Alphabet Activities for Preschool

Swat the Fly Alphabet Activity

Pick a card and swat the matching letter. Differentiate by having children match uppercase to uppercase, uppercase to lowercase, or letter sound to letter.

Letter Formation Alphabet Boards

Practice letter formation with these hands-on alphabet boards. Trace the uppercase and lowercase letter, write it independently, and then build it with play-doh.

Mix Them Up Small Group Alphabet Game

Children pick a card from the deck and produce either the name of the letter or the letter sound (differentiate based on the group). If they get it correct they can keep the card, if not it goes to the bottom of the deck. When you pull a “Mix Them Up!” card, everyone pretends to mix a bowl and all cards go back to start.

Build the House Letter Sound Center

Play construction worker for the day and build letter-sound houses! The base of each house has an uppercase and lowercase letter, children will find the door and roof that has images with that letter sound.

Lock & Key Letter Recognition

Place the keys with the correct lock by matching up the letters of the alphabet.

Mama Mia Pizzeria

Build a slice of pizza by finding the crust, sauce and cheese with the same letters on them.

Sunny Letter Sound Puzzles

Complete the puzzle by matching the image to the beginning sound of the alphabet.

Splat that Letter

A fun way to practice letter recognition. Look at the letter n the top of the page and find all of the matching letters. Take your play-doh and “splat” it onto the matching letters.

Pencil Puzzles

Build pencils by matching the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter.

Bubblegum Consonant Vowel Sort

Sort the alphabet bubble gum pieces by consonants and vowels.

Alphabet Clip Cards

Use a clothes pin to clip the letter that represents the beginning sound of the image on the card.

Sandbox Alphabet Activity

Practice letter formation with this fun and tactile alphabet activity. Children pick a card and then form that letter in the sand with their fingers

. It even includes a spinner so they can determine how many times they should write the letter.

Beginning Sound Boards

Find the missing beginning sound and circle it. For added fun, build the letter with play dough.

Popsicle Alphabet Mats

Practice letter formation by building uppercase and lowercase letters with popsicle sticks

Play Dough Letter Sound Cards

Build objects that begin with specific letter sounds out of play dough.

Cube Alphabet Mats

Build letters of the alphabet using snap cubes.

Alphabet Books

Student-made books for each letter of the alphabet! Children illustrate each page of their book with items beginning with that sound. You can add as many blank pages as you’d like.

Alphabet Dough Mats

Build uppercase and lowercase letters with play dough.

Guided Readers

The perfect guided reader for small groups, based on sounds of the alphabet.

Dab-A-Dot Alphabet Mats

Work with the uppercase and lowercase letters of the alphabet with these dab-a-dot mats. They can use bingo daubers, dot stickers, pom-poms and more!

Digital Lowercase Alphabet Activity

Click and drag the matching lowercase letters

Digital Uppercase Alphabet Activity

Click and drag the matching uppercase letters

Digital Letter Sounds Activity

Select the UFO with the correct letter sound

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If you’re looking for a fun alphabet activity that will help your students master the alphabet and letter sounds, then I’ve got you covered! These free alphabet printable letter books are an amazing learning tool for your preschoolers!

Alphabet Activities for Prek

While teaching the alphabet, there are a lot of different skills to cover. We need to master letter recognition, letter formation, and letter sounds. The best way to help your preschool students with this is to give them plenty of opportunities to practice, along with a mix of printables and hands-on learning.

At the end of each letter study, we create our alphabet books!

Alphabet books come in the shape of each letter. The cover shows an image that starts with that letter for reference. Following the cover are blank pages. You can print as many or as little as you’d like.

Children illustrate each page of their alphabet book with an image starting with that letter sound.

Free Alphabet Printable Letters in Action

Let’s take a look at my preschooler working on his letter B and C books.

After they illustrate and color their book, they can label their pictures. If they are not ready to sound out words, you can always write it for them. I like to write it in a highlighter, which allows them to trace it and practice letter formation and proper pencil grip.

I love this activity because the finished product is one that they can save and look at over and over again.

Children get to be creative while also practicing a key phonics skill.

At the end of our alphabet curriculum, we will have a full set of student-made books for letters A through Z!

These alphabet printable letter books are a part of our Alphabet Curriculum, but you can snag them for FREE here!

You Might Also Like:

• Hands-On Alphabet Activities
• No-Prep Alphabet Worksheets

Some of my favorite alphabet games and activities

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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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Learning the alphabet is one of the first phonics skills you will teach your preschoolers. This is a lengthy process as it includes so many different aspects. Preschoolers need to learn to visually discriminate between letters, recognize uppercase and lowercase, learn how to write letters, and memorize all of the letter sounds. Below are some of my favorite alphabet activities for preschoolers, in the form of no-prep worksheets and printables.

Alphabet Knowledge Activities for Preschoolers

Letter discrimination is a huge part of learning the alphabet. This “I Spy” worksheet is great because it helps children practice letter recognition and also helps with visual discrimination between uppercase and lowercase letters.

Grab the full Alphabet Curriculum Here!

They must identify the uppercase letters in the first half and color them in, and then work on the lowercase letter on the bottom half.

Alphabet Books

Alphabet Writing Activities for Preschoolers

We also need to give our pre k students ample practice with letter formation. By sprinkling alphabet writing activities into their work, they can begin to develop fluency with not only letter identification but also letter formation.

Here are some printable alphabet activities for preschoolers that we love!

“Looks Like, Sounds Like” allows preschoolers to recognize the letter, trace the letter of the alphabet, and hear the letter sound.

Alphabet Review Activities for Preschoolers

A definite class favorite is our color-by-the-code worksheets. I personally like these alphabet printables because they work on reviewing more than one letter at a time.

Alphabet Activities for Letter Sounds

Alphabet Activities for preschoolers must also include letter-sound printables! Take a look at some of my favorite letter-sound worksheets for preschoolers.

Working with images is a great way for children to make the connection between the word and sound they hear at the beginning.

All of these alphabet activity printables for preschoolers shown in this post are from the Alphabet Curriculum: Letter of the Week. You can see more about this curriculum here!

Looking for more alphabet activities for preschoolers (printables and hands-on)?

• Swat the Fly Letter Recognition Game
• Build that House Letter Game

• Splat that Letter Book
• RTI Letter Identification Pack
• Alphabet Dough Mats

• Digital Uppercase Letter Match
• Digital Lowercase Letter Match
• Digital Beginning Sounds

The post Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers: Printables Edition appeared first on Mrs V's Chickadees.

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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