J has become more and more interested in his ABC’s these days. He sees letters everywhere, but still calls them all S or O. Because of this new found interest, I’ve followed suit and have come up with some fun ABC games for us to play.
Letter Clank Can
This game is super easy and J has loved it! I simply took a used coffee can and cut a rectangle hole out of the top, large enough for our magnetic letters to easily fit inside. I dumped all our magnetic letters in a bowl. J picked up letters one by one and I told him the correct name of the letter. He usually repeated the letter’s name, and then dropped the letters into the can.
Masking Tape Letter Painting
This was a fun way for J to practice the letter S. I simply used masking tape to make a letter S on a sheet of paper. I let him paint all over the paper, let it dry, then pulled off the tape. The letter was left white while the rest of the paper was colored. I suggest that you use cardstock or a thicker paper. I used just regular computer paper and it tore a bit when I was pulling off the tape.
Letters Hidden in Plastic Eggs
This was a really fun game for J. I hid our magnetic letters inside plastic Easter eggs. J opened each egg and found a letter hidden inside. I named each letter for him as he found them. We did this game later using the letters of his name…and that was a huge hit. He really likes spelling his name with us.
Cornmeal Letter Discovery Tray
I showed you this tray last week, but I thought it was appropriate to add it here too. I simply buried magnetic letters in cornmeal. J searched through the tray to find the letters and then placed them on the fridge. As always, I labeled each letter for him as he found them.
These simple games are great for little ones who are just starting to learn their ABCs. Do you have any other great ways of introducing letters to tots?
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My boys love digging in stuff! Definitely trying the cornmeal letters. Great list!
My very favorite alphabet book is the entirely playful CURIOUS GEORGE LEARNS THE ALPHABET. I find it has great little-kid appropriate ways of helping point out the different shapes of both the uppercase and lowercase letters.
I do a similar activity to your cornmeal dig… With rice!! They love it! It is particularly good with ASD children!
I love this list. We actually just did a fun activity based on Alphabet Soup with letters and cooking!
Great list, I will try a couple of these with my 3 year old. Could be good practice with my 5 year old also to have her say the letter sound.
The book Chicka Chicka Boom Boom is great for introducing letters. I just point to each letter as I read it to my son. Then on the last past is the whole alphabet with both upper- and lower-case letters. I sing the alphabet (slowly) to him on that page while pointing to the appropriate letter.
He’s 18 months now and I can ask him “where’s C?” on a page that only has a few letters and he’ll find the right one. The whole alphabet is still too much for him to search, but this book has been wonderful for learning letters so far.
These are great ideas Amanda! Thanks for sharing them. I’ve featured this post on my Weekly Kid’s Co-Op round up for this week!
I love the egg one – my toddler started doing that on his own after he made matching letters into a game while I was making dinner. He would take the letters off of the fridge (when I said the name of one) and put it on his muffin tin. I had to share it – http://jennifischer.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-accidents-learning-with-letters.html
After that, I had some plastic eggs that I wrote 2 letter words on, just to have him seeing the letters. He started getting the corresponding letters from the fridge and putting them in the eggs. So clever!!
Going fishing with alphabet fish is always fun. You cut out fish from colored card stock or construction paper. Write a letter on one side. Put a paperclip at the mouth. Make a fishing pole from a dowel rod, string, and a magnet. Then go fishing. You can work on color identification, alphabet recognition, phonics, or what word starts with that letter depending on the age of child. It’s a favorite with my preschoolers.
My children and my daycare children love Dr. Suess ABC’s. Thanks for the great ideas!