Looking for fun, creative ways to review alphabet letters and sounds w/ 3 year old

[MitchellMom]

Now that my son knows the entire alphabet and the letter sounds as well as words that start with each letter, I want to constantly review with him. My goal is to do the same as I did when my dd learned her letters - go over all 26 letters within every 48-hour period. However, my ds is not as into workbooks as she was, and the only idea I have so far is to keep writing the letters on the dry-erase board and let him practice circling them or connecting/matching them with the marker. Can you experienced ladies please offer some fun, indoor activities to review the alphabet? I've thought of Letter Bingo but really, I do not think he will sit still for that! But he loves using scissors so if you have any ideas for integrating the scissors, too, that would be great, but of course anything that involves using his whole body would be wonderful! Thanks so much! :)

[3blessingmom]

Play "I spy" with his read alouds after reading them. "I spy a letter that says /a/....etc"

Making letter shapes with play-doh, in shaving cream, etc...whatever is messy LOL!

I keep a glad cookware dish (with a lid) with blue sand for indoor play (I actually have 3 - 1 per child), and say a sound and have dc draw the letter with his finger in the sand.

Glue a big letter on construction paper and let ds sprinkle glitter or sand to hang on the wall. You can also use macaroni, buttons, sea shells....whatever you have...to glue in the letter shape.

[3Rivers]

I have a large vinyl mat with the letters all around the border. You could make something like that with posterboard. You can review the letters on the mat, then send him on a scavenger hunt to find things in the house that start with that letter. Then he puts the object on the right letter on the mat. Set a timer for an extra challenge.

Also, Jamin on homeschool blogger gave me this idea: alphabet stomp game. Buy a package of foam sheets. Trace one of his shoes on each sheet (optional, but fun for them), Write the letters on each foot. Scatter them in a section of the room, then call them out. He has to run to the letter and stomp it, then wait until you call the next letter. Can be done with numbers or phonics sounds as well.

Jamie

[coralloyd]

The Weaver Curriculum in thier 123 Read stuff have a very cute song for the letter sounds:

Example-

Ah Ah Alligator
With your mouth so wide
Open up and put an A inside.

Big Brown Bear
Begins with B
With your big bright eyes
Tell me what you see.

They then have cutouts of all the different animals, that your child colors and glues to paper bags. Each day you add on a new animal to your song, as the paper bag puppets "sing" along.

If you can't afford the program you could try this on your own. Make up a song and find pictures on the web.

This really worked well with my now 4yr. old. She couldn't sit still for much. Putting it into a song that she could dance and sing to worked great:).

[ElizabethB]

Here's an idea that can be fun for sister, too.

Buy 2 or 4 sets of plastic letters (88 cents at Walmart--I have 10 sets for when I teach a class of remedial students!)

Get two buckets/small tupperware bowls and put half of the letters in each bowl. (1 or 2 sets of letters in each bowl.) Put them across the room from your kids. Then, have them run to the buckets and each grab a handful of letters, then run back to where they started from.

Your 3 year old has to say the sound and name of each letter he gets. Your daughter has to try to make a word from the letters she has and sound it out. If she gets no vowels that turn, she can just say the letter names and sounds. Keep going until the letters run out. She may need some help making words at first, eventually she'll be able to make some on her own.

With a group of older remedial students, I do a relay race and have a time limit, whichever group makes the most words wins.

I don't recommend working scissors into this one!

[ummtafari]

In the past, we have made our bodies into the shapes of letters-- that was a lot of fun!



But he loves using scissors so if you have any ideas for integrating the scissors, too, that would be great, but of course anything that involves using his whole body would be wonderful!


The Kumon First Step series has cutting and pasting books for ages 2 and up. My two year old is very ambitious with scissors as well!

Debra in VA

[Sara in WA]

My Father's World K package includes an alphabet book with cuisenaire rods. Looks very interesting and fun!

[gracesteacher]

Make an ABC tree and have him pull the letters off the tree and match it to an object in the house. We made the letters and tree out of felt.

We do the felt tree daily I do the letter sound and she goes and gets the letter. Or she tells me a letter and I take it off the tree and make the sound. We chose one letter to be the Letter of the day and I have projects and things lined up for that letter. We do something similar for numbers and shapes. We also do ASL so I sign the letter and she tells me the sound.

We got a Twister mat at yard sale and have use that for letters and had her stomp on letters. We do letters on the fridge while I am cooking. We have watched and recommend the leapfrog DVDs.

Also for a moving child I recommend Move n Groove DVDs. It has the kids do movements and gave me ideas on different things to do movement wise when I can see the need to move itch gets going.

[Doodle]

My son LOVES tape. Two things we've done are:

1) Use masking tape to make a letter on black construction paper. Then cover the whole paper with chalk. Once you are finished carefully remove the tape to reveal the letter.

2) Use masking tape to make a huge letter on the floor. We did this on the living room carpet. Our letter "A" for example became "A town" and then my son used his blocks to make garages for his cars.

[Terabith]

1) Read alphabet books. For a long time, I tried to read an abc book every day. (while reading, I say the sounds, and talk about other words that start with the same letters/ sounds)

2) watch Letter Factory from Leap Frog (or even Sesame Street)

3) play with one of the commercial alphabet products. Leap Frog Fridge Phonics is excellent. I also like the Phonics Firefly.

4) play Starfall on the computer

5) play "I Spy" with letter sounds ("I spy with my little eye something that starts with a /t t t/ sound)

6) memory with letters (a pair of A's, etc - can also use that for upper/ lower case matching)

7) fishing for letters (get some magnetic fish, or use paperclips, and tape a letter to it). Let him fish for a letter and say it!

8) write letters on index cards and scatter around the floor. Have him jump on a "B".

9) post letters around the house and go on a letter hunt (or just use the ones around anyway, depending on how hard you want it to be)

10) make letters out of play dough, bread dough, etc.

11) cut out pictures that start with a letter or sound

12) make letters out of masking tape and walk or drive cars on them

13) letter crafts (write large letters on paper and do crafts.... cover with dot to dot markers, cheerios, cotton balls, draw with glue and sprinkle with glitter or sand, etc)

14) make a "letter monster" puppet out of socks. Have it eat letters. But first you have to tell it what it is. Can also feed the letter monster pictures or items that start with a sound.

15) draw letters in shaving cream/ pudding/ finger paint. (Don't make him do it, just do it in yours and point it out)

[gandpsmommy]

I haven't had a chance to read all of the replies, so I'm sorry if my ideas are redundant. Here are a few things I have done with my 5yo ds. I write the letters on paper and spread them out on the floor throughout the room. Then I call out a letter or a sound for him to roll, hop, run, etc. to. He hands me the letter when he is done. I have also had him go to the letter, pick it up and tell me what letter it is and what it's sound is. He enjoys playing with Nerf dart guns. So sometimes I prop the letter papers up against a piece of furniture and let him "shoot" the letter I call out.

If your little guy enjoys using scissors, perhaps you could write or print letters on a piece of paper inside larger shapes (e.g. circles, squares) and let him cut out the letter you name or the letter whose sound you say.

My dd enjoyed alphabet stampers when she was in preschool that you use with a washable ink pad.

[MitchellMom]

Thanks for the wonderful suggestions so far! :grouphug: I especially like the ones where he can drive his cars on the letters - he loves Matchbox! Any other suggestions? :)

[MeganP]

Have him find and cut out letters (large ones from article titles or ads) from magazines. Get magnetic letters and a cookie sheet and have him pick out the letters from the sheet as you say them. Letter puzzles (ie a wooden puzzle with 52 pieces of uppercase and lowercase letters that set into a base). Or cut letters from heavy card and then cut them into 3 or 4 pieces so he can piece together each letter. I got a book years ago called 'File Folder Games' that had games that you could make. It was published by Carson-Dellosa Publishing. I don't know if it's still available. I think I probably got it from ACE Educational Supplies. You could check their website.

[Doodle]

We had many many letter pancake mornings while my son was learning his letters. He really enjoyed it. I remember him getting very excited when he made his "R" into a "P". Then he turn that upside down and exclaimed "I made a lower case b!" He turned the "C" and made a "U" and the "M" was turn around to become a "W". Lots of fun for us. My guy also loves sprinkles, so our pancakes were colorful too!:tongue_smilie: