It is important to stimulate your child and students even before they start going to school. These 61 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.
Learn More: Fun Learning For Kids
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.
Learn More: CCEI Online
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.
Learn More: A Crafty LIVing
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.
Learn More: Happiest Baby
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.
Learn More: Mum’s Little Explorers
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.
Learn More: Mum’s Little Explorers
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.
Learn More: No Time For Flashcards
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.
Learn More: Happy Toddler Playtime
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.
Learn More: The Imagination Tree
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.
Learn More: Happiest Baby
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.
Learn More: Turner Tots
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.
Learn More: Learn Create Love
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.
Learn More: Turner Tots
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.
Learn More: Happiest Baby
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.
Learn More: Early Learning Ideas
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.
Learn More: Proud To Be Primary
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.
Learn More: I Can Teach My Child
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.
Learn More: Chalk Academy
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.
Learn More: Teach Me Mommy
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!
Learn More: Paper And Glue
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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34. Rainbow Salt Writing
This colorful writing activity is the perfect opportunity for learners to practice their writing skills in a new and exciting way! Simply place salt on a colorful tray and challenge your students to copy the words from the cards they’re given.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
35. Lego Sight Words
By writing letters and simple sight words on giant Lego blocks, your students have the chance to practice spelling in a fun way. Task them with spelling out different words and then joining the blocks one on top of the other in order to create sentences.
Learn More: The Printable Princess
36. Feed The Dog
This sight word activity puts a unique spin on learning to read and write. Before feeding a bone to the class dog, they are required to write it out and spell it aloud. When spelling aloud encourages learners to first sound out the letters and then pronounce the letters themselves.
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37. Toss The Balloon
Perfect for entertaining an individual child or an entire classroom! Individual learners can bounce their balloons around- reading the words as they catch the balloon each time. To play in a group, have the students pass the balloon between one another, reading the word facing them as they catch it.
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38. Letter Art
This adorable activity is best suited for learning each letter individually. Students can decorate their letter so that it resembles an animal that begins with the same sound. For example, A can be embellished so that it looks like an alligator.
Learn More: Learn Create Love
39. Easter Egg Speller
These plastic eggs are a great addition to your next literacy lesson. Students gain good practice in the formation of words whilst, at the same time, being exposed to words that rhyme. Hot tip: Keep the eggs and reuse them for sensory bins or Easter and Spring time activities.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
40. Pool Noodle Copy Cat
By threading cut-up pool noodles onto a wooden dowel and writing a few letters around it, students can play a game called spin and spell. They are required to spin the pool noodle and write down the word that appears in front of them.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
41. Beach Ball Letter Learning
This activity provides a revision for both number and letter recognition. Find a beach ball with dots and write the letters of the alphabet as well as numbers on each individual dot. Challenge learners to locate the letters in chronological order before moving on to do the same with the numbers.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
42. Alphabet Hopscotch
Playing hopscotch is always fun! To turn it into a learning game, replace the traditional squares with letters- having your students say the letters as they land on that row.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
43. Letter Lids
Letter lids require students to practice matching lowercase letters to their uppercase counterparts. Make sure that you have two different-sized lids and 26 of each in order to place the lowercase letters inside the bigger uppercase lids.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
44. Finger-painting
Artists of the class will adore this fun finger painting activity. Write out a few letters on a blank piece of paper, ensuring that you leave space on the right-hand side of each. Then equip each of the students with a piece of paper and a tub of paint- instructing them to first trace over your letter and then rewrite it in the space on the right.
Learn More: Raising Dragons
45. Sound Cups
Get your students familiar with what real-life objects begin with which alphabet letters. Simply gather assorted classroom toys for your students to place into pre-prepared plastic cups labeled with different letters. Spice things up by dividing your class into teams before seeing who can sort their objects the fastest.
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46. Mystery Bag
This letter activity is rather simple, but nonetheless fun. Gather 3 objects that begin with the same letter and place them into the mystery bag. One of the students can approach the bag and pull out an object. The rest of the class should be tasked with guessing the letter and what other objects could be lingering inside.
Learn More: Pre-Kinders
47. Letter Sound Cards
This activity requires students to look at the picture, say the word aloud, and then select what letter it begins with. For an extra challenge, have your learners pair up and one can describe the picture to the other without saying what it is. Once their teammate guesses the picture correctly they can then state the beginning letter.
Learn More: Pre-Kinders
48. Letter Tile Mats
The object of this activity is to match a given letter to a picture of an object that begins with it. This game can be played in a calm and non-competitive manner. Alternatively, it can be likened to bingo where the teacher calls out the letters, and the first student to cover their mat correctly wins.
Learn More: Pre-Kinders
49. Four In A Row
This game requires students to partner up. Each receives a different colored marker and should take turns naming an object on the sheet. If named correctly, they can mark it off. The first one to get four in a row wins!
Learn More: The Measured Mom
50. Letter Sounds Race
Letter recognition and letter sounds are revised in a fun way with this letter race activity. It requires that students listen to their teacher as they call out a letter, locate the magnetic letter in a pile on the floor and then run across the room to place it onto the magnetic board.
Learn More: Inspiration Laboratories
51. Backyard Alphabet Hunt
This activity is the perfect way to entertain your students on a sunny day and get them outdoors. Write out a few letters in various columns and have your students search for items that begin with the letter before placing them into the correct column. This activity may require that teachers hide a few items beforehand.
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52. Rhyming Clip Cards
These cards are amazing for emergent readers. The activity requires students to place a clothes peg over the picture along the bottom of the card that rhymes with the main visual and word at the top.
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53. Watercolor Painting
Which preschooler doesn’t love a little bit of water play? This is a great at-home activity through which learners can revise what they have learned at school. Parents can write assorted letters on the sidewalk using chalk and their little ones can trace over them using a paintbrush dipped in water.
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54. Spray The Letter
Not only does this activity encourage letter recognition, but it also helps to develop motor skills! On a sunny day, label plastic cups with different letters. Call them out and have your preschooler spray the correct letter with a hosepipe.
Learn More: Inspiration Laboratories
55. Rhyming Puzzle Pieces
Another great activity for emergent readers is this rhyming egg activity. Students are tasked with scratching through a sensory bin to match two halves of an egg together- ensuring that the two words form a rhyming pair.
Learn More: Play to Learn Preschool
56. Syllable Sorter
This fun literacy activity is perfect for working on oral language development. The aim is for learners to recognize how many syllables are in a given word and be able to place the pictures under the correct number. Encourage your students to clap out the words to aid them in identifying the number of syllables.
Learn More: Play to Learn Preschool
57. Letter Sound Freeze Dance
Not only will this activity get your learners moving, but it will also give them an opportunity to practice their letter recognition. Play a song for your students to dance to and as you pause it, call out a letter. Students should then locate the letter and freeze once standing on it.
Learn More: Meaningful Mama
58. Letter Fishing
This is a wonderful activity for a Summer day. Write the alphabet onto assorted shapes of aquatic animals. Place them into a shallow pool and equip your little ones with a lightweight net. Call out a letter and have them fish it out.
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59. Digging For Letters
Get stuck into the garden with this enjoyable activity. Bury a bunch of letters, preferably plastic so that they can be easily washed off afterward, and have your students dig them out. To ensure that this is a learning activity, upon digging up a letter have your student state the letter and what sound it makes.
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60. Word Kites
This is a learning activity and artwork all in one! Using wet chalk, students can decorate their kite before either writing the letters of their name onto the bows or alternatively writing out a set of rhyming sight words.
Learn More: The Preschool Tool Box Blog
61. Washing The Letter Dishes
This activity keeps your little one occupied in the kitchen whilst you’re busy cooking. It also gives them awesome practice in letter recognition. Write a bunch of letters onto plastic lids and have your child wash them and name the letters as they go. Challenge them by asking them to name a few things that begin with the same letter.
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