Alphabet-Preschool Themes, Crafts and Activities

Alphabet Crafts and Activities

Teach your preschool child the alphabet with these crafts and activities.

26 Letters of the Alphabet on the Wall

Young students love to sing! While singing this tune, the students will learn to count to 26 and learn the alphabet.

Making the playing board will be your first task. Make 26 large letter cards with bright colored construction paper in the shape of the individual letters of the alphabet. Hang or tape each letter card on a display board or wall. The students can then take them down as they progress through the song.

Together, the class will sing the following tune: “There are 26 letters in the alphabet…. 26 letters in all….. take the “A” down and pass it around…. There’s 25 letters in the alphabet!” While the tune is being sung, the first student goes to the board and takes down the letter “A” and hands it to another student to pass around the class. The turn is then passed to a second student. Keeping with the tune, the class will sing the song to reflect only 25 letters and taking down the letter “B” and ending up with only 24 letters in the alphabet. Again, the second student goes to the board and removes the “B”, and passes it around. This activity continues through until all 26 letters of the alphabet have been passed around the room.

Go Letters

Teaching young students the alphabet can be trying at times. By putting a new twist on an old favorite it can make this necessary activity fun and enjoyable.

The first thing to do is make a deck of cards. Assign each student a selected letter of the alphabet. Using pre-cut squares of construction paper have each student make five cards. With a crayon they can correctly write their assigned letter on each card. Depending on the size of the class, you may have to assign additional letters or make cards yourself. This will assure there are enough cards to go around.

Once the cards are prepared collect all the cards and place them in a paper sack. Shake the sack to “shuffle” the deck making sure they are well mixed. Place the students in a circle and deal the cards, giving each three cards to start the game. The remainder of the cards will remain in the sack. The key to the game is to match like items together to make pairs.

The first student will ask another student if they have a letter that matches one in their own hand. If the second student has it, they must give it to the first student. If they do not, the first student must draw one card out of the sack. Once a student has a matched pair of letters they lay them down face up. This continues around the circle until everyone gets a turn. If a student is left with no cards on their turn they request a random letter. The game continues until all the cards are paired. The winner of the game is the student that ends with the most matched pairs.

Sandpaper Letters

Cut large letters out of sandpaper. The textures are very helpful for learning.

Play-Doh Letters

Help your child form each letter of the alphabet out of play-doh.

Crafts by Letter:

Recommended Preschool Alphabet Books

	The Alphabet Room by Sara Pinto Starting with the simplest images-apples for A, bowls for B, cat for C-Sara Pinto has taken a magical leap in the concept of alphabet books. Each letter has a door, and behind each door the objects arrange and rearrange themselves so that with every letter the picture becomes more complex. Letter by letter, magical scenes unfold inside the room. With gentle humor and charming design, this lift-the-flap alphabet book transcends the genre to offer something truly unique.
	Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Jr, Bill Martin, John Archambault, Lois Ehlert In this bright and lively rhyme, the letters of the alphabet race each other to the top of the coconut tree. When X, Y and Z finally scramble up the trunk, however, the weight is too much, and down they all tumble in a colorful chaotic heap: "Chicka Chicka . . . BOOM! BOOM!" All the family members race to help, as one by one the letters recover in amusingly battered fashion. Poor stubbed toe E has a swollen appendage, while F sports a jaunty Band-Aid and P is indeed black-eyed. As the tropic sun goes down and a radiant full moon appears, indomitable A leaps out of bed, double-daring his colleagues to another treetop race.
	Alphabet City by Stephen T. Johnson Beginning with the A formed by a construction site's sawhorse and ending with the Z found in the angle of a fire escape, Johnson draws viewers' eyes to tiny details within everyday objects to find letters. In this wordless tour of sights from Times Square to the Brooklyn Bridge, he invites young and old alike to take a new look at familiar surroundings, discovering the alphabet without ever looking in a book or reading from a sign.