Little Giggles and Wiggles: Alphabet Activities and Skill Builders

Are you looking for fun alphabet activities that feel more like a craft and less like a worksheet? Check out Alphabet Printables.

School has been in session for a few weeks for some and a month for others. Fall is upon us! In a previous post we looked at how we can set up activities to help students learn alphabet letters by using their names and the names of their peers. We know that the more associations children can make with letters, the more likely it is that they will remember it.
Now on to letters in general!
Most students in the state of Wisconsin come into kindergarten able to identify 10-15 letters. A big reason for that is that we have 4K programs. Students that know less then ten are in intervention programs where parents, title instructor or para-educator are working with the child on 5 letters at a time. The letters are usually letters in their name or family member names. Students that know more than 15 letters are starting to work on sounds and usually I would send supplementary work home with them to do as homework.

So the majority of kids are ready to work with the alphabet as a whole. Letters as a whole are the first set of center I place in ELA bins or at tables. Another thing to consider when creating your center groups is that children learn best from other children, so it helps to have children working together that know different letters.
It is important to group children using a mixed-ability strategy.

Build IT:

I am big into brain research. As I stated above the more connections that students can make with letter the more likely they will remember them. That is why I love alphabet building centers. Students are not only looking at the letters, they are using their hands to shape them. Alphabet building centers are great multi-sensory centers (think scented playdough as well:)

You can now find small circle stickers at the Dollar Tree!

Wikki Stix, stickers, playdough, pipe cleaners, straws, toothpicks and blocks are all fun materials to build letters with!

Games and Puzzles:

Games and puzzles are also a fun way to teach alphabet letters. One of my favorites is Candyland. Every child loves this game and they can easily be found at goodwill. I write the uppercase or lowercase letters on the board. Each child has a recording sheet of paper. Students write down each letter that they land on. If they know the letter they circle it. At the end of the center, they share with the class the letters they landed on (writing letters adds another element as well).

Alphabet Train by Melissa and Doug is a classic. Students can use the box to find the letters and place them in order-they love singing the ABC's after they complete it!

Have children search through colorful rice for alphabet beads and sort the beads into letter cases (bead or tackle boxes with letter stickers in each compartment).

Children can search through water beads for magnetic letters.

Kids love games-and if you can make those beloved games more academic, the more likely students are to fully engage in them. For example-we have all seen the game twister used for academic purposes and card games like go fish...be creative, you can't lose with games!

Arts and Crafts

Most kids love art. Unfortunately art is not as common in kindergarten as it should be. Many teachers feel pressure to keep things more academic and find messy painting activities distracting for the kids. However, what administrator is going to complain when they enter a classroom and see kids completely engaged with letters while crafting?

Look at what I found at the Dollar Tree! This will save you hours of cutting out squares!

Painting, dabbing, punching stamping and beading are fun activities to use. I usually prefer to work with letters a whole-like looking through a book and adding matching beads. However, as you know there are always 5-8 letters that a majority of the students struggle with, like G, Y, L etc. Those are great letters to spend extra time with!

Writing Letters:

There are so many fun ways to work on writing letters with students. Try to have them write using their fingers first with activities like writing letters in sand, shaving cream and finger paint. Then, move on to writing with crayons, markers and pencils. I love to mix up the art mediums to keep it fresh and exciting. Have students use expo markers to write letters on white boards. You can have them use window markers to write on the windows. An occupational therapist would love it if you have children practice writing letters with chalk on a chalkboard of some sort! You can also work on specific letters using a rainbow writing center like the one shown below.

Variety is the key! The bigger the variety and the higher the quality the greater the gain!

As a side note, make sure to incorporate the alphabet into your beginning of the year routine. Place your alphabet posters near your morning meeting area and have the star of the week point to each letter using different alphabet songs (check out youtube for a variety). You could also have students say the alphabet using different voices like a giant or a mouse.

Hand students pointers and have them find the matching letter...I could go on and on! I hope you have found at least one activity that will help you in your classroom or homeschool:)

If you liked the printable activities above you will love this freebie! Click here to check it out!