I’m showing you some fun and easy ways to start learning letters with your kids. These ideas are progressive and can increase skill level as you go. Also included are ideas for teaching early phonics and working on early word building.
To make this a little easier, I am going to start with activities for the youngest and build up from there. Also, if you have a sensory-sensitive child like mine some of these, especially the first one, you might want to let them touch and explore first.
Do what you think/feel works best for your child and it will all work out. See what works and continue on with your child. You get to decide what is working for your child or not and can switch gears and try something new. Be flexible, do what you feel is most appropriate for your child.
For this first one, I actually reached out to Educational Insights for their Playfoam Alphabet. It’s that great play foam that has a fun ASMR aspect of crackle and pops when squeezed. Doesn’t really have that wet or overall sticky feel that some of our sensory-sensitive might want to avoid (like slime) and the best part, doesn’t seem to ever really dry out. Like I said above you still may want your child to explore the foam first if you think they might be sensitive.
But I love this kit. It’s the basic letter starters, capitalization. Each card turns the letter into a picture with the tie-in letter word. For example in the image above the Z is Zebra and the X is Xylophone.
Use the foam to replicate the letters on the card and build up that sight recognition. Build it up by working on multiple letters or focus on letter sounds. There are a lot of ways to make this learning play. Has a fun sensory component and can be done over and over again.
This one is the next step up after your kids have worked on basic letter recognition and mastered that skill this set from Learning Resources, “Skill Builders!” is recommended for 3 and up, and also seems to be the most comprehensive kit. You may have some of these things in the kit already that you can pull together or you can order this and have it all already together.
There is so much you can do with this kit. Lower and uppercase letters are all in rainbow colors. If you are just starting, once again start with the capital letters. The letters in this set are also beads and it comes with lacing strings for the letters. You can build in lacing for fine motor skills while working on words at the same time. They can work on alphabetical order or spelling while stringing letters together.
Don’t make it overwhelming, place only a few letters in front of them to pick from at a time, to help guide the spelling or sequencing. Build up by adding more letters and lower case letters. You can make another activity by matching up upper and lowercase as well.
This kit also comes with a color spinner. So they or you can spin and pick up a letter of that color, picking up and identifying or making the letter sounds. Or spin to see what color you will put on your lacing next.
Another piece of this kit is the cards. I really love these double-sided tracing cards! One side with a picture to tie in with the other side’s letter. Some say to hold off on the writing, so kids want to jump into the writing step. These cards are for that step, dry-erase marker tracing to reuse over and over again. The only thing with the cards is there isn’t a directional, so it’s not necessarily for learning letter writing, but still helps with letter recognition, shape, and pen control. Use for pre-writing skills instead of actual writing lessons.
You can also use these cards for matching with the letter beads.
Letter Resources’ kit also includes worksheets! This kit really has it all. They really just took a couple of materials and just really understood how it all could be used together or apart for lots of learning options.
This one I wanted to include although it’s not focusing on letters, but it’s the next step up, word building. You can still use the Beginning Word Builder for letter recognition or sounds but also build with sound blending and word spelling. Model it and over time you will hear them blend smoother and faster, even if the letters spin into a nonsense word. You can clarify that “isn’t a word” later.
Cards are also in the kit, to place on top and work on lining up for letter recognition. Or working on its own to dry-erase to complete words.
It’s all very progressive and builds.
MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
- Educational Insights Playfoam Alphabet
- Educational Insights Playfoam Alphabet
- Learning Resources Skill Builders Preschool Letters
- Hand2Mind Beginning Word Builder
Disclaimer: The products featured in this video were purchased by myself or sent to me for review for free. Some videos may be sponsored by brands that I enjoy. Make sure to *ALWAYS* use discretion when deciding on age-appropriate activities and supervise your children.
MUSIC: courtesy of Soundstripe.
