It is important to stimulate your child and students even before they start going to school. These 33 literacy activities will help stimulate your child and lay a solid foundation for their future learning. Teaching your preschool students these valuable skills has many benefits, like supporting their cognitive development, improving their language development, supporting their creativity, and aiding their problem-solving skills.
1. Read Aloud
This activity is first on the list because it is probably the most important activity to promote literacy skills. Young children learn a lot by listening to stories, looking at picture books, and associating words on paper with spoken language. Let your child choose their favorite book and cuddle up with them while you improve their reading skills as they make memories.
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2. Kick The Alphabet
A simple yet effective game will have your students know their alphabet in no time. Simply take a few cups and write alphabet letters on them. Tell your student to kick a ball to a certain letter. This fun activity for preschoolers will develop their motor skills as well as their letter recognition skills.
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3. Letter Baskets
Use three or four baskets and label them with one letter each. Find small toys, items, and pictures that begin with the letter on each of the baskets, and have your students sort the items into each basket. This fun game will help students recognize letters as well as determine beginning sounds.
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4. Alphabet Playdough
A preschool teacher can use playdough for just about anything. For this activity, your students can use playdough to roll out and form dough letters. Not only is this good for fine motor skills, but will also help your students with letter names and letter shapes.
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5. Flour and Sprinkle Writing
This fun, sensory activity will help your little ones to form their letters and learn lowercase and uppercase letters. You will need a cookie sheet, sprinkles, alphabet cards, and flour. Give your students a letter card and have them write their letters in flour.
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6. Recite Nursery Rhymes
Nursery rhymes are one of the best ways to engage your emergent readers in phonological awareness. Learning nursery rhymes will help them learn the concept of rhyming, wordplay, and patterns. This collection of nursery rhyme read-alouds and songs will have your students reciting them in no time.
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7. Play I Spy
Playing I Spy is a fun way to help your preschool students learn initial sounds, which is imperative for oral language development and phonological awareness. This activity will also give your child opportunities to learn new words and names for items.
Learn More: CCEI Online
8. Sight Word Blocks
For this fun activity, all you will need is some building blocks and a marker. Write the sight word on a block that has three spots to attach blocks, then write the letters for that sight word on three single blocks and have your students match the letters.
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9. Class Scavenger Hunt
This fun, hands-on activity will have your whole class engaged and learning! For the treasure hunt, print out these free printables of basic household items and let your preschool students start looking for the items and learning the words.
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10. Toss The Balloon
This playful learning activity for children will help them learn sight words while they play and have fun. Simply write three or four sight words on a balloon or beach ball and let the children gently throw it to their friends, and every time they catch it, they have to read the first sight word they see.
Learn More: Happiest Baby
11. Alphabet Picture Game
This is a fun activity that will help your students with letter recognition, and initial sounds, and also allow them to be creative. Simply write the alphabet letters on paper and let your child draw a picture of an animal with that letter that has the same initial sound.
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12. Alphabet Discovery Bottle
For this colorful activity, you will need small, colorful letters in a bottle. Fill the bottle with letters and colorful beads and let your students pick one letter at a time. They have to match the letter beads with the actual letters on their paper.
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13. Mail A Letter
Let each student draw a picture of something that starts with a certain sound. Let them put it in an envelope and write the letter name the picture starts with on the envelope. Use a big cardboard box as a mailbox and let the students mail their letters. Each student then receives their own letter and needs to read it and add a picture to the original.
Learn More: CCEI Online
14. Alphabet Swat Game
This game needs a pair of students, alphabet cards, and a fly swatter. One student will call out letter names, and the other student will swat the correct letter that corresponds to the one being called out.
Learn More: Happiest Baby
15. Icy Letters
This icy cold activity is as exciting as it is educational. It is a great activity for your tactile learners and will intrigue even the most reluctant learner. Find some alphabet magnetic letters and small objects. Place them in an ice cube tray and freeze. Let your preschoolers play with the ice cubes and name the letter once it is defrosted.
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16. Alphabet Matching Game
For this fun activity, you will need a cupcake tin, cupcake liners, beans, and markers. Write the letters of the alphabet on the beans and a letter on each cupcake liner. Students have to pick through the beans and sort them in the right cupcake liner.
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17. Magic Letters
This activity will make your students feel like magicians. Simply write a word with a white crayon on white cardstock and let your students use colorful crayons or water paint to go over the word and reveal the word.
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18. Cloud Writing
This fun activity will engage your tactile learners all the more. Simply place some shaving cream on a cookie sheet and give your students an alphabet card with the correct letter formation directions on it.
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19. Letter Animals
These fun crafts will help your students learn letter names and how they are formed. This website has a letter craft for each letter of the alphabet, to keep your students engaged throughout their language learning journey.
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20. Letter Match Game
This match game is the perfect accompaniment to your weather theme. A fun way to learn letter formations and practice letter recognition skills.
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21. Alphabet Poems
Poems and rhymes are a great way to introduce children to letters and literacy. These fun poems will help your students recognize letter names and sounds, as well as recognize rhymes and patterns.
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22. Name Puzzles
Learning how to write their name is one of the first steps in early literacy. Create a name puzzle for your students by writing the letters of their names on the top of bottle caps or other objects and let the students arrange the letters in the right order.
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23. Letter Search
Doing letter searches is not only good for letter recognition skills, but also for problem-solving skills! These printable sheets with letter searches can be completed using crayons.
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24. Sensory Tray Writing
Grab some brown playdough and little rocks of the same size, and let your students make their letters in the playdough dirt! This is a fun, hands-on activity that will make sure your students stay engaged.
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25. Rhyming Locks
Rhyming is a very important part of literacy and phonological awareness. This fascinating activity will help your child develop essential rhyming skills while having fun! Simply put a picture on the lock and a picture of something that rhymes with what is on the lock on the matching key. Mix the locks and keys and let your students match the rhyming words!
Learn More: No Time For Flashcards
26. Feed The Alphabet Monster
This funny activity will keep your child engaged for hours! Simply write the letter names on bottle caps and get a container to put them in. Make a funny face on the container and start the fun! You can adjust this activity any way you wish.
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27. Sight Word Soccer
This gross motor activity will help your preschoolers practice their sight words while getting a fun workout! Simply write a few sight words on cardstock and tape them to cones. Call out a sight word and let your students kick a ball to the right cone.
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28. Alphabet Rolling Game
Letter recognition is a very important skill to master. You can create this game to simply match letters, or to match uppercase with lowercase letters. Simply make a big die with a box and write a letter on each side of the box. Write the 6 corresponding letters on paper.
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29. Paper Plate Spinner
Time to put those fidget spinners to good use! Take a paper plate, write the alphabet around the edges, and place a fidget spinner with an arrow in the middle of the plate. The possibilities of this game are endless.
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30. Alphabet Pop-Its
This activity will be loved by all. Write the alphabet on the pop-it and call out letters. Your students have to 'pop' the correct letter, or place an item or sticker on it.
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31. Alphabet Books
Work with your students to create these alphabet books to help them associate words and pictures with the correct letters.
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32. Alphabet Train Tracks
When arranging the alphabet letters, why not arrange them while building a train track? Write the alphabet on the tracks and have your students put it in the correct order!
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33. Rainbow Salt Writing
This colorful activity can be used in many different ways. Your students can write their names, sight words, or letters in the rainbow salt and watch the colors come alive as they write.
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