Alphabet Theme Centers for Preschoolers & Kindergarteners

Let’s talk about alphabet theme centers for our preschoolers! This is my favorite time of day because I am all about hands-on learning! Watching students interact with each other, become engaged with a task, and learn at the same time…I mean, what more can we ask for?

Fun Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers

Let’s start with letter recognition activities. These alphabet theme centers are perfect for preschoolers as they are learning to identify the letters of the alphabet.

1. Mama Mia Pizzeria Center

It’s important that children are able to identify both uppercase and lowercase letters. With this alphabet center, preschoolers can build a slice of pizza, by matching the crust, sauce, and cheese with all of the same letters of the alphabet.

2. Fly Swatter Letter Recognition Game

This is an absolute preschool favorite. Put out the fly alphabet cards and give each child a fly swatter (you can grab them at the dollar store). Pull a card from the instructor deck and say the letter name. Children then have to swat at the bug card that matches.

Differentiate this activity by producing the letter sound instead of just naming the letter, and then have children swat the letter of the alphabet that produces said sound.

3. Lock and Key Letter ID

Here’s another great alphabet theme center. Print the locks and place them on a gift bag or a basket, anything students can drop the “key cards” into. Children pick a key card and find the matching lock. They place the lock into the bag.

4. Pencil Puzzles

Children not only have to be able to identify the letters of the alphabet, but they also have to be able to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase and know which two go together.

One alphabet theme center we love for this skill is our pencil puzzles.

Children complete each pencil by matching the uppercase and lowercase letters. You can do this activity by placing all of the pieces on the carpet or tabletop. Or you can use a pocket chart. I prefer this method because it keeps things organized and I’m able to set up the first half of the puzzle in alphabetical order.

Here is what our pocket chart looks like before we start the alphabet center.

And here is what it looks like once my children have completed it!

Alphabet Small Group Activities for Preschool

Alphabet theme activities not only make great centers, but they also work well in small groups. Whether it be guided reading warm-ups, phonics groups, or intervention work, these next few alphabet activities are perfect!

5. Letter Formation Sandboxes

Letter formation is tricky, so it’s good to find multiple ways to practice. Below are our Letter Formation Sandboxes.

6. Sunny Day Letter Sounds

Now let’s talk about some alphabet theme activities for preschoolers that involve identifying letter sounds.

Sunny Day Letter Sounds is a puzzle activity where children have to match the letter to the picture that starts with that sound.

7. Beginning Sound Clip Cards

Clip cards are awesome because not only does it practice a given skill, it works on fine motor skills as well. Preschoolers have to look at the image in the center and clip a clothespin to the correct letter.

8. Beginning Sound Dry Erase Boards

Beginning Sound Dry Erase Boards are fun and also help children with identifying letter sounds and letter identification. There’s a picture clue and then the word. Except the word is missing the first letter. The board gives three options on the bottom for children to pick from. Two letters are incorrect and one is correct. If you laminate these boards children can use a dry erase marker to circle their answer. For extra fun I always have them then build the letter with play-doh and put it in the missing spot.

9. Build That House

Let children become construction workers for the day and have them “build” alphabet houses! The base of the house has a letter on it. Children must find the roof and door that have images that start with that letter sound.

Other Alphabet Activities You Might Like:

• Our full-year Alphabet Curriculum that provides everything you’ll need to create fluency with your preschoolers.

• No-prep alphabet worksheets
• Alphabet mats for centers
• How to successfully implement hands-on learning

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When I first started teaching rhyming words in kindergarten I was shocked at how difficult students found it. So I gathered the best resources that included a mix of worksheets, centers, holiday themes, and more, and used them to help my children master rhyming words. Keep reading to see my top rhyming word products for kindergarten.

Rhyming Words for Kindergarten: Hands-On Centers

Peanut Butter Jelly Rhyme Time: Match the peanut butter side of the sandwich with the jelly side by finding the rhyming words. Once complete say “yum!”

Sweet Treats Rhyming Center: Build a cupcake by placing the rhyming picture of frosting on the correct base

Rhyming Puzzles: Build a three-piece puzzle by finding all of the rhyming images

Rhyming Word Worksheets for Kindergarten

Rhyming Worksheets: No-prep worksheets to help students become familiar and build mastery with rhyming words.

Digital Resources for Kindergarten to Teach Rhyming

Digital Circus Themed Rhyming Activity: Look at the image under the circus entrance and find the word that matches. Click and drag the yellow box over your answer.

Digital Google Slides Rhyming Activity: Look at the image and word on the slide. Click and drag all of the rhyming words into the box.

Digital Rhyming Boom Cards: Do you prefer Boom Cards over Google Slides? Then check out this digital rhyming resource for kindergarten.

I love incorporating themed activities into my phonics lessons. It’s an immediate way to engage students. Here are some of my favorite holiday and seasonal rhyming activities for kindergarten.

Frankenstein Rhyme Time: Match the Frankenstein heads by finding the rhyming images

St Patrick’s Day Rhyme Time: Match the rhyming shamrocks

Christmas Rhyming Freebie: This Is a great winter activity that you can grab for free!

More Phonics Ideas:

• Teaching One-to-One Correspondence: The first step to building readers is to help them understand the importance of one-to-one correspondence.
• Are you looking to teach CVC words? Check out The Ultimate Guide to CVC Words to get started.
• Improve your guided reading groups with these 5 simple steps!

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Number Activities for Preschool

Are you looking for number activities for preschool? Number activities for preschoolers involves more than just counting to 10. Our pre-k students need to build their number sense, and feel confident with number formation, rote counting, number identification and more! By providing a variety of fun and engaging activities to preschoolers, we can help them develop a solid number sense foundation. Let’s take a deep dive into this critical skill and I’ll show you all of the materials that I use to teach number sense to pre-k students.

The first thing I have my preschoolers master is number identification. I think this is a great opportunity to begin practicing number formation. I do not expect them to master this yet, but through the use of hands-on activities, we can introduce both skills simultaneously.

Number Matching Activities for Preschoolers

Matching numbers is the perfect introductory activity. Preschoolers will start to recognize the shapes that form each number as they match them up. They do not need to know the names of each number to be successful with this type of activity.  Here is Buggy for Numbers, a matching game that allows students to self-check their work. With the use of images behind the numbers, children can easily see if they have matched the correct numbers. It also adds a fun element, as they feel as if they are doing a puzzle, rather than a math task.

Incorporating sensory bins is another way to make number activities for preschoolers fun and engaging. Alien Invasion is a space themed sensory bin that I made using dried black beans play-doh shaped into stars and planets. Inside the bin I have planets with the numbers 1-10 on them. Each preschooler gets a number board and they must match the planets to the correct box on their board. I use velcro dots on both the planets and the boards to stop the pieces from moving and eliminate frustration.

Number Recognition Activities for Preschool

Another great hands-on preschool activity for number identification and formation, are my Trace that Number &Build that Number Cards. I love to use these with my fast finishers or as math warm-up activities. These even make great math centers. Preschoolers can practice tracing the numbers, and learning proper number formation by following the lines on the cards. They can also have fun with other materials like play-doh by building the numbers within the bubble number cards.

Counting Activities for Pre K

While students are working on identifying numbers, they can also practice counting to 10 with different engaging number activities. I love these math games because they incorporate both skills, and have an element of fine motor work.

Pom Pom Count is a great math center that works on number identification, counting objects to 10, and fine motor skills. There is even the option of differentiating for your advanced learners and having them put the number cards in order. Children read each number on the card, and then count out the appropriate amount of pom poms. Dots on each card will help guide them to be successful with this activity. I love using these

 

Number Sense Activities for Preschool

Number and Counting Activities for Preschool

Another great number activity for preschool involves five frames. It is important to expose children to a variety of ways to represent numbers. This will help their overall number sense and fluency. Bow Wow Boards is a number activity that uses five frames and asks your preschool student to identify a number, use manipulatives for representing the number, and then trace the number. This one math activity alone covers number identification, counting objects, and number formation.

Here are a few other ten frames number activities for preschool that will help them with number sense.

Number Learning Activities for Preschoolers

After we have practiced all of these number activities, my students have always shown tremendous growth. I’ve compiled all of these activities into one download to make your life easier. The download includes everything you need to successfully implement these activities and more.

Also included in this download:

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Color Activities for Preschool

Color Theme Preschool Activities

Color Activities for Preschool Circle Time

The Best Color Activities for Preschool

Color Identification Activities Preschool

The first thing we have to do is make sure our preschoolers can identify colors. This isn’t always a quick process as it requires memorization. However, there are hands-on ways to help speed the process up. Some of our favorites include Color Match Puzzles, Splat Mats, and Spaghetti and Meatballs.

Splat Mats are so much fun. Kids pick a crayon from their sensory bin and place it on the top corner of their Splat Mat board. Using balls of play doh they place them on the objects that match that picture. Using the palm of their hand they say “splat!” as they smush the play doh on the image!

Spaghetti and Meatballs is another great way to engage preschoolers while practicing color identification. Working with one color splat at a time, they must find the meatballs (with pictures) that have items that match. After their plate is full they can move on to the next color.

Color Sorting Preschool Activities

Sorting objects by color is a great way to help students recognize and group colors. I use a pocket chart and begin by placing the color name tags in the chart. Then Nico (my son) picks one card at a time and places it under the correct color name. As an added practice, I have him verbalize the color as he is working to further strengthen the connection.

Read alouds always help bring a lesson to the next level. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See by Eric Carle is a fun book that highlights different colors. After reading it, we completed this color sort activity that I transformed into a sensory bin. Nico had to pick the animals from the book, and match their color to the color splat above.

We also used a basket of pom poms and jumbo tweezers to work on sorting and fine motor work. Pom Pom Popsicles is an awesome way to get kids sorting colors.

Feed Me Monsters is another great color activity to get preschoolers excited. Simply cut the mouth of the monster open, and have students feed them the correct colored apples!

Cute Color Activities for Preschool

We also love to do anything that feels “arts and crafts” related, but ties in our current learning unit. This Rainbow Name activity not only comes out great, but it helps children with color identification, name identification, letter knowledge, and fine motor skills. Check out Nico’s before and after pictures.

Color mixing activities are also a ton of fun. The book Mouse Paint led to this quick and simple activity. Students mix around the colors in a ziplock bag and get to see what happens when colors combine.

Printable Color Activities for Preschool

As much as I love hands-on learning, I understand the importance of printables. Learning how to use a crayon and pencil are foundational skills for our pre-k students. It is also an excellent tool in the classroom for homework, fast finishers, and extra support. This unit includes daily classroom worksheets, daily homework worksheets AND supplemental worksheets.

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5 Amazing Fall Sensory Bins

Sensory bins are a way to stimulate senses while also teaching valuable academic and developmental skills! I’ve created five fall sensory bins that are sure to be a hit with your little learners!

Sensory Bin Fillers

Before I show these amazing fall sensory bins, let me share with you some ideas for fillers. You can use anything inside your bins…but in case you are drawing a blank, here is a quick sheet to help your creativity flow!

So as you take a look at the following fall sensory bins, just know you can insert these academic pieces into any materials you want. I used the materials I used because that was what I had in my classroom!  I threw things I had into Sterilite storage boxes and I was done! Your extra crafting supplies will finally come in handy!

Uppercase Letter Practice Sensory Bin

*For this bin I used red shredded paper and felt leaves from my dollar store*  

 

Practice uppercase letter identification and matching with this bin. Children pick a leaf and then must find the correct spot on their board by matching the letters. I use velcro dots on each square on the board and the back of the leaves to help them keep their pieces in place and organized!

Lowercase Letter Fall Sensory Bin

*For this bin I used dried black beans, dried dyed pasta, spooky eyeballs, sticky spider webs, pom poms, and witch fingers*  

 

Practice lowercase letter identification and matching with this bin. Children pick a ghost and then must find its correct spot on their board. I use velcro dots on each square in the board and the back of the ghosts to help them keep their pieces in place and organized!

 

Two Dimensional Shape Fall Sensory Bin

*For this bin I used red, orange and brown shredded paper*  

 

Practice shapes and sorting with this bin. Children pick a shape, disguised as a real-life object, and then sort it into the correct bin or pile. 

Here’s a video of my son working on this activity. I taped the header cards into clear photo storage boxes and had him sort the shapes accordingly.

Numbers 1-10 Fall Sensory Bin 

*For this bin I used dried pasta that I dyed in red, orange, and yellow*  

 

Practice numbers 1-10 and matching with this bin. Children pick an acorn and then must find its correct spot on their board.

Here’s a clip of my son completing this board. Whenever we do sensory bins inside the house, he sits in a collapsible ball pit I got on Amazon. This helps contain the mess and keep his little sister out of the way.

Ten Frame Fall Sensory Bin

*For this bin I used popcorn kernels and pom poms*

 

 Practice reading and creating ten frames with this bin. Children pick a turkey and then must duplicate the ten frames on their board. I used pom poms as the manipulative for filling in the ten frame but you can use anything you have available in your room.

If hands-on learning is your jam, then you might also like these activities:

• Alphabet Letter and Letter Sound Mats 
• Hands-On Number Activities 
• Hands-On Color Activities

You can purchase these activities from my Teachers Pay Teachers shop HERE

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Attribute Sorts: 3 different sorts included to help students recognize and group objects by either color, number of objects or shape
Color Centers: Color puzzles and color sorts (not pictured) help students build fluency with recognizing colors and their names

Ketchup & Mustard Number Match: Students build fluency with recognizing numbers 0-20 by matching ketchup bottles and mustard bottles with the same number. A recording sheet is included
Martian Match: Match the Martian to the correct UFO by finding matching numbers. Cards for 0-20 are included
Number Formation Sandboxes: Pull a sun card and use your finger to form that number in the sand. A spinner can also be used (included) to determine how many times the students should form the number
Number Formation Boards: Practice writing numbers with dry erase markers and then use play-doh to form the number
Number Formation Mats: Tracing numbers, writing numbers, number words and more all on one mat!

Find the Fries: Read the number word and then pace the correct fries inside
Cookie Jar Counting: Count the chocolate chips and put them in the correct number jar
French Fry Counting: Read the number on the ketchup packet and match it up with the same amount of fries
Ordering Numbers 0-100: Pull an envelope and put the given cards in order from least to greatest

Make Ten School Buses: Use the ten frame school buses to practice making ten. Complete the word sentence for added practice!
One More One Less Boards: Build cube trains and then figure out what is one more and what is one less!
Ten Frame Counting: Practice filling in ten frame boards to match a variety of objects, such as, dice, numbers, tally marks, fingers and more!
Sorting Honey Bears: Sort the cards by matching numbers. The cards include ten frames, numbers, number words, tally marks and more!
Popcorn Numbers: Find the correct popcorn kernels for the tub! Practice reading number words, ten fames, dice, tally marks and more!
Monster Ten & Twenty Frames: Pull a card and use it to complete your ten frame!

Peanut Butter Jelly Addition: Match the peanut butter slice (addition problem) with the correct jelly slice (answer) to form a peanut butter jelly sandwich
Bubblegum Addition: Solve the addition problems on the gum balls to figure out which gum ball machine they belong to
Lemon Lime Subtraction: Match the lemons (subtraction problem) with the correct lime (answer)
Subtraction Clip Cards: Use clothespins to clip all of the subtraction problems that apply to the answer in the middle
Shape Puzzles: Build fluency with 2D and 3D shapes with a variety of puzzles. Students will learn shape names, number of sides, corners etc
Pattern Cards: Complete the pattern by finding the missing piece and placing it on the correct card. AB, ABC, ABB patterns included

Greater Than Less Than Ice Cream Cones
Skip Counting Seashells:
Measurement Cards:
Bear Number Bonds:

Analog & Digital Clock Puzzles:
Money Puzzles:
Base Ten Puzzles:
Number Boards:

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Word Work Activities That Improve Reading Skills

Word work activities are definitely my favorite part of the day. It is a critical part of our learning, and it truly lends to my student’s ability to grow as readers and writers. Let’s take a look at the importance of word work activities and ways to help our kindergarteners practice and develop phonemic awareness.

What is Word Work?

Word work activities can look different in different classrooms, but the concept remains the same. It is when we give students the ability to do hands-on work with different phonics skills. Word work can be an activity on beginning sounds, long and short vowels, cvc words, digraphs, word families, rhyming, and more. All of these things work together to help improve phonemic awareness. These skills are a necessity when it comes to reading and fluency.

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Even if you don’t know what phonemic awareness is, you are most likely helping your students with this skill on a daily basis. This is when a child can hear and manipulate sounds. When a child knows their letter sounds, and they are able to segment and blend a word together, they are demonstrating phonemic awareness. This is the beginning stages of reading. Once a child can recognize that each letter has its own sound and they can blend sounds together, or take them apart, they can begin decoding.

Kindergarten Word Work & Phonics Activities

There are so many different ways to practice phonics through word work.  By using hands on activities you can increase engagement and help students retain the information and skills quicker. Let’s take a look at some ways you can begin to implement amazing word work activities to help your kindergartners master key phonics skills.

Word Work Activities for Letter Sounds

Using pictures is an excellent way to practice letter sounds. Word work activities that involve finding pictures with the same beginning sound are a great way to make sure students can hear each individual sound. One of my favorite word work activities for this is called Build That House.

With this game, students pick a house that has the uppercase and lowercase letters on it. Then they find the roof and door with pictures that have the correct beginning sound. This is a great hands-on word work activity to help students practice hearing and identifying letter sounds.

Word Work Activities for Beginning Sounds

The next step in building readers is to help them with beginning sounds. This is very similar to practicing letter sounds, but you can add additional challenges by having students also form the letters. I love to use Dry Erase Boards because it is not only engaging, but it also allows me to easily monitor student progress.

These are great because it encourages children to find the correct sound on the board and circle it, and create the letter with another manipulative. You can use playdough to practice letter formation or even letter magnets. I laminate these boards and have them use dry erase markers, which means we can use them over and over again!

Word Work Activities for Long and Short Vowels

Once my students have mastered consonant sounds, we move onto vowels. These are trickier to hear and pronounce. By incorporating hands-on vowel work, students can build fluency with long and short vowels.

We love the word work activity Vowel Caterpillars. With this phonics activity, children have to build the body of the caterpillar by finding the pictures with the matching short vowel sounds. It is a fun twist on a traditional picture sort.

It is also a great idea to use picture sorts for long vowel practice. Helping students recognize the difference between long vowel sounds is important to their reading ability. When it comes to long vowel centers, we love the phonics game Build a Sandwich. This game is perfect for any word work center or dramatic play area. Students must make a sandwich that consists of bread, tomato, meat, and cheese. Each of these items has a picture on them with a long vowel sound either in the beginning or in the middle of the word. Children can use the provided menu to help them, or do it all on their own. This is always a class favorite!

Word Work Activities for CVC Words

CVC words are our most practiced phonics skill. The reason for this is, if children can successfully blend sounds to read a CVC word, then they can begin to apply this skill to multisyllabic words. I invest a lot of time into building fluency with CVC words and it shows when we are doing guided reading! Some easy to implement, yet very meaningful word work activities include CVC Puzzles and CVC Word Building. These phonics games help students read and “write” cvc words.

Word Work Activities for Rhyming

When I progress monitor my students, I always find that many of them struggle with rhyming words. Being able to recognize and produce rhyming words is a key phonological awareness skill. Which is why it is so important to find engaging hands-on centers to help them practice this skill. Matching pictures that rhyme is awesome practice. This ensures that even non-readers can participate. It’s also great for children to practice hearing the rhymes as they say the names of the pictures out loud. Peanut Butter Jelly Rhyme Time is definitely a fan favorite! Students make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by finding the picture on the jelly side that matches the picture on the peanut butter side.

Word Work Activities for Consonant Blends

Consonant blends are easy to teach if you have spent a sufficient amount of time on letter-sound knowledge and cvc words. A consonant blend is two consonants together, that each makes their own sound. By helping students build fluency with common consonant blends, we are helping them build fluency with reading. This will make decoding longer words easier for them. Popsicle Puzzles are a fun phonics activity that allows children to find the correct beginning blend to each word. Picture clues help the students if they are struggling. I like to put the last half of the word in a pocket chart and the students will find the correct blend and add it to the beginning of the card.

Word Work Activities for Digraphs

Similar to consonant blends, digraphs consist of two consonants together. However, with digraphs, these two letters only make one sound. It is really important for children to know the difference because if they are trying to make each sound in a digraph, they will not be able to blend the sounds to make a word. Other than CVC words, digraphs probably are the second most practiced phonics skill in my room. I have noticed tremendous growth in decoding when students have memorized and built fluency with digraphs. We have a wide variety of digraph word work activities, but one I’d like to share with you is Dinosaur Digraphs.

In Dinosaur Digraphs, children take turns picking a dinosaur egg. Each dinosaur egg has a picture with a digraph either at the beginning or end of the word. They must place each egg under the correct digraph tree.

Teaching Phonics Activities

Teaching phonics to kindergarteners is absolutely key in their reading and writing success. Make sure to carve out time each day to teach and review phonics skills. Incorporate word work activities as much as possible. Hands on learning is extremely beneficial for the retention of information. You can read more about that here. If you want to integrate word work activities into your classroom but don’t know where to start, check out my full year of hands on phonics activities. This download consists of  35 weeks of phonics word work. The pacing guide lays everything out for you, so all you have to do is prep the materials and watch your students learn. As you work your way through each week, you will see your students reading and writing abilities develop and grow.

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So that is when I came up with a center idea that allowed my kids to do the same activities, but with individualized sight word lists. Once I implemented this new routine, I saw my students sight word knowledge increase tremendously. Here’s a sneak peek at the process and activities!

Kids are tested individually and given their own sight word lists. These lists contain only the words they have not mastered.

This post contains affiliate links. To read more about it click here

Here’s a list of materials you will need. You can follow the links to grab the items from Amazon!
*Soft Pencil Cases
*Markers
*Play-Doh
*Hard Pencil Cases: you can get these at Michael’s for $1 each
*Sand

*Alphabet Stamps
*Ink Pads

*All sections have detailed directions with pictures to help you correctly set-up and implement all routines and activities*

Don’t forget to pin this image so you can refer back to this post whenever you need!

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This blog post contains affiliate links. You can read my entire disclosure policy here.

 

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