Reading activities, books and printables for young learners

They will need to memorize four sets of letters.  Initially they will learn uppercase manuscript and lowercase manuscript.  Later, they will also learn upper case cursive and lowercase cursive.

Children will need to notice the differences amongst similar-looking letters ( for example E+ F,  d+b,  m+n,  M+W)

Children will also need to understand that there may be more than one symbol for a letter (i.e. g)

Child is hears letter names (for example, when singing the alphabet song or hearing an alphabet book read by an adult)

Child recognizes his or her name in print (for example, a child finds his name and then hangs his coat up on a hook)

Child learns most letter names (perhaps beginning with the letters in her own name)

Child recognizes the shapes and sounds of letters

Child learns about the differences and similarities amongst letters

Child begins to print her name and practices letter-writing

Sort letters -  are they made of straight lines, curvy lines, or a mix? Only straight, only curvy, a mix of straight and curvy. Have a dot/don’t have a dot

Search through a newspaper ad for a particular letter – ads with big, bold letters are best (draw a circle around letter you are seeking or, draw lines from a to b, b to c, etc.)

License Plate Letter Hunt - when you’re in a car or walking along a street, look for a particular letter or, have a competition and see who can find the most letters.  Don’t forget to check out license plates, signage, and people’s clothing,

Touchy- Feely – place five or six wooden or magnetic (3 dimensional) letters in a paper bag.  Have your child reach into the bag and pull out a particular letter.  You can greatly increase the value of this game by talking about the letter shapes and coaching your child to notice similarities and differences.

Gross motor – alphabet recognition can (and should!) involve the whole body.  Encourage your child to use masking tape to make a huge letter or word on the floor.

Use Sidewalk Chalk to create a path of letters along a sidewalk or driveway or put letters into a HopScotch game and name the letters before you hop!

Make letter shapes using pipe cleaners, string, tongue depressors or building bricks.

Kim’s Game: Spread a mix of plastic letters and/or alphabet blocks on a tray. Blindfold your child. Take one letter away.  Ask your child to figure out which letter is missing.

Magnetic Letters - Apart from using these on a refrigerator door, they can also be fun on a cookie sheet (in the car).  All the previously mentioned sorting activities can be used.  As well, your child can find the letters to spell his name, find the letters to spell familiar words or find the letters to match a license plate on the car ahead of you.

Have a bowl of alphabet soup, pasta or cereal.  Talk about it.

Make the alphabet a tactile experience.  Draw letter shapes in shaving cream, sand, cornmeal or mud.  Get dirty!

Do Dot-to-Dot Puzzles

Alphabet Singalong – Many alphabet books include a one or two page alphabet on the inside front cover.  Sing the alphabet song and point to each letter as you sing the letter names.  Talk about the fact that L M N O P = five letters!

Create your very own Alphabet Game Board.  This is very easy to do especially as alphabet stickers are widely available. Create your own path and put an alphabet sticker in each ‘space’.  Add a couple of ‘go ahead 2 spaces’, ‘go back 2 spaces’ and ‘miss a turns.’ Use a die plus one marker for each player.  Older players can be asked to say the letter sound.  Younger players are asked to say the letter name only.  Still older children are asked to say a word that begins with the letter or a noun/verb/adjective/adverb that begins with the letter.

Computer Font Fun – Use your computer word processor to create game cards.  Print four versions of five or six letters.  Use a variety of wild fonts.  Have your child sort the game cards, matching the letters.

Make an alphabet collage and play I Spy – cut out bright, bold, colourful letters and glue to a piece of cardstock.  Play, ‘I Spy a blue letter that is very curvy.’