As you plan your language program for young children, add lot of hands-on and engaging activities. This collection of 25 Best Letter Activities for Kindergarten and Preschool is filled with fun activities to help children on their road to reading.
Many of the activities below are activities and games that I created for my own classroom that were popular with my students that I’m excited to share. Other activities are favorites of mine from other teachers, educators and parents that I also feel are a perfect fit for little learners.
Teaching the alphabet and the connecting letter sounds is a key part of any kindergarten and preschool program. Below is a mix of activities, ranging from hands-on games that take kids beyond the classroom walls to free printables and sensory ideas.
For more engaging activity ideas, check out 55 Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities and Alphabet Games from Teaching Ideas.
Whole Group Letter Activities for Kindergarten
Letter games are often taught throughout the day, everyday. Often small group activities work well so that you can focus on specific skills that certain children need. However, it’s also great to add whole group activities that can be done together as a class. Below are a few of my favorite that I do each year with my whole group.
Fill a bag with objects that start with each letter of the alphabet. You can use anything you have on hand, or even a picture if you are missing a few objects.
Print the letters of the alphabet and bring one object out of the bag, one at a time, and decide, as a group, which letter the object starts with. Place the object with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.
Head around your school with a free Letter Hunt. Children search the school for each letter of the alphabet and cross it off on their alphabet sheet.
This activity is perfect for homeschooled children and even parents. Take the Letter Hunt page on your next adventure outside the home. Children will notice how letters are everywhere in our world, not just on worksheets in class.
Fill a DIY alphabet board with small object from around your classroom or home.
Kids love BINGO so try an Alphabet BINGO game filled with adorable animal letters. This works well as a whole class activity or small center.
Free Printable Letter Games
As children learn their letters, and corresponding sounds, try putting some of those sounds together with a hands-on word family activity. Print the FREE printable word cards and children create each word.
Whether you have a group of kids who love dinosaurs, you can use any letter cards for this activity! Have children match a letter block to a picture card of each letter.
Try putting the letter blocks inside plastic Easter eggs and have kids crack them open to find each letter. This quickly became a favorite center in my classroom!
This collection of 5 hands-on alphabet and phonic awareness activities is a great addition to any classroom. All of the worksheets for the activities are included for free!
Set up a fishing pod in your classroom with this interactive letter game! Print the Hooked on Fishing printable page. Use letters and attach a magnet on each for this fishing game. Fish out a letter and match it on the letter page.
Help the sharks find their teeth in this fun printable letter matching activity.
Classic letter worksheets are an important part of any classroom literacy program. This letter tracing page is adorable and fun for kids to complete.
I can’t wait to use this in my classroom! Print the page and have children find, and color the different letters. It is great practice for kids to recognize upper, and lower case letters.
Center Activities for Kindergarten
If your classroom is anything like mine, we have a variety of centers for children to rotate through throughout the week. Some are more academic centers, some are sensory and some allow for imaginary play. I’m always looking for engaging ideas for our language based centers. The ideas below are great ideas.
Cars and trucks + letter recognition = all sorts of playful learning fun. Park your vehicles in the letter garage.
A gross motor game that builds letter knowledge and letter/sound correspondence. The kids will ask to play this game over and over again.
Many children can identify their lower case letters, but get stuck finding the matching upper case, or vise versa. This Alphabet Match game is a great way to practice matching the letters.
If you are looking for some worksheets or booklet to send home with children over the summer, or work through throughout the year, this “My Alphabet Workbook” is create for preschool and kindergarten children and touches on all of the key phonics and letter skills.
Create a maze to practice the alphabet. One of the great things about this game is you can create it quickly virtually anywhere.
Kids will love this engaging spin & stamp letter recognition game. Learn to recognize uppercase and lowercase letters with a simple print & go game.
Art Letter Activities for Kindergarten
Integrate language into other parts of your program, like art. Focus on letters as children create and make beautiful pieces of art.
How adorable is this pig? Create an animal for each letter of the alphabet with these ABC Animal printables.
Kids love to create handprint art. It may get a little messy, but it’s a great sensory and learning experience. Create a picture with your child’s hand for each letter of the alphabet.
Loose parts or tinker trays always create wonderful centers for young children to explore and create. This alphabet pattern activity, using loose parts is a great idea and easy to use in any classroom.
Sensory Letter Activities for Kindergarten
If you include sensory activities in your classroom, you have probably found that they are very popular with young children. Add sensory play ideas to your language program with some ideas below.
Learning the alphabet has never been so much fun! Kids will love tracing letters with SLIME!
Learn the ABC’s and have some good ol’ squishy fun with this easy Alphabet Jello Sensory Bin!
Practice letter recognition and letter names with this cute hop the alphabet board game for kids! This is great for kids just starting to learn to read, and the printable game is free.
Grab some sand and letters for this easy alphabet sensory bin. Make learning fun and inexpensive with ideas like this!
Kids love playing I Spy. Try creating an alphabet in a bottle activity. This is a great quiet activity in the classroom to calm a child or even to use for a car ride outside of the classroom.
Outdoor Alphabet Games
Letter activities for kindergarten and preschool can be taken outside!
You don’t need to prepare any special materials, simply head outside and have children collect any small items from nature, such as grass, stones, or even twigs. Once they have their collection, each child creates a letter or two or even challenge them to create their name.
This fall leaf alphabet matching is great for autumn, but you can use the same idea for any time of year using any such as, flower petals. It’s a fun hands-on matching game.
Join Play Learn Inspire
Subscribe to Play Learn Inspire and get instant access to the alphabet freebie below. Several of the other activities above also offer freebies. Click below to subscribe and get the printable and join the email list to get email about latest activity ideas.
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