Are you wondering how to teach the alphabet to preschoolers? Or just looking for ideas? You’ll find hundreds of ideas for playful learning at The Measured Mom®.
My oldest had a fascination for letters before she could talk. Even though she didn’t even call me Mommy until she was over two, she knew all her letters and added the sounds as soon as she could talk. Her younger brother picked them up just as quickly.
But it doesn’t work that way for everyone — and when my third little one was pushing three and still knew only a handful of letters, I knew I had to try a different tactic.
In fact, my decision to start a letter of the week study at our house and keep myself accountable was the very reason I began this blog. I’d like to share some simple ways to teach the alphabet to preschoolers – and direct you to a giant set of resources that will keep it fun!
How to teach the alphabet to preschoolers
1. Read, read, and read. Read nursery rhymes, rhyming books, picture books and chapter books. Just READ.
2. Notice print in the world around you. Call attention to exit signs, the toothpaste tube, and the Cheerios box.
3. Begin letter learning by helping your child learn the letters of his name. Before I start a more organized approach to teaching the alphabet to my preschoolers, they learn to recognize the letters of their name.
4. Teach the alphabet letter by letter. Not every early childhood teacher uses the Letter of the Week approach; many children learn their alphabet without it (my oldest two did). But I’ve found that Letter of the Week has been a helpful structure for me when designing learning activities at home. Even if you use more of a theme or unit approach to teaching preschoolers, you’ll find a huge variety of learning activities in my alphabet archives.
And when you purchase my Letter of the Week curriculum, you’ll have all the activities organized in an easy to follow format!
If you take one week per letter, you’ll have time to:
- read books for each letter
- do fine motor activities
- learn simple rhymes and songs
- create some fun crafts and art projects
- make math connections
- have some sensory fun
And more! It’s all in the ebook!
4. Keep bringing it back to the whole alphabet. If we’re doing a lot of meaningful activities, we will keep coming back to the whole alphabet.
5. Be flexible. You may find that after a few months of letter of the week, your child suddenly recognizes every letter. Awesome! Don’t feel tied to this series. Pick and choose what (if any) activities you’d like to continue with. Even if you don’t continue Letter of the Week, your child will still benefit from listening to the many wonderful books I recommend in my alphabet book lists. You might also enjoy choosing some crafts and process art activities to do each week. And math activities certainly don’t need to be tied to a particular letter!
6. Keep it fun. One way to keep your alphabet learning enjoyable is to include music. We love listening to Heidisongs’ alphabet songs for the car (the DVD option is great too!). Also remember that kids this age learn best through play. They don’t need fancy flash cards or loads of worksheets. They need a variety of activities to stimulate their brains and to reach them the way that they learn best.
You know your children better than anyone. Choose the activities that your child needs — the ones that your child will love. I’ll provide a big set of ideas for each letter — not so you’ll do every one, but so that you have a lot to choose from when you pick what works best for your kids.
You can find crafts, books, math connections and more by clicking on these links:
CHECK OUT OUR LETTER OF THE WEEK CURRICULUM!
Letter of the Week Curriculum
$29.00
You’ll love this flexible, step-by-step guide to teaching the alphabet to preschoolers. It’s a combination of hands-on lessons, interactive printables, and mini-books … and you and your learners are sure to love it!
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.
Hi Anna!
I love the A-Z Letter Recognition ideas on your site. I have a question for you. How much time do you spend on each letter? I will be babysitting a preschool aged boy this fall, but only two days per week. Thanks for your help and advice!
Hello, Erika!
Actually I spend several weeks on a letter, but it’s on and off – and it’s only because I’m creating a big resource for my blog. If I were not blogging, I would say 4-5 days per letter. So I think that doing one letter for two weeks might be a great plan for you!
Hi, I just came across this website and love all your ideas!!
Just wondering whether you finished the rest of the alphabet as I was hoping to start A with my little one but can’t seem to find any letters after A.
Thanks again!
Hello, Daksina! I’m sorry to say that no, we have not gotten past the letter Y, according to the order you see up above. We’ll start to introduce A later this month (I think), but we have not gone in the conventional order for the sake of forming the letters.
I wish very much I could have this all done for you, but right now the expected completion is late summer/early fall of this year. This is because I share many other things on my blog as well – it also takes quite a bit of time to put the resources together. Apologies, and hope the fall is not too late for you to use some of the things I share!
Love these ideas and love how you have it all organized, makes it so easy for me to implement! I have a daughter who will be 5 in 2 months and a boy who will be 2 in 1 month so I appreciate seeing how both your little ones projects turn out. That is what makes me want to use your ideas instead of some of the other LOTW plans. Although I plan to use it alongside the original LOTW curriculum at Brightly Beaming (http://letteroftheweek.com/index.html).
Hi Amanda! I’m so glad this is useful for you. I can’t wait until the entire alphabet is done… slowly but surely! Thanks for sharing Brightly Beaming with me. I often refer to her book and song lists, but I see there is more there that can inspire me. I’ll be looking at her site often!
I’m new to all of this teaching in a curriculum way. I will be trying to follow your letter sequence as we learn to write each letter. I just noticed that the sequence is for upper case letters. When do you introduce lower case letters? I don’t want to confuse my 3 year old just yet. I want to try teaching to see if I can do ok with homeschool in the future. I am hoping this will start with good things.
Hi Heather,
I have not had to introduce lower case letters in an organized way because after my kids start learning capital letters, they naturally start to recognize lower case letters when we see them in books, on signs, on toys, etc. I have not done structured writing practice with my 5 year old, but by the summer before kindergarten I’ll pull out some handwriting pages to help him practice writing them. A great way to teach upper and lower case matching (if a child is not picking them up naturally) is with games. You can find lots of ideas on my Pinterest board. http://www.pinterest.com/themeasuredmom/alphabet-for-kids/ Start simple with just a few letters to match and gradually add more. Let me know if you have more questions!
The letter sound is the most important part of teaching alphabet. Letter formation should be taught a little later. Fine motor skills might be better developed. Please check out the link, it give a breakdown of what to teach, the explanation of why and a good sequence of letters. Of course also include the child’s name letters early on as well. A letter a week is good for mastery. But at preschool level you should include other letters at the same time. It’s about exposure at this age and kids can understand more ham they express. Brain research shows 5-7 letter groups works well for Kindergarten. 3-5 letters at age three, in my opinion for younger kiddos. I’ve been teaching 17 years 🙂
Thank you for the input!
I’m a preschool teacher (mixed ages 3-5). I am going to TRY to start doing letter of the week activities with my students. So what I gather from reading this post and the comments, you teach letter recognition/sounds in the same order you teach writing the letter (noted above, not in alphabetical order)? So if I would start these activities I should start with the letter E?
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing these awesome, hands on, and developmentally appropriate activities for FREE! You choose to help teachers by providing FREE resources, thank you!!
Hello, Megan! I actually think it’s okay to teach the alphabet in whatever order you want, but when I started my preschool aged boys were not writing letters yet, so I wanted to keep it doable for them, and this order worked for us. If you do this order you can follow along with me since it will be a while until we get through the entire alphabet. 🙂 But yes, we followed this order for all our alphabet activities. We also talk about the entire alphabet quite often, so this was not confusing for them. I’m so glad you are finding resources here to use! I was a teacher before blogs became big — that would have been helpful!
Oh my goodness! Thank you for taking the time to do this! You just made my life easier! 🙂 My daughter just turned 4 and at the beginning of this school year I tried teaching her letters and she wasn’t getting it..now she is really picking it up so this is a great way for me to teach her! Thanks again!
Robin
I’m so glad to hear that I’m making things you can use, Robin! I hope you keep coming back for more ideas!
Thank you so much for this! I am just starting to work with my three year old and your posts and info are definitely my “go to” resource.
So glad to hear it, Niki! Thanks so much for commenting.
hey there just found this post to day! cant believe i ever missed it somehow? anyway, i am starting today on F since we’ve done up until then already in order; then we will continue with the letters of the (2) week(s) in order you recommend! i was just wondering under the Art Journal photo up on the right side bar saying “teach your preschooler to write” within yellow, it doesnt actually click to a post of sorts. Is there a Category covering that? a Tag? Somewhere I could search or should be directed to when clicking that photo?
THANK YOU AGAIN SO VERY MUCH for everything you share here, your time, energy, and kind expertise!!!!
Hi, Jeanine! I’m so glad you found me. 🙂 Thanks for reminding me about the journaling picture in my sidebar. I had forgotten to link the post to it, but I’ve done that now. Stay tuned – next week I’m beginning a 10 part series with This Reading Mama on teaching preschoolers and kindergartners to write.
Teaching alphabets to kids is indeed a very difficult task. Thanks for sharing the lovely but very useful points through your blog. I feel reading out, singing or any other form of communication with the toddlers works best in the learning process for your kid.
I agree, Rakesh — reading aloud to kids is one of the best teaching tools we have. I love singing with my little ones, too. I have a set of Little Letter Books full of songs and rhymes for toddlers. :https://www.themeasuredmom.com/free-letter-books/
Thanks for the great resources…I will be spending a lot of time pinning here! When teaching the alphabet, I give a few other ideas on my site as well: http://www.sightandsoundreading.com/how-to-teach-the-alphabet/
Mainly -make sure you point out the difference between upper and lower case letters, also, point out the different fonts that may confuse the children.
Thank you for pinning and for sharing your ideas, Meeghan!
hi,Anna. I am a very young teacher from IRAN. I do not know how to thank you because of your ways to teach English. I really love you. when I saw your face, I understood that you are great. thanks so much.
Hello!
I came across your website today looking for guidance for my pre-k room. I am trying to teach them how to recognize and correctly identify the alphabet! It’s pretty hard so I decided to try and teach them but just focusing on 6 letters at a time. I started with A-F. I saw that you do it out of order. I know you’re supposed to but don’t know where to start! Any advice??
Hello, Olga! (Lovely name – it was my grandma’s!) You asked for advice about teaching the alphabet out of order. Personally, the only reason I do that is because I teach letter writing alongside the letter, and I wanted to start with the letters that were easiest to write. B is pretty tough, and it’s the second letter! I don’t think that teaching them in order is a problem if that’s what you want to do. One thing I would say for kids having trouble is to do a lot of open-ended FULL alphabet activities mixed in. For example, hide plastic letters in a tub of rice or oatmeal. They find the letters and then go match them to printables on a table. You can find a ton of whole alphabet activities on my Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/themeasuredmom/alphabet-for-kids/ Does that help?
These are amazing resources that you provide, Anna! I would also like to share that Alphabet Anatomy provides an easy and fun rhyming verse for each letter that helps to teach letter sound, shape, and print formation. I hope you find this helpful in your efforts to teach the alphabet!
Thank you, Linda! It’s a great book!
Alphabet Anatomy is a great idea…but the small letter “a” is very unusual, more like a stylish font….was it made up so a rhyme was easier to write?
MB
excuse for my English !
t am teaching Farsi in Praymery school in Iran.
I wrot this leter hi 2 risen:
1- Use from your experient on teaching , espcially class gams.
2- Develop my English.
more ever I can explain a bout myself and my experient.
Thank you for writing, Shadri! I am glad you can use what you are finding on my site. Do you have any questions for me?
Hi
Love your website. How do you get these activities?
Hi, Hadeel! Can you tell me what you mean? Do you mean, how can you find the activities? If you click on the colorful letters on this page, they will bring you to links for each letter that will take you to the activities.
Thank you so much for the great resources. You are so awesome.
You’re very welcome, Pamela! I’m so glad you’ve found my site. I hope you keep following along. 🙂
Wow this is so helpful and awesome, thank you
You’re welcome, Sharon!
Hi There! great site! I’m glad you are teaching the alphabets in different order. May I offer a suggestion? Diagonals are most difficult. The developmental order for the alphabets should be:
L, F, E, H, T, I, U, C, O, Q, G, S, J, D, P, B, R, K, A, M, N, V, W, X, Y, Z.
This is based on the Handwriting Without Tears Program developed and used by Occupational Therapists.
Thanks, Aileen – I like that order too. When we finish with our letters (in a month or so) I’ll list this as another good option.
hello and good day I work with 3 yr olds and would like to know the best way to teach them the xmas song they ll be singing at this years xmas party …….I know play the song everyday till the concert just needing more info plz thanks for feedback in advance 😀
Hello, Liana! I’m afraid I don’t have any special secret for teaching a song to 3-year-olds other than sing it a lot! If you can think of some actions to do while they sing, that can help too.
This is a great article – I am not typically of fan of letter of the week because it’s important to teach the letters in context – but you really cover that here. I did do this with my oldest daughter because she was struggling to learn the letters and sounds – that little bit of extra structure really helped her (she became an avid reader above her grade level). I just wanted to add to the list of things to do for letter of the day – cook with the letter of the day – sometimes we made a snack – often it was dinner! I love cooking with kids and it just took that letter learning to one more sense for multi-sensory learning!
Cooking with kids is a great idea to add to alphabet learning… maybe someday I’ll do a series. 🙂 Thanks for commenting, Kimmie!
Hello!
I love all the resources on your blog. At what age should I start letter of the week? I have a 12 month old and am reading to him, should I start maybe around 18 months just casually?
Thank you!
Hi Chantelle! I have a 12 month old too. My plan is to keep reading to her and start letter of the week type activities at 2 1/2 at the earliest. In my own experience my kids aren’t ready to sit for much before that age. 2 1/2 seems to be when my kids start to be interested in doing simple crafts, scribbling, etc. But even if you wait to do letter of the week, that doesn’t mean you can’t introduce letters and other early concepts in playful ways. If you head over to my Pinterest profile you might enjoy browsing my boards, especially my Toddler Activities board. https://www.pinterest.com/themeasuredmom/toddler-activities/ Some people lke to do “tot time” with their toddlers. A little less structured than Letter of the Week, but with lots of hands-on learning.
Thank you so much for the amazing resources! I have boys 3 yr, 2 yr and 1 mo. I have been thinking about homeschooling them and would like to take this time to start “school” with the oldest two to see if I have the patience to do this in the future. I am known for my lack of patience (and my 2 yo seems to be taking after his mother!), but you have some great ideas here that I think will work for all of us!
Hi Anna!
I think your entry is amazing and has a lot of great ideas!
On the other hand, i have been a teacher for 26 years now and always have always read and studied on the last research based ideas.
I only have one comment on your letter order, if you are planning to stick to alphabet recognition the order is fine, whereas writing them should look a little different: diagonals are the last lines kids pick up. Developmentally, they can write them correctly sometimes up to second grade. Maybe you would like to take a look at the Handwriting Without Tears approach, it is similar to what you do, but orders capital letters in groups according to letter formation characteristics.
I hope this is useful and helps you develop a great program for your kids! Happy Teaching!
Hello, Isa!
Thank you for your thoughts on my alphabet post. I looked a little bit more into Handwriting without Tears’ approach (which I am somewhat familiar with). I’d like to link to their teaching order in this post. In what I’m looking at, diagonals are taught in the middle. Before I edit this post to add their order, does this post look right to you? http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/why-it-works/teaching-order
I have been using videos to teach my toddler. He is 2 years old and now he knows his alphabet fully.
I usually avoid screens when teaching my toddlers, but it works well for some kids! Our favorite CD’s are from Heidisongs. Sometimes we use the DVD’s as well.
This may have been asked already but how much time a day should be spent actually teaching the letter? Actual focus on the specific letter.
I would say it very much depends on the child. When I do this with my two year old, it’s fewer than 5 minutes talking about the specific letter. With an older child, if we’re doing handwriting also, it might be 10-15 minutes focused on that specific letter. Overall though, you’re talking about the letter as you work and play. “Let’s do this apple craft. /a/, /a/, apple!” Or “Can you find the letter A on the cover of this book? Now let’s read it.”
Hi, you’ve done a great job over here! please i want to place order for some of your products for Kindergarten pupils here in Nigeria. How do i go about it? thanks
Hello! You can order any of my products here: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/The-Measured-Mom
Hi Anna, I had a quick question on whether you teach them their upper case letters first or lowercase?
I always do uppercase first because they’re easier to recognize and write.
I LOVE, LOVE your creativity and ideas. I know you have some resources in Spanish. I wanted to know if you plan on making a LOW curriculum in Spanish? Hey it doesn’t hurt to ask right? 🙂
Actually I only have one resource (my summer 100 book reading challenge) in Spanish. 🙂 While I’d love to offer this, I simply don’t have enough hours in my day, even with someone else doing the translating work. Maybe some day when my kids are grown… 🙂
Hi. As a highly trained professional who’s been working with preschoolers and other more experienced highly trained professionals letter of the week is not recommended anymore. In fact a lot of research proves it’s not effective and one of the worst ways to teach letters to little kids.
Thanks for your feedback, Susan! I agree that it’s not always the best classroom approach, but I think it can work very well at home since parents can easily adapt as they see fit. I don’t like to see it being used rigidly in classrooms, but I’ve seen it work well when used flexibly. I also think that even if teachers don’t use a LOTW approach, they can use my resources to supplement their teaching and give focused attention on particular letters when necessary.
P.S. I’m a highly trained professional, too. 😉