Sample Letter of the Day Activities from A to Z
Teaching Pre-Reading Skills for Kindergarten Readiness
Jan 26, 2009
Preschools and kindergartens know the importance of teaching young children through a Letter of the Day. You can do it at home with your child, if you’re willing to spend ten minutes a night preparing a simple craft or activity focused on a letter of the alphabet.
Guidelines for Creating Letter of the Day Activities
- No child is too young to start with the Letter of the Day; even if the lesson is lost on your child, he or she will enjoy playing with you.
- A Letter of the Day activity doesn’t have to be elaborate to be effective or fun. Limit the amount of time and money you will spend on preparing these crafts; you’ll lose steam and give up halfway through if you’re trying to create complex activities every day.
- Emphasize both upper and lowercase letters in your Letter of the Day activities. Many alphabet books only teach capital letters, but children are mostly exposed to lowercase letters in the real world. Make sure that they can recognize both.
- It’s important to end up with a tangible reminder of the Letter of the Day activity. A simple craft with the upper and lowercase version of the Letter of the Day printed right on it is ideal. Your child can display the craft in their room and should be encouraged to show and explain it to siblings and visitors.
Sample Crafts from A to Z
A – Make and decorate capital letter As out of popsicle sticks and put them on a hanging mobile made from an old coat hanger.
B – Create paper boats and float them in the bathtub (instructions can be found online).
C – Freehand draw and cut out the parts of a cat (head, body, legs, and tail) and help your child put the parts together with brads. Label with the letter C.
D – Cut construction paper into the shape of a door and draw a picture of Daddy in it coming home from work.
E – Color a picture of an elephant together and show your child how to use his index and middle finger to fingerpaint peanuts for the elephant to eat.
F – Make outlines of the hands and feet of everyone in the house, labeling the feet and numbering the fingers.
G – Build a golf course in the living room using cups. Attach homemade flags with the letter G and save them to display later. A yardstick or broom can be used for a golf club.
H – Show your child how to make a newspaper hat and play pretend with it. Save the hat for display.
I – Learn about igloos together. Color a picture of an igloo and use the couch cushions to make a life-sized igloo.
J – Randomly recite letters of the alphabet, and when you say the letter J, your child must jump up and down.
K – Watch videos online of kangaroos jumping, then color a picture of a kangaroo. Hop like kangaroos to their room to hang it up when you’re done.
L – Give your child a brush and some watercolor paints to color in a sheet of letter Ls. Ask for help making lasagna for dinner afterward.
M – Talk about Moses, Martin Luther King Jr., or another important figure starting with M. Color pictures of events from this person’s life and staple them together to make a book.
N – Write "N is for Noodles" above the outlines of a capital and lowercase N, then glue noodles to the Ns.
O – Write a short story that features the letter O a lot and have your child glue Cheerios to all the Os. Or use a toilet paper tube to stamp Os on a sheet of paper.
P – Make a P collage by cutting up an old magazine to find all the letter Ps.
Q – Cut out a big capital Q out of cardboard and decorate it with paint. Once it’s dry, put it on the floor and take turns trying to toss quarters into the middle.
R – Cut out and color a rainbow. At each end, ask your child to create a cloud out of glued-on cotton balls.
S – Decorate a long paper snake together and hang it from the ceiling in your child’s room.
T – Make a train together by cutting an egg carton in half lengthwise, painting it, and sticking a painted toilet paper tube on one end for the smokestack.
U – Print off a worksheet from the Internet tracing the letters U and u. Let your child use whatever marker or pen he wants.
V – Cut some vegetables in half and dab them in paint to stamp shapes on a piece of paper. Good vegetables to use are green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
W – Play a memory game with homemade pictures of W words.
X – Hand your child a piece of paper with a big masking-tape X on it and let her paint the whole sheet. Remove the tape when finished to reveal the X.
Y – Paint glue inside the letters Y and y. Let your child fill them in with yarn.
Z – Cut a picture of a zebra into pieces and put the puzzle together, then color it.
With the above guidelines and sample ideas, you should be able to create great Letter of the Day crafts for your toddler or preschooler. A Letter of the Day activity will be both fun and educational for your child.
Readers might also enjoy "Teaching Alphabet Sounds to Children" and "Teaching Kids to Read 3-Letter Words and Beyond."
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