Is your preschooler ready to learn the alphabet? If so, this post is for you! Jam-packed with letter recognition activities designed to help you teach the alphabet, this post contains enough fun to keep your child busy for months!
Read on to discover more about this valuable pre-reading skill for young children, or scroll down to download eight of our free, top-quality letter recognition activities.
Letter recognition—also known as alphabet recognition—is the ability to:
If your child already knows “The Alphabet Song,” that is a great start! But there is more to letter recognition than being able to sing the ABCs. You want your child to be able to pick out the individual letters and name them, and that’s where the downloadable activities that follow really shine.
Children who know the names of the letters have three major advantages:
So you know that teaching the letter names is important, but now you may be wondering…
Developmentally, it will be easier for your child to learn capital letters first. That’s because the visual form of the capital letters is more distinct. Take a look at this row of capital letters:
The only letters that could be flipped and mistaken for another letter are M/W.
Now take a look at this row of lowercase letters:
With the lowercase letters, there are several pairs of letters that could be flipped.
So that’s why I recommend starting with the “easier” uppercase letters.
But what about the fact that most text is composed of lowercase letters? After all, this sentence has 57 letters, and only one of them is uppercase. Doesn’t it stand to reason that kids should learn the lowercase letters first?
The fact is that your child will learn all of the letters–uppercase and lowercase–before he learns to read. So why not start with the letter form that is easiest to learn?
Honestly though, it isn’t critical. If you want to teach lowercase letters first, that is fine. Just be aware that some kids do mix up those letters mentioned above. (And here’s help if your child already reverses similar letters such as “b” and “d”.) The most important thing is that your child has an enjoyable introduction to the alphabet, and that she can recognize the letters with confidence.
Now let’s dig in to the fun stuff!
Creating the Alphabet with Building Blocks
Creating the alphabet with colorful bricks is a fun way for preschoolers to become more familiar with letters and enjoy a favorite playtime activity—building!
ABC Playdough Mats
Crafting letters out of playdough allows children to feel the alphabet as they roll and bend the dough to form the letters. Your child may not even realize he’s learning!
ABC Caterpillar
As your child inches his way through the alphabet with this colorful caterpillar, he’ll get plenty of hands-on alphabet play, including putting letters in alphabetical order.
ABC Bracelets
Your little one will admire her “letter of the day” every time she glances at her wrist. And tomorrow she’ll get a brand new bracelet to “show off” to family and friends!
Tactile Letter Cards
Children learn about the world around them through their senses. Our tactile letter cards let children use their sense of touch to learn about uppercase and lowercase letters.
Make Your Own Fabric Alphabet
Playing with the alphabet is a great way to help your preschooler get ready to read. This easy-to-make, soft, and colorful alphabet turns learning letters into a tactile activity.
“Feed the Puppy” Alphabet Game
Our “Feed the Puppy” Alphabet Game lets kids practice the names of the letters in a super-fun way. After all, who doesn’t love learning with a cute puppy?
Alphabet Picture Books
Alphabet picture books are the perfect way to increase letter knowledge. No crafty mess required! All you need are books, a comfy couch, and a cuddly preschooler.
These activities will give your child hours and hours of fun while helping prepare him for formal reading instruction.
When you are teaching letters to your child, make sure that you get to the end of the alphabet. This may seem obvious, but all too often, young children don’t master the last several letters. Be sure that your child knows U, V, and W as well as he knows A, B, and C!
To help you keep track of which letters have been learned, you can download this great little alphabet progress chart. Post it on your fridge or playroom wall.
Did you know that there are five skills that your child should master before beginning formal reading instruction? We call them the “Big Five Skills” and these skills lay the foundation for learning to read. In fact, they’re so important that we cover all of them in the All About Reading Pre-reading program.
If you’re ready to tackle the rest of the Big Five Skills, be sure to check out the All About Reading Pre-reading program. Your student will enjoy special games, crafts, and story time read-alouds, and you will love the way your student effortlessly learns essential pre-reading skills.
Which of these letter recognition activities are you going to try out first? Let me know in the comments below!
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1. Mason, Jana M. (1980). When do children begin to read: an exploration of our year-old children’s letter and word reading competencies. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 203-227.
2. Bond , Guy L., and Dykstra, Robert (1967). The cooperative research program in first-grade reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 5-142.
3. Chall, Jeanne S. (1967). Learning to read: The great debate. New York: McGraw-Hill.
4. Chomsky, Carol (1979). Approaching reading through invented spelling. In L. B. Resnick and P. A. Weaver (eds.), Theory and practice of early reading, vol. 2, 43-65. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates.
5. Mason, Jana M. (1980). When do children begin to read: an exploration of our year-old children’s letter and word reading competencies. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 203-227.
6. Read, Charles (1971). Preschool children’s knowledge of English phonology. Harvard Educational Review, 41, 1-34.
Ashley Metcalf
says:Wonderful information!!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Ashley!
gloria
says:I love the activities.
Thank you so much.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou are so welcome, Gloria!
Stormi Miron
says:My oldest has the letters down pretty well, but the sounds is where we struggle. My youngest is struggling with letter names though, so this is going to come in handy! Thank you!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this will be helpful for you, Stormi! We have a free Letter Sounds from A to Z app that may be helpful with your oldest learning the first sound of each letter. And our How to Teach Phonograms blog post has printable games and activities you can play for practicing the sounds.
Jennifer
says:What a great resource with wonderful tips! Thanks so much.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceYou are so welcome, Jennifer!
Kaitlyn
says:Greatly appreciate All About Learning’s blog posts! Always full of helpful advice and tips.
Nicki
says:I never realized how many lower case letters could be flipped. I can totally see why upper case is easier to start with now.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceNicki,
Yes! I think we are so comfortable with letters that we forget how confusing they can be to someone that is brand new to them.
Randi Slaughter
says:I use AAR with my 6 & 8 year olds but I am excited to use these activities with my 3 year old as I become more intentional about letter introduction.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this will be helpful for you with your 3-year-old, Randi!
Amy von Kuhn
says:We love ALL ABOUT READING! Have one in Level 2 and one in Level 3. We only wish we had found it sooner and that it was a little less expensive.
Paulos russom
says:I liketo teach my child
Robin
says: Customer ServiceIt is wonderful to teach your own child, Paulos! I hope you find our site helpful. Let me know if you have questions or need anything specific.
Emily
says:This is so cool!
Robin
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Emily!
Ladonna Mcdowell
says:Thank you for this information! I printed the progress chart just to see what letters my 3 yr old already know.
Very Helpful for me and my family.
Robin
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this will be helpful for you and your family, Ladonna! You’re welcome.
Kayla A
says:We printed the progress chart! Almost ready to mark off letter A :)
Robin
says: Customer ServiceGreat, Kayla! Tracking progress is so motivating for many students.
Brittany
says:Hi!
My son is newly 7 and struggling with letter recognition. He knows the ABC song and when I ask him what a certain letter is, he mentally sings the song and then is able to tell me the name of the letter. Is this a sign of dyslexia? What are ways I can help him? Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated! (We are working through the Pre-Reading activities/books.)
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m sorry to hear your son is struggling with this, Brittany.
First, you may find our Symptoms of Dyslexia Checklist and free reports on our Dyslexia Resources page helpful as you learn more about dyslexia.
Second, it is very important that you work on reading (learning letters, Pre-reading) each day. You are likely already doing this, but it’s crucial enough to mention it. When children struggle to remember what they learn, any missed days make that much, much worse. We recommend working 20 minutes a day five days a week, but if you can’t do 20 minutes on a particular day for some reason, do at least a few minutes of review.
The lessons in the Pre-reading Level should not be one per day for most children. Some spend 2-3 days on each, and others will even work on a letter per week. Take it at the pace your child needs to master the letters. The optional activities in the appendix give you a few additional ways to work on letter recognition.
Let me know if you have tried this:
Work on one letter for as long as it takes for him to master that one letter. You could do alphabetical order, or you could start with the first letter of his name. Do activities focused on that letter. Check out the many free Letter Learning activity downloads we have on our blog. (We keep a long list of additional ideas as well. Let me know if you would like them.)
Write the letter in Salt Trays or other stuff like shaving cream, paint, chalk on the sidewalk, whatever. Send him on a search in favorite books for that one letter.
Do all of this and more for days on end, until he can write the letter without having to see it or be told how it looks. Until he can find the letter easily in a page of writing. Until he can name the letter without hesitation when you point to it.
Only then start learning a second letter. Review the previous letter daily. Sing the ABC song and cue him to sing the letter names for the previous letter and for the new one, helping as much as he needs. Have him form the new letter in dough or write it on the window or whatever multiple times a day, but also have him write the previous letter a couple of times. Again, keep working on the letter until he can write it and find and name it easily, but always reviewing the previous one daily.
Do this for each new letter, taking as much time to master each letter, and reviewing all the previous letters daily. In time, some of the previous letters will get really easy. As you near the end of the alphabet, you can try not reviewing every letter every day. But be sure to review every letter at least a couple times a week. At any time if he has difficulty with a letter, it should go back into daily review for at least a week, preferably two.
This slow incremental, mastery-based approach is highly effective.
I’d love to hear how it goes. Just know that your son isn’t unique in this struggle. My son had the same problems. He finally mastered the alphabet and your son will too!
Renate
says:This is VERY IMPRESSIVE!!! Thank you for sharing all of your resources.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAwww, thank you, Renate!
Dee Anne
says:We are currently using the AAR Pre-Reading program, and we love it. But my daughter recently turned 6, and she is still not able to recognize the majority of the alphabet…upper or lower case letters. We are a family of dyslexics so I am not surprised. We are currently almost through the lowercase letters in the program. My question is whether I should continue on through the program learning the sounds that the letters make or should I slow down and work primarily on letter recognition using some of the activities suggested in this blog post? Then continue learning the letter sounds? Thank you for your help!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceDee Anne,
I’m sorry your daughter is having difficulty with letter learning. You could approach it in one of three ways.
1. You could just continue through the rest of the lessons, allowing her to have fun, and just plan to restart it again when you finish.
2. You could go ahead with the letter sounds, but spend as much time with each letter so that she has the letter names and sounds mastered before moving on, but every day review all the previously learned letters as well.
3. You could stop where you are at and restart from the beginning.
Whichever you choose, work on one letter at a time for as long as necessary for your child to master that letter. This could be a letter a day, especially at first (when you are only asking her to have mastered A and B it’s pretty easy), but could be a week or so as she progresses.
When she can both point to the letter when you say the name (and sound in the later lessons) and can give the name (and sound) when you point to it, then move on to the next letter. But every day review the previous letters, and mix up the review so she knows them out of order.
It is vitally important with students that struggle that you work on this five days a week. We recommend just short lessons each day, no more than 20 minutes, but it needs to be daily during the week. Ongoing review is necessary to move things from short-term memory into long-term memory.
I hope this helps give you an idea of how to proceed, but please let me know if you have additional questions or need more help. I’m happy to help as much as you need!
Dee Anne
says:This is very helpful. Thank you!
Steve
says:I am really excited about each one. I am starting with building blocks and play dough, and incorporating the bracelets as we go. I will also encourage each kiddo to find items in my room that start with the letter on their bracelet. We have a snow day today so it is perfect timing for me to get this all ready! Thank you so much!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Steve. I hope you and your students have lots of fun and learning with these activities!
Sheridan Shenton
says:I can’t wait for my pre-reading program to arrive.
I was very interested to hear what you said about learning the alphabet names and capitals first. Interesting 🤔
GiGi will love the feed the puppy game, loves anything to do with nature.
Many thanks
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, Sheridan. I hope your little one enjoys the Pre-reading Level!
Lhynzie
says:Excellent content! Thank you for sharing this very informative and useful article. Looking forward to the latest one.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Lhynzie!
Janice Wurm
says:A great resource. Want to make fabric Alphabet and stumbled on to this. Exactly what i was looking for.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m glad this will be helpful for you, Janice.
jamie
says:Thanks so much for the post. Can you tell me which alphabet you use in the program? My class has begun writing their names with an uppercase first letter and then lowercase letters. I want to send home the accurate name for parents to reference if they want to work at home as well. Thanks!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceJamie,
The letters in the Pre-reading Level were done by artists and graphic designers. However, I have found that the Comic Sans font, which is pretty much available on every computer, is very similar and a nice, simplified font for children just learning to write letters.
Hafsat
says:The printables and activities are really really helpful.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceWonderful, Hafsat!
Debbie
says:I teach 4 and 5 year olds in Prek. We are struggling with ours letter recognition skills this year!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI hope you find the many printables and activities on this blog post helpful for your students, Debbie.
Tammie
says:I really need help with my five year whose about to turn six with letters sounds and words. She’s in kindergarten
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceTammie,
I think you may find our How to Teach Phonograms blog post helpful. It goes over how to teach the phonograms (starting with letter sounds) and includes a few printable games for making the review fun! The Helping Kids Sound Out Words article will be informative as well.
However, for a more step-by-step easy to teach method, take a look at All About Reading. You’ll find a helpful video there if you just scroll down a bit.
Let me know if you have questions or need anything else.
Amber qamar
says:Thank u so much for such a treasure.Be blessed.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re so welcome, Amber!
Opoku Agyemang Prince
says:Using the alphabet building block
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceAre you using the Creating the Alphabet with Building Blocks activity, Opoku? I hope your child or children enjoy it!
jossie
says:please i need help for my 5 year girl for words letters
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI’m sorry your little girl is having difficulties, Jossie. Have you seen our Top 10 Activities for Letter Knowledge blog post? Also our How to Teach Phonograms and Helping Kids Sound Out Words blog posts well be helpful as well.
Tiffany
says:My 3 year old has started yelling random letters when he sees words, so I think he’d love some of these activities! His big brother and sister LOVE All About Reading Level 1.
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceI love that your little is so excited about letters that he yells them out, Tiffany! Yes, I do think these activities would please him. It’s great to hear that All About Reading level 1 is working out well for your older children!
JoAnna
says:Fun ideas! My boys have enjoyed the ABC Building Blocks activity. Thank you!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceYou’re welcome, JoAnna! Thank you for letting us know your boys have enjoyed the building blocks activity!
Glenda
says:I can’t wait to start the Alphabet Bracelet ! That is the greatest. My 4y/o grand daughter loves to wear jewelry. We finished up Homeschool for the year today. So we will take a week off and due to COVID, we will start with just Reading, Math – & Spelling for my 9 y/o Grandson after that. We never stop reading, but we won’t focus on teaching it next week! LOL!
I am also eager to try that hungry little puppy and those tactile letters! All sound terrific!
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceSounds wonderful, Glenda!
Emily
says:My son enjoys games, so I think he would enjoy the feed the puppy game.
Benzile Mbethe
says:Wonderful website with very useful resources. Thank you
Robin E.
says: Customer ServiceThank you, Benzile! I’m pleased you have found the resources useful.