Ways to Practice Letters with Your Child

Hello Preschool Families!

Letter recognition is a big preschool skill, especially if your child will be going onto Kindergarten next school year. I wanted to provide some ideas of different ways that you can practice letter identification together at home. That way, you're not always doing the same thing each time. Hopefully this will help to make it more fun and engaging for both you and your child.

• Reading -- this is such a simple way to practice! Many families read stories together before bed. During this time, you can point out the letter of the week and see if your child can find it on the page! You can also talk about what sound it makes. See if your child can produce the sound on the next page with the letter. 
• Playdough -- make the letters out of playdough! Hands-on activities are a great way for preschoolers to learn. This will feel like play and your child might not even notice that he is learning. You can do this to practice the letter of the week, letters we have already learned in class, or to practice with the letters in your child's name.
• Shaving Cream -- write the letters in shaving cream! This is another fun hands-on activity for your child to practice the letter of the week or letters in her name. One advantage to shaving cream is that it is basically soap. So, when your child is done writing, you can have her use the remaining shaving cream to clean off the table!
• Pipe Cleaners -- make the letters out of pipe cleaners! You will likely have to help your child bend and manipulate the pipe cleaners in order to form the letters. If you want, you can even string some beads onto the pipe cleaners before bending them. This would add another fine motor element to the activity. This is another one that can also be used to practice your child's name.
• Rainbow Writing -- grab some markers, crayons, paint, or colored pencils and have your child write the letter in each color of the rainbow! This will give your child practice writing the letter multiple times and he will be able to use many pretty colors in the process. Again, try this with your child's name as another way to practice name writing/identifying letters in his name.
• Alphabet Stamps -- if you have some alphabet stamps at home (or are able to purchase some), use these to practice letter identification. Your child could stamp the letter of the week, letters in her name, or simply stamp the letters in ABC order on a page. This activity also doubles as fine motor practice.
• Letter Collage -- use magazines or newspapers. Have your child find and cut out the letter of the week. Then, paste these letters on a paper to create a collage. Not only will this help your child with recognizing letters, but it is also great emergent reading practice!
• ABC Cookies -- use alphabet cookie cutters to when baking cookies! Practice saying the letter names as you cut out cookies together. If you decorate the cookies after, you can see what letters your child is able to name again. You could also do this while eating them.
• Become the Letters -- try to make the letter of the week using your bodies. You can work together with your child to build the letter. Maybe you can even get the whole family involved! If your child is active, this might be a great way to practice.
• Letter Hunt -- see if your child can find the letter of the week while out and about. Maybe this could be in the car, while walking through the neighborhood, at the store, or out at a restaurant. See how many letters your child can find! Get the whole family involved. See who can find the most of that letter. If your child knows more letters, maybe see if she can find all of the letters of the alphabet in order. Turn it into a game to see which member of the family can find them first!
• Alphabet Puzzles -- doing an alphabet puzzle together can be a time to review letters with your child. Talk about the letters as you find them. Ask your child to bring you a certain letter. Use the letters to spell your child's name. Talk about names in your family that start with each letter. Talk about the sounds the letters maker. See if your child can tell you some of the sounds.
• Letter Magnets -- use magnets to practice letter recognition! See if your child can find his letter (the first letter in his name) or other meaningful letters to him. Practice spelling your child's name with the magnets. Review the letter sounds together. Make silly "words." Try to read the "word" your child spells (which will likely be random letters strung together). 
• Legos -- write upper and lowercase letters on legos using a permanent marker. Have your child match the letters, sticking them together to form a match. For instance, your child should put the "A" block with the "a" block and the "B" block with the "b" block. This is another way you can sneak fine motor practice into your letter recognition practice, all while playing! If your child isn't ready for matching lowercase letters yet, modify the activity. Write uppercase letters on the legos. So, there should be two blocks with "A", two with "B", two with "C", and so on. Have your child match the same letters together.
• Printable Block Letters -- you can print off these block letters at home to practice each letter as we learn it (found here: https://www.themeasuredmom.com/printable-block-letters-150-ways-fill) and have your child fill them with various objects. The website lists many ideas, but some include: stickers, buttons, coins, candy, feathers, kidney beans, pasta, etc. You can even fill it with something that starts with that letter! You can turn it into a craft and have your child glue the objects down. Or, you can keep reusing the paper with different objects over and over again. If you don't have a way to print these letters, you could also draw your own on a piece of paper.
• Do-A-Dot Letters -- if you have Do-a-dot or bingo markers, you can print off these free Do-A-Dot letter patterns (http://totschool.shannons.org/do-a-dot-upper-case-letter-worksheets/). Your child can practice stamping the Do-A-Dot markers on each dot to form the letter. See if your child can name the letter when finished and/or produce the letter sound.
• ABC Mat -- if you have an ABC mat (giant foam puzzle pieces), you can use this in a variety of ways to practice letter identification. Build it to a form a road and have your child name the letters as he drives cars on it. You can put it an ABC order or in a random order, depending on what level your child is at. To make it more challenging, you can use lowercase magnetic letters (or write lowercase letters on pieces of paper) and place them in a toy dump truck. Have your child drive around the ABC mat road and match the lowercase letters  in the truck to the uppercase letters on the mat. (Side note: This mat usually has numbers with it as well, so you could also use a similar activity to practice number identification, or matching quantities to the number). 
• Alphabet Maze -- create an alphabet maze for your child. Write letters on post-it notes or pieces of paper and place around the house to create a maze. Have your child sing the ABC's to find which way to go to get through the maze correctly (meaning your child will move from A to B to C and so on).
• Squirt the Letter -- if it warm outside, use water bottles or water guns to squirt the letter on the pavement. After making some letters, you can even let your child squirt you (or allow your children to squirt each other) to cool off. 
• Sticker & Paper Towel Tube Letter Match -- if you have an empty paper towel roll, write letters on it using a marker. Then, give your child letter stickers (or, you can use circle label stickers and write the letters on them). Have your child match the stickers to the letters on the tube.
• ABC Cup Hunt Game -- write letters on paper cups. Hide a small toy or object under one of the cups when your child is not looking. Have your child guess what cup the item is under. Your child must say the name of the letter in order to guess. Take turns hiding and guessing. 
• Musical Alphabet -- kind of like musical chairs, but with letters. Set out letters and have your child walk around them. When the music stops, your child should stop on a letter. See if she can identify the letter she stops on. If she can, take it a step further and see if she can produce the letter sound.
• Chalk -- use chalk on the pavement outside to practice writing different letters. These can be done with the letter of the week, letters we have already learned, or letters in your child's name. 
• Teachers Pay Teachers -- you can also find other activities on Teachers Pay Teachers that you can print and do together at home. Simply search "letters" or "letter recognition" and click "Preschool" or "Kindergarten." You can also check the box for "Free" so that you don't have to pay for activities. You will need to create an account, but it will save all of your downloads on your account for future use. Link: www.teacherspayteachers.com 

There are countless ways that you can practice letter and sound recognition with your child! I hope that you will find some of these ideas helpful and enjoyable. Have fun learning!

Blessings,
​Ms. Barker