Alphabet Learning Through Play

In our family, teaching the alphabet is all about fun play. Stress-free learning is our primary goal for these early years. This summer I am focusing my lessons on a review of the alphabet. I am still learning about how my son responds best to lessons, whether it be worksheets, sensory bins and play, gross motor activities, and multi-dimensional materials OR a combination of a few! If you haven’t already read my introduction post to teaching a happy alphabet, click here.

The following alphabet activities have been some of our favorite and I have included a link to each post for your convenience to see all the other great ideas! Sometimes we just work on the alphabet as a whole, sometimes we look at the letter as part of a theme and sometimes we have a letter week! I am mixing it up with what works best for our week and his interests. So far we have covered A, F, & W. We did two weeks of F! I don’t feel there is any need to go in order especially when we had the opportunity to do a farm trip, so that week I chose to do F for farm!

I will be continually updating my Teaching A Happy Alphabet post throughout the summer with new ideas so check back often. The main goal is to have fun with the alphabet, discover something about my teaching process and ultimately uncover my child’s strongest potential to learn. Creative, unstructured and structured activities and crafts are everywhere. Play, that’s all we have to do!

Alphabet Wash & Play: Scrub, wash, and sort to dry!

Lego & Unifix Alphabet Truck Fun (printouts courtesy of Confessions of A Homeschooler): Fill the trucks up with the cubes or bricks as you use them and then have them deliver more!

Alphabet Towers With Unifix Cubes:

Alphabet Shells & Cornmeal Sensory Play: Have fun with sensory play, trace letters and then put shells in alphabetical order!

Shaving Cream Alphabet: Buried Letters!

 Letter Of The Week Sensory Bins: 

DIY Alphabet Match (use a worksheet or hand write it yourself)

Gross Motor:  Alphabet Hunt, Bean Bag Toss & Tower Knock Down

Fishing For Letters: Printout courtesy of 1+1+1=1) Use a clothespin for working on fine motor skills

Dot Marker and Letter Decoration Fun: Offer your child different ways to decorate. (Printouts courtesy of Confessions of A Homeschooler)

How do you play with the alphabet in your house? Let me know in the comments below!

Please see my side bar for all the wonderful places I link to each week including Montessori Monday, The Sunday Showcase and more!