Learning the alphabet is a big part of kindergarten. Students are being introduced to concepts that have to do with letters, their sounds, how to write them, and more. An alphabet chart is a great place to start, but having engaging alphabet activities at your fingertips is a great way to get students to actually absorb this essential concept! Adding your hands-on alphabet activities to centers is a great way to do this. Here are some of my favorite alphabet activities and how I use them in our Letter of the Week Centers.
Build The Alphabet
You can’t get much more hands-on than using building blocks to teach a subject. This helps students get their fine motor skills going, is super fun, and teaches them at the same time.
I like using budget-friendly building blocks and building block tiles, you can find that at the Dollar Store so they won’t break the bank. You can grab everything you need for just a few dollars, or if you have spare building blocks at home grab some.
This Letter Building activity is simple yet effective for practicing both uppercase and lowercase letters. I like to use this to practice the “letter of the week” in our classroom. I let the students pick their tile and their blocks and practice building out letters.
The practice sheets in this alphabet activity even show students how many of each block shape they need. For instance, the letter A needs 4 small blocks, 4 medium blocks, and no large blocks. This is a huge time saver for the students! Everyone loves building blocks so why not teach fun alphabet activities while doing so!
Alphabet Puzzle Activities
Puzzles are so much fun for students. They get their logic skills going and help them engage and practice concepts. I love using puzzles in my classroom when I can.
Having an alphabet puzzle center has worked out wonderfully for our classroom. The students love it and it is a great way for students to begin connecting the letter and its sound to different words.
The great thing about these puzzles is that they can be printed, laminated and used year after year. We love a good time-saver, right?!
For every letter, there are colorful (or black and white for those printer-friendly teachers) pictures that go along with it. For example, B has ball, bear, bee, bell, bat, button, and more. Each letter gives students multiple picture cards to help them start building those letter to word connections.
These printouts feature uppercase and lowercase so students get the chance to practice both. This is a great center activity for students to take back to their desks to work on independently or with a partner. They are also so easy to use as part of small group teaching too!
Beginning Sounds Clip Cards
When it comes to fully understanding the alphabet, students must learn not only the letter, but also the sound(s) each letter makes. Working on letter sounds and the concepts of beginning sounds is a key part of our kindergarten instruction.
I like to use activities that don’t just teach students the concept but really help them absorb it in a fun way. These clip-it cards are a fabulous way to do just that. The students will look at the letter and identify the letter sound. Then with that sound in mind, they will look at the three pictures and determine which one starts with the target sound.
I like to use clothes pins with this activity to get in some fine motor practice. But students could place a mini eraser on the correct answer, circle with a dry erase marker, or even add a dab of play dough to mark their answer choice. In fact, by changing up the way students respond, they can complete this activity multiple times without getting bored!
You can laminate these cards and put them in on a book ring so they are durable and can be used over and over. These clip-it cards feature a lowercase and uppercase letter with 3 picture choices, 1 of which features that letters beginning sound. This is another great center for students to work quietly on at their desks. Print these out for a fun, engaging centers option for your students!
Make The Letter with Objects
Practicing letter formation in many different ways will help your students master their letters quickly. At this age, repetition is key for helping students master these important concepts. Instead of providing the same activity multiple times, engage students with a variety of activities that target the same skill.
I love these letter mats! Not only are they fun, but there are so many different things you can do with them. They are a hands-on way for students to practice making letters.
Print out and laminate these sheets, then use any small objects you’d like for students to work with. You likely already have a variety of small manipulatives in your classroom that are perfect for this activity.
Make sure they are small but easy for little fingers to grasp. I like using flat marbles, pom-poms, buttons, Cheerios, or even mini erasers! You could also add a dry erase marker for students to practice handwriting too.
The letter mats feature the letter with handwriting formation guides and a picture that has the beginning sound for each letter. Just one of many ways that students can work on letter identification, letter formation, handwriting and letter sounds.
Feed Me Fun with Beginning Sounds
The last, but definitely not the least, just might be my favorite activity. And . . . the students love it too! This “Feed Me” center activity will have students working on beginning sounds without even realizing it!
Students will identify the target letter and sound, then use the picture cards to identify pictures with the correct beginning sound. When the student finds a matching card, they feed it to the animal! The kids love that part!
With just a little prep work, this interactive center will soon be a favorite in your classroom too. I suggest printing on cardstock and laminating for extra durability. The pieces in this center get a lot of “action” so that extra durability is important.
To prepare the hungry animal cut out the mouth portion or just make a slit across the mouth. This second method will help with hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills as students will have to be more precise in their feeding. Then attach the animal to a box, bag or bin. This will serve to catch all the cards that the students feed
This fun and interactive center is great for independent centers but also a great teaching tool for small group instruction. However you choose to use it, I know your students will love it!
Letter of the Week Activity Board
Now that you’ve seen my favorite alphabet activities, I’m excited to show you how I use them in my classroom. I like to put all of the activities together to create a Letter of the Week Alphabet Center Board. This interactive board is a class favorite. The students love being able to go up and grab an activity to work on.
While this Letter of the Week Activity Board might look a little complicated, I promise it is not! You can put this board together on a bulletin board, the back side of a shelf (yay for double duty) or create your own using a piece of foam board or mdf.
For this one I chose a black foam board so that I didn’t have to add any background paper or paint. I added the border and the Letter of the Week heading. Then I grabbed some velcro and command hooks and got busy adding the rest of the activities.
Those activities that can be put on a ring are hung on a small command hook. Those activities that fit into a small 4×6 photo box are attached with velcro. Both options allow for students to quickly and easily grab the activity of their choice.
Each week, all I do is change out the letter at the top (also attached with velcro) and change out the letter activities. Since each week uses the same activities, the boxes and rings stay the same. I just change the contents. The other benefit to using consistent activities is that the students quickly learn what to do and can work independently.
Alphabet Activities Bundle
If you teach the alphabet in you classroom, then you are going to love these easy to prep, fun and interactive alphabet activities in your classroom. Whether you choose to use these activities in your center rotations or set-up an alphabet activities board, you will be able to fill your centers for every letter of the alphabet. You can find everything you need for ALL of these activities in the Alphabet Activities Bundle.
Save These Alphabet Activities for Later!
Pin these to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can come back when you need ideas for engaging alphabet activities!
