Make Learning the ABCs Fun

 

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Looking for fun alphabet activities? I’ve got you covered.

Teaching preschoolers the alphabet is fun. You read that right: fun. It’s fun to introduce letters to them, it’s fun to get the excited about a future in reading, it’s fun to help them start unlocking the world of literacy all around them. But how do you do this? With fun alphabet activities that’s how.

The alphabet should never be taught to preschoolers in a drill and kill, memorized setting. There’s nothing fun about that and it takes away all the play. Play is how our preschoolers learn so play-based alphabet activities are everything.

Fun alphabet activities are easy to set up

Play-based alphabet learning doesn’t need to be complicated. Keep it light, keep it simple, and most of all keep it fun. Here some fun alphabet activities using three of my son’s favorite toys:

• Sweet Treats! Letter Molds
• Alpha-Sketch Light-Up Center
• Draw & Learn Studio

Alphabet Ice Smash

What’s more fun that using a tiny hammer to smash the letter M? Not a whole lot. This alphabet activity is a riot, and crazy easy to set up.

First, I took our Sweet Treats! Letter Molds and filled them with colored water. Little tip: fill each letter about 2/3 of the way full. Makes it a lot easier to move them to the freezer. I did this step before bed and the letters were frozen by morning.

It was so easy to pop the letters out of the molds and into our storage container/sensory bin.

Then I added in some tiny toy hammers and….viola: a fun alphabet activity way cooler than a worksheet.

Melt the Alphabet

For a fun twist with these frozen letters, you can also play Melt the Alphabet.

Inside the storage container, I added a second container of warm water. Using tongs and tiny turkey basters, those frozen letters didn’t stand a chance.

About half way through, I dumped the now very cold water and added a fresh bin of warm water back into the equation. What a fun way to play with the alphabet, learn some science, and practice fine motor skills.

Alpha-Sketch Light-Up Center

Here’s an absolutely amazing way for preschoolers to practice the alphabet AND their handwriting.

This toy is everything to my son – I wish I could convey in print how much he loves this activity. He loves tracing the animals, tracing the letters, and coloring them all in.

It’s his favorite toy and he’s worked through all 13 sheets many many many times. It just doesn’t get old!

 

Matching Letter Magnets

This easy activity is always a hit: matching magnets to corresponding letters. On our Draw & Learn Studio, I printed all capital letters and in random order.

My preschooler needed to match the magnets to the letters. Not such an easy task when matching upper case and lower case letters, and in random order.

This fun alphabet activity lets my son play and interact with the alphabet – way more fun than memorizing flash cards.

Building Words with Magnets

Now that my alphabet loving son is starting to recognize words, we used the Draw & Learn Studio to begin building familiar words: names in our family.

It’s another magnet-letter matching activity, but the twist of building actual words that he can read made this an alphabet activity he was so proud of.

Fun alphabet activities are easy to do!

It’s easy to awesome play-based alphabet activities you just have to have the right toys to make that possible. I always find the best toys for playing and learning at Lakeshore. These items – part of Lakeshore’s Gifts for Growing Minds Holiday Gift Guide – make for amazing gifts for toddlers.

Looking to grab some alphabet toys? Use this 20% off coupon from Lakeshore Learning! To learn more about Lakeshore, find them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.