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.
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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
What You'll Find on This Page
#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:
- Dr. Seuss’s ABC
- Hop on Pop
- Oh, the Places You’ll Go
- And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
- One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
- Green Eggs and Ham
- Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!
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:
- Leapfrog Fridge Phonics magnetic letter set
- Magnetic alphabet letters
- See & Spell boards
- A to Z Magnatab
- Sandpaper letters
- Letter stamps
#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
- Green Eggs Letter Recognition
- Alphabet Puzzles
- Ten Apples Up on Top Number Activity
- Preschool Learning for Ten Apples Up On Top
- Printable Math Activity for Ten Apples Up On Top
- Would You Eat This? A Green Eggs & Ham Activity
- Horton Hears a Who Listening Activities
- Dr. Seuss Sensory Play with Kinetic Sand
- Lorax Cause and Effect Matching Game
- Green Eggs and Ham Color Word Sort Game
- Color Mixing Truffula Trees Art Project
- Color My Feelings with My Many Colored Days
- Wacky Wednesday Visual Perception Activity
- Wacky Painting for Kids Inspired by Wacky Wednesday
- Read The Cat in the Hat wtih DIY Thing Puppets
- Exploring Shapes and Silhouettes – The Shape of Me and Other Stuff
- Cat in the Hat Inspired Popsicles
- Learning About Dr. Seuss
More Fun Learning Activities for Kids
For parents looking for playful activities that are clearly educational, this book is a great resource:
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
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.
That letter construction kit kind of looks like the letters for Handwriting without Tears.
It would definitely pair well with that curriculum.
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.
That’s a great letter learning game!
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.
I wish those phonics books were sold in the US. They sound great!