HOW TO Teach the Alphabet to Preschoolers
Confidently teach the alphabet to preschoolers while making it fun with zoo animal letter crafts!
Learning the alphabet is such an important skill for little ones. One could even say it’s the foundation for ALL learning.
But, you know, learning letters is HARD WORK for their little brains. So many letters look alike, and there are uppercase and lowercase letters.
When kids think something is hard, they tend to shut down or act out. We definitely don’t want that. Engaged, happy children are so much easier to teach, and carryover of skills is for sure better!
Let’s lean into that knowledge and ask the age-old question: how do I teach letters in a way kids will easily grasp and enjoy too?!
How to teach the alphabet
First, it is known that it is developmentally easier for little minds to learn uppercase letters first. Lowercase letters look more similar to one another, so focus on building confidence and start with the uppercase ones.
Next, incorporate multimodal learning. Use tactile, visual, auditory, and kinesthetic aspects as you teach. Keep things super fun!
These are a few of my favorite different tools you can use to help teach your little ones the alphabet:
Instructional Curriculums
Zoo-phonics and Handwriting Without Tears are two of my favorite curriculums for preschoolers.
Zoo-phonics is a multisensory program used to teach reading, spelling, and writing. What preschoolers do you know who aren’t enthralled with animals?! I love that Zoo-phonics helps keep them engaged while teaching such an important skill.
Handwriting Without Tears focuses on teaching preschoolers to write letters using the same structures–simple straight lines and curves. This helps little learners become familiar with letter structure when building and writing letters.
Pre-made Resources
Teaching littles is nonstop work. Choosing a pre-made resource will save precious time and might even help you actually drink your coffee while it’s hot.
Early on in my teaching days, I struggled to make learning the alphabet easy and engaging. I needed an interactive, enjoyable way to teach letters to my little learners. I wanted it to be memorable for them too.
Along with two of my favorite curricula (mentioned above!) and my kiddos’ crazy love for animals, I dove head first into create-mode and made something that fit all of my needs and wishes.
Cue my Zoo/Zoo-Phonics Letter Crafts – AZ Bundle by Up and Away in Pre-K resource!
These zoo animal letter crafts are aligned with the Zoo-phonics curriculum but work with any zoo animal theme too. Handwriting Without Tears letter formations are used as well to help keep learning simple and consistent.
Little ones love the hands-on aspect of these zoo animal letter activities, and you will love the ease of the little prep that’s needed with these print-and-go crafts. Each letter craft fits on a single page and includes easy instructions for printing so there’s no guesswork for you. Teacher to teacher, we’ve gotta help each other out, right?!
Add some fun sticker eyes from Lakeshore Learning, glue some goggle eyes on, or draw eyes on your animal crafts for some added pizzazz. Make it work for you!
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With zoo animal letter crafts, you can be confident your little learners will be getting multiple modes of learning and targeting several required skills in one activity! They will learn letter formation, names, and sounds while creating each letter. Fine motor skills, spatial awareness, and prewriting skills are a part of these zoo animal letter crafts too.
Props
Don’t underestimate the power of a good prop when working with preschoolers!
Stuffed animals or puppets are so fun to use to go along with each animal letter craft as you teach the alphabet. Pretend the different zoo animals are visiting your kiddos at school or home. Surprise your preschoolers with an animal each morning when teaching a new letter or pop it out just in time for crafting.
Books
Interactive books are another great way to engage preschoolers. Use books with flaps, different textures, rhyming words, and bright illustrations to keep things interesting.
ABC Zoo by Rod Campbell is a lift-the-flap book that helps children learn letters and animal names. Little minds will follow along the simple text with ease.
Animal Alphabet by Alex A. Lluch also focuses on learning the alphabet and animal names. It has 26 durable slides that allow little ones to play a guessing game as they excitedly wait to see what animal will come along next.
Songs
Music helps strengthen memory skills. Songs help little learners make connections between their body and mind as they sing and dance. Choosing familiar and engaging songs add an extra element of fun to learning too!
Sing the alphabet song during routine tasks like handwashing to keep the letters fresh on their little minds throughout the day.
Add movement into your day by dancing and singing along to Jack Hartmann’s “Animal Alphabet Move and Groove” song.
You might also be interested in these products:
Letter A – Alligator FREEBIE (Coloring Edition)
Zoo Animal – Letter Match-up Mat
Zoo Animals Alphabet Writing Pages
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