The next installment in my 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet Series is an activity I call Table Top Letter Search.
Kids love games like hide and seek because they enjoy the challenge of having to find things. Table Top Letter Search takes advantage of kids’ love of treasure hunts and other finding games to help them practice letter identification. It also gets them moving (rather than sitting in a seat), and learning always happens best when kids are active.
So if you’ve got a learner who gets a thrill out of hunting for objects, try this Table Top Letter Search game.
We have a large table in our dining room that I used for this activity. At the time we did this activity, we were working on the letters A, M, S, and T. So I selected those letters from our uppercase letter bead and lowercase letter bead sets, and spread them all over the table.
On the floor in the adjacent room, I laid out a mat with uppercase and lowercase sandpaper letter cards.
Before starting the table top letter hunt, the kids and I reviewed the letters. I asked the kids to trace the sandpaper letters with their fingers while saying the sound made by the letter.
Once our review was over, I asked the kids to go to the table to find a specific letter (e.g., uppercase A, lowercase m).
They would walk around the table looking for the right letter.
And once they found the right letter, they brought it back to the mat to match it with the appropriate sandpaper letter.
Simple, active, and fun. 🙂
More ways to teach to the alphabet
More alphabet posts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Letter hunt sensory bin
- Erasing letters with a Q-tip
- Making letters with straws and play dough
- Spaghetti letters
- Letter puzzles
- Montessori sandpaper letters
- Smash the puffy letters
- Mini letter hunt with a magnifying glass
- Kinetic sand letters
- Crystallized letters
- Yarn wrapped letters
- Letter tic-tac-toe
- Rainbow letters
You can find more ways to teach the alphabet on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Letter Learning Pinterest board.
I just downloaded your number worksheets (1 – 10) They are wonderful – thank you.
The majority of my incoming J.K. class this September are boys (young age of the spectrum) and I’m already breaking out in cold sweats trying to come up with teaching ideas that don’t involve too much actual writing. These were great.
Jill
Best of luck with your students! I’m glad you found some useful ideas and resources here.