Here are four Hands-On activities to help your little one learn his or her ABC’s.
Poster Board Letters
Use a piece of poster board to cut out very large block alphabet letters. For each letter, you and your toddler can find things around the house that start with that letter. You can glue items on, or glue pictures from magazines if you wish. Some fun examples would be:
Letter L —- Leaves
Letter B—- Buttons
Letter K— Put lipstick on you and your little one, and plant smoochy kisses all over letter K
Letter M—M&M;’s
Letter I—Stickers of ice cream cones, or draw ice cream in a bowl.
Letter F—Feathers
Letter N—Noodles
Letter C—Cotton Clouds
Letter Y—Yarn
Letter Z—zero (use cheerios)
Save your special alphabet collection and practice with your toddler everyday.
Make Your Own ABC Refrigerator Magnets
Cut out squares from poster board about 3 inches by 3 inches. Let your toddler print a letter of the alphabet on each square. Decorate the squares with fun things like glitter, beads, buttons, ribbon, and stickers. Or simply use crayons to make the letters.
Attach a piece of self-sticking magnetic strip on the back of each letter. Magnetic strips can be bought at most hardware and craft stores.
Make extra letters in case some get lost, and to have enough letters available for words and sentences.
Make ABC Puzzles
Cut a construction paper in half with a jagged cut down the middle. When the two pieces are lined up, they should connect again just like two pieces of a puzzle.
On one half, draw or cut out a picture from a magazine that starts with the letter A. On the other half, print the capital A and the lower case letter a, side by side.
Repeat for each letter of the alphabet.
Your toddler can learn ABC’s sounds and letters by matching pictures with the corresponding Alphabet letter that the item in the picture starts with.
Laminate the puzzle pieces for long lasting fun.
Create an ABC Book Together
Use a construction paper for each page of the book.
Draw or glue a picture on each page for each letter of the Alphabet. Or even better, glue an item to each page corresponding to the letter.
Write in block letters the corresponding capital letter and lower case letter.
Write a sentence for each page, such as ” R is for Rice”. Glue some rice to the page. Be as creative as you can with each letter/page to make this a fun book to read with your child over and over again. The more tactile you make each page, by gluing on actual items, the more your toddler will enjoy the book.
Use a hole puncher to make holes in the pages.
Let your toddler illustrate the cover page.
Don’t forget to include the Author’s name, Illustrator’s Name, and Book Title!
Tie yarn through the holes in the pages, or use metal rings, to complete the book.
