list you’ll find links to Amazon products to help you find what you need. Have fun!
Letter A…acorns, apple stickers, alphabet (stickers, tiles, or stamps), toy animals or stickers
Letter B…buttons, bear counters, dry beans, beads, bandaids, balls (stickers), broccoli, toy bugs or stickers, blue manipulatives, blocks
Letter C…cookies, sliced carrots, corn kernels, candy, toy cars, cat stickers, coins, crayons, corks, cups, crackers
Letter D…mini donuts, toy dinosaurs, dandelion tops, dice, dimes, dog stickers, tiny dolls, dots (using Do a Dot markers), diamonds
Letter E…egg shells, ear plugs, plastic Easter egg halves, envelopes
Letter F…craft feathers, fingerprints, toy fish or stickers, toy food, forks, fruit, flower stickers or stamps
Letter G…craft gems, gingerbread man stickers, glasses, glue sticks, grapes, green manipulatives, gum or gumballs
Letter H…toy hammers, heart stamps or stickers, hexagons, hay
Letter I…plastic ice cubes (from Don’t Break The Ice), ice cream stickers, toy insects or stickers, ink pens
Letter J…jacks, jelly beans, jigsaw puzzle pieces, craft jewels
Letter K…keys, dry kidney beans, kite stickers
Letter L…ladybug stickers, leaf stamps or stickers, letters (stickers, tiles, or stamps), licorice, lollipops, lemons, dry lasagna noodles, lace
Letter M…dry macaroni, magnets, money, M & M’s, marshmallows
Letter N… toy nails, clip-on neckties, nickels, “9” stickers or stamps, dry noodles, musical notes (stickers or stamps), nuts (the food or tool) number stamps or stickers
Letter O… ocean stickers, oval shapes or stickers, orange manipulatives
Letter P… padlocks, paper clips, dry pasta, peanuts, pennies, popcorn, pretzels, purple or pink balls of play dough, pom poms, packing peanuts
Letter Q… quarters, question mark stamps, quilt squares cut from paper
Letter R… rainbow stickers, raisins, red manipulatives, ribbons, rocks
Letter S… safety pins, seeds, “7” stamps or stickers, “6” stamps or stickers, spools, squares, stamps, star stickers, stones, sequins
Letter T… tape, toothbrushes, toys, toy trains, triangles
Letter U… utensils, umbrella stickers, unifix cubes
Letter V… vegetables, toy vehicles or stickers
Letter W… walnuts, washers, wagon wheel pasta, Wheat Thins
Letter X… letter X stamps or stickers
Letter Y… yellow manipulatives, yarn
Letter Z… zippers, “zero” stamps or stickers, zebra stripes (cut from paper)
Want to see sample letters from A-Z? Check out the lovely collages at Teacher Types!
Did you know?
You get a printable list of all these ideas for filling letters… plus even MORE ideas for building and writing the alphabet in my Letter of the Week lesson plans!
Lowercase letters are now available! Click here!
So many more freebies…
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© 2014 – 2017, Anna G. All rights reserved.
I *LOVE* this idea! So many fun hands-on way to learn letters. I wish I had this about a year ago! lol!
Thank you, Emma! So nice to see you commenting here. 🙂
I can use this so much for bulletin boards! At the beginning of the year, I can have the kids spell their names, and paste or draw things about themselves inside. Or, overlap the letters for a place they went in the summer, or something they did, and draw details inside the block letters. (Have done that before, but I (or the kids) had to draw the letters (which was not always a pretty sight!) Thank you so much!
You’re very welcome, Karen – so glad to see you’ve got so many great uses already planned out. 🙂
You have gone and done it again!!! The pre-k I am doing with my 3 year old this year comes with these funky looking capital letters that I just don’t like at all. I am going to print these letters on cardstock and let my 3yo use these instead for her weekly letter crafts. THANK YOU!
I”m so glad these will be useful for you, Elaine!
Thanks for all of these! I use them to work with adults with cognitive delay on my job. I really appreciate your efforts!
It’s always fun to hear when something I create is useful for teaching adults, too. I’m glad you can use them, Peggy!
Do you have giant lowercase letters to go with the uppercase? I would love to have the kids do a combo of capital and lowercase at the same time.
Erin, I did not think of doing those, but that would be easy. I will try to add those in the next month or so.
Come on by to get your lowercase block letters, Erin – they’re up today 🙂
Just found your website. I teach a preschool class of three year old (10). Should I make copies for each child to do so they can take them home or make some and put in a center. Any suggest.
Hi Lisa! I think these would work great in a classroom center.
If you regularly send home ideas for parents to supplement what their kids are learning, this could also be a great at-home activity. You are welcome to photocopy the pages to send home with your students.
I jut found your site today. This is awesome. I really love this.
I’m glad you found my site, Amisha! I hope you find a lot more you can use!
Are these included in your big ABC book? Thank you
My ABC book does not include printables. It includes lesson plans that include the printables (with links to them).
The link to block letter uppercase and lowercase printable isn’t working.
It is working, but you may have to change how you’re accessing it. It probably won’t work if you are using Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge. Here are some tips: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/how-to-download-free-files/
These are awesome, thank you! There are so many things we can do with these letters! Any chance you have numbers that are in this block style too?
No, but Prekinders does! https://www.prekinders.com/large-numeral-printables/