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How Do You Teach Kids Letters? Five Fun Activities

Dr. Seuss books are wonderful for early literacy, and learning letters is the first step to literacy! But how do you teach kids letters? Here are five fun activities that teach children the letters of the alphabet through play.

playful ways to teach kids letters

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This weeks’ theme for the Virtual Book Club for Kids is Dr. Seuss. Dr. Seuss books are a fun way to introduce children to letters, so I thought this was the perfect week to talk about fun ways to teach kids letters through play.

Children are born learners, but all too often we over-structure their activities to the point where they are no longer able to learn as they will best. Every child learns differently, and different children gain different skills at different speeds. The simple letter learning activities I am sharing today make it so that you can teach kids letters through play. Play is the way children learn best!

Five Fun Ways to Teach Kids Letters Through Play

Teach kids letters through play - 5 simple ideas.

#1 Teach Kids Letters by Reading Out Loud!

Reading aloud to children gets them curious about letters and how they work. Looking for a good book to read to your kids? Try his list of read-aloud books your kids will love.

Dr. Seuss books are quick and easy read-alouds. Here are some of our favorites:

Which Dr. Seuss book is your favorite?

#2 Give Children Toys that Encourage Them to Explore Letters

My four-year-old daughter loves the letter construction kit that I featured in the photos for this post. Here are a couple of other fun letter learning toys for kids:

#3 Write as a Family

Write with your children, and make sure they see you writing! You are never too young to keep a journal!

#4 Play with Words

Words should be fun for kids! Dr. Seuss was the king of playing with words. Alphabet picture books are some of our favorite ways to play with words. Here are few of our favorite alphabet books:

#5 Use Sensory Play to Explore Letters

As children grow older, use sensory play to explore letters. The toys I mentioned above work really well for this purpose. You can also try these activities:

More Dr. Seuss Learning Activities for Kids

More Fun Learning Activities for Kids

For parents looking for playful activities that are clearly educational, this book is a great resource:

This book is an incredible resource for parents and educators looking for tools to develop literacy and math through play.

If you are looking for a home preschool curriculum, ABC & 123 is a wonderful place to start! I contributed to the book, along with some of my favorite early education bloggers. The activities provide a tiny bit of structure in a playful environment where children can explore early literacy and numeracy skills.

THE 2016-17 VIRTUAL BOOK CLUB FOR KIDS

2016-17 season virtual book club for kids books and activities

Click on the image above to see all of the themes, books, and activities for this year’s 2016-17 Virtual Book Club for Kids! I am updating the page as new posts go live.

What is your favorite Dr. Seuss book? How do you teach kids letters? Do you have a Dr. Seuss or letter learning activity for children that we should try? Let me know in the comments. I would love to hear if you use our weather tracking printable! You can share photos as well as book suggestions and activity ideas on my Facebook page, or tag me on Instagram.

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

6 thoughts on “How Do You Teach Kids Letters? Five Fun Activities”

  1. I used magnetic alphabet letters that were in assorted colors. We’d play a game where we “fished” the letter out of a bucket and place it on a magnetic board. Then we’d find letters that looked similar or sort by color or whatever. We’d play this kind of game for 5 minutes every day.

  2. These are great ideas! I mostly stick with reading aloud, but when they get really eager to learn to read, I love the Jolly Phonics’ set of Finger Phonics books.

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