Teaching letters and sounds is more simple than people might think. At first it might feel overwhelming, but as you keep the basic concepts of learning through play in mind, you and your little ones will thrive in learning letters, sounds and beginning to read through play! There are endless of activities to do with letters and sounds, but here are a few of our favorites.
Foil Letters
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, simply wrapping up some of your alphabet puzzle letters in foil is one of the best activities ever! Each time they open up a foil letter it’s as if they are unwrapping a present! They love the surprise of seeing what letter they will get. Once they discover the letter I ask them what the name and sound of the letter is. We then give examples of some things that begin with that particular letter. (Tip: add the lower case letters on your upper case puzzle so they are associating those as well!)
The Modern Cloth Reusable Coloring Mat
If you haven’t heard of The Modern Cloth Company it’s time you start! This reusable coloring cloth can be colored on with markers and crayons then thrown in the washing machine and it comes totally clean! (Also Fun Fact: I designed their Dinosaur cloth!) We used their “Car Cloth” with all of the letters of the alphabet to help us continue learning letters and sounds. I threw in some of our felt letters from Happy Oak Toys in a bag. The girls took turns closing their eyes and picking out a letter from the bag. Once they got their letter they said the name and sound, then found the letter on our Modern Cloth and got to color the picture that went with that particular letter! They we so excited to see which picture they got to color, and we did this activity 1.2 million times (not really, but it was a lot! haha)
Shark and Fish Sensory
Using our fish and shark printable, we added in our blue dyed ice cream salt and had fun searching for letters to spell different words! As my 3 year old simply grabbed letters and said the same and sound, my 5 year old started finding and spelling words! Included in the printable are blank fish so you could also write site words on your fish if desired!
Miscellaneous Items Game
We gathered random items throughout the house that started with each letter. I even included some items that had blending sounds for my 5 year old such as shoe and chair. Then we placed these items in a bag and they took turns drawing a miscellaneous item from our bag! After receiving the item they had to think of the sound that that particular item started with and find its associating letter! They had so much fun with this one, and it’s such a simply on to put together!
Kinetic Sand and Wooden Letters
It turns out that kinetic sand and wooden letters make for a great activity! We used the wooden letters from our letter puzzle and made impressions in the kinetic sand! My girls loved spelling words and using our favorite $10 stamp cookie cutters in the kinetic sand as well!
Teaching letters and sounds can be simple. Whether gathering miscellaneous objects around your house, throwing your letters into a sensory activity, matching upper and lower case letters, creating letter salt dough imprints or whatever other creative activity you have in mind, it doesn’t have to be elaborate. As long as you are having conversations that help further development, and having fun with letters through play, they will begin to not only understand the names and sounds of the letters, but they will recognize how they look and will begin writing all on their own! More letter printables to come! Stay tuned and make sure you’re subscribed below to get them for FREE! Have fun playing!
