5 Ways to Teach the Alphabet
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Teaching the alphabet is foundational for reading and writing. Around the age of 2, children begin showing interest in learning alphabet letters. While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. Today I’m going to share with you some of my favorite ways to teach the alphabet to little ones.
Here’s what a preschooler should know before kindergarten:
- Recite/sing the alphabet
- Identify uppercase letters
- Identify lowercase letters
- Match uppercase letters to lowercase letters
- Identify the sounds each letter makes
- Traces letters
- Write some alphabet letters
Here are my five favorite ways to teach the alphabet to children.
1. Read Alphabet Books
Read all sorts of alphabet books to your children, even starting as babies. The repetition will really help your child learn the alphabet at a young age. When my oldest was born, I was surprised at how many alphabet books we had been given as gifts. We loved reading all of them because they were different from each other. I found that around 18 months both my kids really started enjoyed reading alphabet books. Here are a few of our alphabet books:
Here are some of our favorite alphabet books.
The Three Bears ABC
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Board Book)Eating the AlphabetThe Farm Alphabet BookG is for GoatHarold’s ABC (Purple Crayon Book)I Stink! (Kate and Jim Mcmullan)Bad KittyThe Letters Are Lost!AlphaOops!: The Day Z Went FirstZ Is for Moose (Booklist Editor’s Choice. Books for Youth (Awards))Q Is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing GameABC T-RexWork: An Occupational ABC
2. Sandpaper Letters
Using sandpaper letters is a great way to introduce letters to children. My favorite ones are Didax Sandpaper Tracing Letters
or School Supply Tactile Letters Kit
. This is a perfect pre-writing activity because children use their finger to trace the sandpaper letters. I love that the cards tell the child where to start and which direction to go.
Sandpaper letters are part of the Montessori approach to learning how to read. These letters provide a tactile and visual way to help children learn the alphabet. In the Montessori method, you teach letters to a child in the 3-period lesson.
1st period is introducing the letter (“this is” period). Show your child the letters. Have them trace the sandpaper letters. The best way to teach children alphabet letters is by telling them their phonetic sound. So each time they trace the letter, say the phonetic sound.
2nd period is association (“show me” stage). Ask your child to follow simple directions with the letters. For example, please pick up the /m/ and set it by the window. Continue to do this with each letter several times to reinforce this. If it is too difficult, return to the first period.
3rd period is recall (“what is this?” period). Only go to this period when they’ve mastered the other two periods. Put a letter in front of the child and say “Can you trace this and tell me what it is?” Continue with the other letters in the same way.
When you use these sandpaper letters, you are teaching them 3 things: the shape of letters, the feel of its shape and how its written, and how you pronounce its sound.
3. Alphabet Puzzles
I think teaching letters with alphabet puzzles are an amazing tool for teaching the alphabet. This is my favorite puzzle, from Melissa and Doug. It’s a beautiful wooden puzzle with neat pictures. This is a great way to practice vocabulary and verbal skills, too.
4. Sensory Activities
While some kids learn letters very quickly, others need more repetition and time to learn letters. I’ve always said that children learn best when they have many multisensory experiences with letters.
I love to incorporate sensory play into learning alphabet letters. When children have meaningful activities with repeated exposure, they start to pick up on letter names. One way is this alphabet ice excavation activity.
You could also make a colorful sensory bin!
Or practice writing letters in the sand, like this sensory writing tray.
5. Alphabet Printables
I have quite a few alphabet printables on my blog, but here is a set that is easy and fun for preschoolers. You will need Do a Dot Markers or dot stickers to fill in the circles.
I love pulling printables out for a quick and easy activity. I’m always advocating for hands-on learning, but sometimes it’s nice to do a few paper activities. Using Do a Dot markers or dot stickers is great for hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills.
If you’d like to download this printable, just click the button below.
Very good methods
The free dot printables don’t work for me. Would you be able to update the link?
Yes! I’m sorry about the broken link. It is fixed now!
Thank you for helping! These acivites look great!
I really like the alphabet puzzle! I could work on matching and animal sounds, with my toddlers during speech-language sessions.
I really like the sandpaper letters!
Sandpaper Letters
I would like to win Alphabet Puzzle.
I love your description of the 3-period method of teaching letters. I haven’t seen this before, but seeing it written out that way makes perfect sense! Thank you for sharing! I would love to win an alphabet book or the sandpaper letters. I am new to teaching preschool and am still trying to build my teacher toolbox.
I would love the sandpaper letters!
Would love to win
I would love to win sand paper letters!
I love alphabet books!
The sand paper letters look amazing, I can’t wait to try them out!
Would love sand paper letters!
I love the sandpaper letter! What a great idea!
I would love to win the sandpaper letters. I am a school-based occupational therapist and use multisensory approaches to teacher letter recognition, memory, and formation all the time. This would be a great addition to my toolkit.
I would choose the sandpaper letters.
The sandpaper letters looks so fun! I’d love to win a set!! 🙂
I can never have too many magnetic letters! 🙂
I would like to win the sandpaper letters, please. Thank you so much for doing these Christmas giveaways. Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!
The sand paper letters would be fun to use in my class
my kids love to puzzle and read book..its hard to pick of the two. Though i would like the Alphaoopsy book
I would like the sand paper letters
I’ve not heard of sandpaper letters before. It would be a fun new way to learn your letters.
I would like the “Eating the Alphabet” book!
I have never heard of sandpaper letters. That looks really interesting!
I would love the alphabet books for our library.
Thank you
Would love the sandpaper letters!
I would love the sand paper letters and or dot markers. Thanks
I loved the magnetic letters!
I love the sandpaper letters.
Thank you for the post. I’m currently doing alphabet with my little one.
I love using dot markers for letter work.
My preschoolers are going to love the dot letters
My 3 year old loves to sing the alphabet song lately! We would love to win a set of sandpaper letters so she can work more on those pre-writing skills!
The sandpaper letters are genius!
I have always wanted to try the sandpaper letters.
I’d love to win the alphabet book!
I love the sensory ideas!
I would love the magnetic letters and the sandpaper letters!
Definitely some good ideas here. I need to implement more sensory activities. Thanks for the giveaway.
I love all of your sensory letter activity ideas! It’s below freezing in Minnesota so I can put a bowl of water on my deck at night and we’ll be ready to excavate letters in the morning! I might try using a muffin tin and doing individual letters in each tin. Love the sandpaper letters and sand writing, too!
We love the do-a-dot alphabet printables. Thanks for sharing them. I have been on the hunt for sandpaper letters and will check out your suggestions.
If I win I would love the sand paper ABC’S
I love do-a-dot and my kids do too. Thanks for the free printables. You can use other things besides blotters with those too – pompoms is an easy one.
My special education preschoolers would love the sandpaper letters.
I’d love to win the Sand Letters. My kids would enjoy them and it would help them learn their letters better
Thank you for all these great ideas and freebies! Perhaps I will be a winner! At any rate, I win with all that you have shared!
I would love to win the book “Z is for Moose”.
Would love to win this for my kids or my classroom!
Love these!
I really enjoy your resources and ideas. I would like the sandpaper letters.
I’d love a set of the sandpaper letters.
Thanks for all the great ideas!
I’d love the alphabet puzzle mine is so old and missing a piece or 2.
The sandpaper letters would be very helpful for my daughter.
I think the tactile feel of the sandpaper letters would be a fun way to learn hoe to make the letters
My former assistant had the sandpaper letters, and they were fabulous. Definitely would want to use them again!
I’d love the sandpaper letters.
I love your alphabet book collection! There are some lesser known ones in there!
Thanks for supporting followers with great ideas for teaching the alphabet.
I LOVE Puzzles!
The sand paper letters are such a great idea and I love how you included a “how to use”. Thanks for such great ideas💛
I love the magnetic Alphabet and the sandpaper letters
Thank you
I love the sandpaper letters!
You have a lot of great ideas! I love magnetic letters! Somehow they never get old.
The sandpaper letters are a great idea!
I would like to try the sandpaper letters.
Oh I love the Sandpaper Leters, what a great and wonderful sensory learning activity.
I would choose an alphabet book
The sandpaper letters are new to me! They look like fun!
The Melissa and Doug puzzles are very sturdy.
Love these ideas!! I’m starting to do these things with my 2 year old!
Love all of these ideas! I have never used sandpaper letters and it looks so neat!
This would be a great prize to win to help assist my daughter in developing her language skills. Thanks for the opportunity
G is for Goat would be great, because Patricia Polacco writes amazing books. I didn’t know she had an alphabet book until I read your post.
You can never have too many alphabet books!
Thank you for the chance to win any of your amazing giveaways. I love them all.
We would love an alphabet book! Children can never have too many books. 🙂
Love the magnetic letters!
I would really like to win a magnetic alphabet for my kid. It would be a great gift for Christmas.
The sandpaper letters look so cool! My 2yo would love them.
I love using sandpaper letters! But I haven’t seen this puzzle before.
I love love love winning prizes! I also love how you compliment the gifts with ideas on how to use them!
Sand Paper Letters
I would love the sandpaper letter cards! I am a literacy interventionist and teach 3-6 year olds their letter sounds, so they would be a fun way to spice my activities up!
A combination 0f art, sensory would make a very nice addition to my toddlers room. they love art especially. we always run out of Do a Dot. the love playing with the magnets as well as we are learning letters and numbers.
Magnetic alphabet letters.
Puzzle!
It is hard to choose, but I would pick the puzzle.
These are wonderful ideas. I am going to see about getting some of those books for my Kinder class.
I would probably pick the alphabet book but it’s a tough choice!
The alphabet puzzle would be great!
You have such great ideas!
alphabet puzzel…
The sand paper letters look neat!
I would love to try the sandpaper letters with my 2 year old.
Those sandpaper letters look interesting!
I’ve had my eye on sandpaper letters for a while. I also love the alphabet puzzle. We have a different one but the one in this post is adorable and it may be time to change it up!
I love tactile letters. My students use them all the time.
I really love the idea of the bingo daubers! That is such a neat activity!
I love using multi sensory methods to teach the alphabet! I like your idea of freezing letters in ice-so fun!
Such great alphabet resources. I wish more students had a strong preschool experience and entered kindergarten knowing the letters and sounds.
My kids love sensory alphabet play. Sadly I don’t always love the clean up. Hahaha
Dot markers have become a new favorite in our house! This printable is perfect for my 2 yo to start with
I love all the ideas! I would love to have the colorful alphabet magnets for my kindergarteners!
My students would love the sandpaper letters and they would really benefit from them, too!
Sandpaper letters or an alphabet book would be my choice. Thank you!
All of these prizes would be just great! If I had to choose it wold probably be the alphabet puzzles. My son just turned 3 and definitely learns better hands on and I’ve noticed he really loves puzzles!
What a wonderful giveaway! My 3 yo would love these lessons!
Sandpaper letters would be awesome for my 3 and 4 year olds.
I would love some sandpaper letters for our Montessori home!
Thank you for your generosity. If my name were picked, I’d be happy with any of the prizes, however, I think my first choice would be the sandpaper letter. I’ve never seen a set of them. I always figured people made them! Cheers!!
I love the sensory play letter match activities. My children also love them. I have not seen the sandpaper letters and would love to try those.
I would love to receive any of the prizes, but I love the sandpaper letters. I have never seen them. I have made some, but that is a lot of work!! 😉
I would love the magnetic letters to help my kindies for a fun way to practice letter recognition and spelling sight words!
My 2.5 yr old has some delays so I really appreciate the different ideas to introduce letters to her. She is very sensory oriented; I think the sandpaper letters would really be something she enjoys!
I’d pick the magnetic letters.
I would love the sandpaper letters to use as another tier of learning their letters.
This would be a great addition to our class
Oh my goodness! So many great options! I’d choose the magnetic alphabet. My daughter is in Montessori and using those at school learning to spell and read so I’d like to support her with these at home with these as well as start teaching her little brother. Thanks so much for all that you do for us! Happy Holidays!
The sandpaper letters look amazing and totally remind me of my childhood 🙂
My son is in a Montessori primary class and has just started learning with sandpaper letter. He gets so excited with every new group he learns.
Thank you for your focus on early learning. I would love the sandpaper letters.
Thanks for this blog it is my go to for everything!
Another tough choice! I think I would pick the magnetic letters. Right now I scrounge from my own kids’ magnetic letters to use for my preschool classroom (or I make my own – time consuming!). I love that they are boxed, organized & come in many colors!
I would love to win a book!
Love the sandpaper letters! Thanks for sharing so many great activities.
I love the sandpaper letters!
Sandpaper letters is such a good idea! We’ve done the salt tray and my little really liked that.
These are great ideas! I’ve never tried sandpaper letter. Thanks for the information!
These all are great. If I win I’d want the sandpaper letters.
I would love the magnet letters! How fun
Great ideas! I would go for the sandpaper letters!
Thank you for all the suggestions and ideas. I would be thrilled and grateful to win any prize. However, the books would be a particularly welcome addition to my classroom library.
Awesome post! As a prek teacher, all of these would be helpful. I would most pick the abc books. 🙂
Love all these ideas! I never thought about the sandpaper letters, those sound cool!
I love all of these ideas. My students really love puzzles and it is a great way for them to learn by manipulating the letters.
I used sandpaper letters when I taught PK many years ago. I would love to use them again with my PK grandson. He has some medical issues and this would be perfect for him!
These are such great ideas! We would love to have more ways to learn the alphabet! The sandpaper letters are awesome! And we love books! Thanks so much for providing this opportunity to win such awesome prizes! You are the best!
Thank you for the great ideas! I love this wooden alphabet puzzle.
Thank you for your great ideas!
i always am trying to win something ! (O:
they sandpaper cards look so versatile and i also like the idea of the alphabet books
those sandpaper letters look awesome
I love all these ideas and your books match to some of my favorite books 🙂.
I used some of those books as a kid myself! I would love the Harold book for my own kids!
My son is headed into kindergarten next year. He is super bright but not interested in his letters. I think he’d love the sandpaper letters.
Sandpaper Alphabet Cards would be fantastic to have in our 3 year old classroom. I have seen a huge decline in fine motor development as more and more 2-5 year olds play on iPads or tablets. As an early childhood teacher and curriculum developer I love that you promote fine motor techniques in your curriculum. I find myself always linking your blogs to newsletters or telling my parents to follow you. Thank you for being a strong and powerful early childhood advocate.
Yes!! It’s sad, but I do think it’s true. And thank you for your kind words!
the books are always helpful as well as the sandpaper letters look awesome
Love all of these ideas! I work with K-5, so I could definitely benefit from this with my younger kiddos!! 🙂
The alphabet puzzle would be a great addition to my classroom.
Such great ideas!
I love your selection of books! My son – who is 22 now – just loved Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.
On can NEVER have too many books in her classroom, and some of these are fabulous!!! 🤩🤩
I would love the sandpaper letters
My preschoolers enjoy the AlphaOops! book! They think this is a silly book and love locating the letters.
The sandpaper alphabet would be so helpful in my Kindergarten classroom and with my 3 year old.
I would love to win magnetic alphabet letters!
I would like to win Eating the Alphabet. This would also help the child to learn names of fruits and vegetables.
With three Littles under three years, I would LOVE the sandpaper letters! Thank you for your consideration!
would love the magnetic letters
Thanks for sharing these!!!
I love your creative approach to learning the alphabet!
This is giving me some great ideas to get my preschooler ready for kindergarten!
Thank you so much for doing these giveaways. It gives the opportunity to see what things I can use in my room. Also, I hope to win them to be able to use them in my room.
I would love to win the magnetic letters
I love the sandpaper letters! I’d love to use those.
So much good info! Thanks!
sandpaper letters !
Super great ideas. Definitely a lot to work on with the kiddies!
I love using puzzles with my little ones, so a puzzle would be great.
I love the Do-A-Dot Printables for teaching the alphabet, I’m definitely going to incorporate these into my classroom! And I would love to win the magnetic alphabet letters!
I would love the sandpaper letters
I would love to have those sandpaper letters! Or the “I Stink” book.
I would love to win the magnetic letters! Thank you for hosting this giveaway.
I am very intrigued by the sandpaper letters. I think my son would benefit from this approach. Thanks!
Thank you for all you do to empower teachers. Giving ideas an encouragement for skills to grow strong writers and readers. ❤️
Adore all of the great sensory ideas!
Thank you for the freebies!
I would like to win the sandpaper letters
Alphabet puzzle please!
The sandpaper letters sound fun!
I would like to win the sandpaper letters!
I think my kiddos would love the bad kitty book.
Thanks for the free printables. My preschool class will love doing them!
Love the sensory bins search version!
I would love to win the sandpaper letters for my 4 year old!
I love all of these for my students AND my 2 little guys at home!!
I would use the letters to help teach the alphabet, sounds, and matching to an autistic student.
I love the letter give away but I think my class would like the pop it give away more
I would like to win the magnetic letters.
Would love to win the sandpaper letters!
I love the sand paper letters.
I loved the sandpaper idea the most! It is such a great sensory activity too!
Thanks for your helpful ideas.
Any tips for teaching English alphabet as a foreign language?
Best wishes…
I wish I had ideas, but I don’t have any resources right now.
Thank you for your posts! I’m currently working on letter recognition with my preschooler. These ideas have been helpful.
Thanks for the printable, but I can’t download it. Clicking on the button does not appear the pdf.
I love using these markers! For math centers Letter practice, working on fine motor skills and art! Thanks for the printable!!
I was concerned that my daughter is already 2 yr and 1 mo but she is not yet learning the alphabet and doesn’t seem to be interested with it while other kids are already learning the alphabet before turning 2 but I was happy that you recommend to start teaching kids at two as Im not yet too late. I dont have any teaching background so I am not sure what would interest my child in studying.
I’m glad to hear that! She is doing just fine 🙂
How many letters do you introduce at a time so they could remember them and for how many days to you go over those letters before starting new ones?
Hi! I teach 3 1/2 year olds. I have made sandpaper letters and was very interested in your 3-period lesson description, especially Step 2. Wonderful.
I do want to mention that one year I taught just the letter sound as I showed the letter. Four months later that year I decided to add the letter name. Boy, that was disheartening! The kids had a very hard time including the letter name after learning to say just the letter sound when they saw the letter. It was a rather bad experience. They eventually learned the letter names, too, but it was way harder for them than if I had just gone ahead and taught both sound and name together at the same time.
Now I teach the letter sound AND the letter name simultaneously. I say “/a/ and the name is ayyy”, /b/ and the name is beeee, etc. when I show the letter or when I pull out a sandpaper letter and the child traces the letter. The child still automatically says the sound first when they see that letter, but they follow up with the letter name. Because I have such a long chant for them to say when they see the letter, and they say the SOUND first, it’s easy for them to shorten the chant to just the sound when we sound out the letters in, say, the title of the book I am about to read to them.
thanks for all you do. I love and have copied out the instructions for some of those sensory bins and bottles, and will be using them in my room. THANKS AGAIN!
I love this advice! Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts. So helpful! And I’m very glad my website is useful to you! 🙂
I would love to win the sandpaper letters. I have a lot of alphabet activities. Do they have lowercase as well?
I put letters and numbers in small rubber duckies and used them in a sensory table as a game as well.
can anyone help me w with these materials? my phone can’t download
my email [email protected]
What materials are you needing?
Thank you very much for this article, I think it is very helpfull. I am a Spanish native speaker but I am studying English Language teaching. The reason why I found your post very interesting is that I am also a young mom and I would like that my baby boy has two mother tongues, English and Spanish, and thanks to your post and experience I had now different easy ways to start teaching English to my baby in a more natural way, just as the native English speakers.
These seem interesting, but I have a 4 year old son, and he seems to get the concept of the alphabet, he keeps forgetting the letters W,X,Y, and Z. So what else can I do to help him remember those last 4 letters of the alphabet.
I would read more alphabet books. Keep singing the ABC song with him. There are some really good DVDs to watch, like The Letter Factory.
Hello!
Thank you so much for sharing such useful tips! I am very interested in the sandpaper letters and I’m actually ordering the didax set soon! I was wondering if there was a specific order recommended to follow when teaching the letters because I wad thinking of starting with my son’s name since it is only 3 letters, “Ali”.
Thank you for such insightful information!
Thanks so much for the idea of sandpaper letters and making the alphabet box. I have a two year old granddaughter and I am always looking for interesting ways of teaching her the alphabet. Tracing the letter with the sandpaper letters will be much easier, than a printable worksheet, as a beginning tool
Hi, I am so happy to find a great website that i can use to help teach my children at home. We have recently moved to another country with an entirely new language and want to teach my children at home in English while they learn at school the other language. As i am very new to being a stay at home mom, i have found your website very user friendly with loads of advise on how to go about teaching my children. Thank you.
Thank you so much for these great ideas. i am going to add the alphabet box activity to my other activities.
I just purchased the upper and lower case alphabet formations downloads so now how do I get to them.
Hi JoAnn! An email was sent to your paypal email address. Sometimes AOL email address reject my emails. I will personally send you an email. Thanks!
Alphabet Boxes! This is the best IDEA ever!!!!! I have two none english speaking students in my 3 year old class and this will do wonders for them!
Nice, am trying dis method for my child,he also likes to learn easily
I love the alphabet boxes. We get together each week with some friend to do “Toddler Time” where we cover a different alphabet letter and having objects seems to be the best way to cement the letter sounds in our tot’s minds.
Very well.this post was useful for me.i tried to work with this methods.in first i have to translate it to my native culture.because i am Iranian teacher.thank you so much
I have the alphabet on the wall ( you can find some very cute “wall sticker” kinds online). The kids line up and take turns taking an alphabet card (from a deck of alphabet cards), then running to touch the letter on the wall. I encourage them to say the name of the letter, but readily say it for them if they don’t know. This is great for numbers as well.
Oh I like that idea! I will have to try that out for sure!!
I was a teaching assistant at a Montessori school and one thing the kids liked to do was make letter books with the sandpaper letters. Fold a small piece of paper around the letter tile (ours were homemade on pieces of thin wood) and rub a crayon over it to make a rubbing. The kids would do their names and we would make a banner using string. The older kids would sound out words and we would staple them together.
I absolutely LOVE that idea, Shirley! Thank you so much for taking the time to share it. I will be trying this out with my kids!!
Wow… The Sandpaper letters are interesting. I’ll have to add that to my list of neat tricks. I’m always looking for unique items to teach the alphabet. If anyone is interested, I’d like to suggest this link for something new: http://www.letterheadsplayground.com Go to their download page to download free PDF coloring pages.
I loved this post! I have a 9 month old & I love reading to her. What age do you recommend starting to teach the alphabet ?
I started with my oldest when he was 2. He seemed ready, but that may seem early for some. If they seem interested, then you can start when they are ready! Thanks for your kind words. 🙂
I love the alphabet boxes and sandpaper letters. Thanks for sharing with the Hearts for Home Blog Hop! Blessings!!
Thank you, Heather! I love your blog hop!
We did a variation of the alphabet boxes last week, too. First we read the book “My ‘t’ Sound Box” by Jane Moncure. A boy fills his box with things that start with “t.” The Sound Box series has books for the whole alphabet and the library has them (at least I know Urbandale and Des Moines do). Since M is 4 he gathered objects that started with “t.” He had a blast! I think I’ll look into the sandpaper letters. I think my boys would love them 🙂 thanks for the ideas!
That is so fun! I’ll have to check that book out. I’m sure Troy would love that!
What a helpful post, especially to those of us who are interested in teaching our children but don’t have a teaching background. Thanks for including the list of what a preschooler should know before Kindergarten. That gives me a concrete goal to work towards with my son.
I’m excited to see what else you share here!
Thank you so much, Ann! That is my desire–to help those moms who are interested in teaching their preschooler at home, but aren’t sure what they need to cover or where to start. I’m glad it helps you, too! Thanks again for your sweet words!
I haven’t done this with my daughter yet but when my son was a preschooler I used brown paper bags and wrote the upper case letter on one side and lower case letter on the other side. We went over the sound of the letter we were working on and than I had him go around the house and find things that began with that letter sound and put it into the brown paper bag. He had alot of fun searching for stuff with the correct letter sound!!
Oh I like that idea! I will have to try that out for sure!!
You’re so welcome! I’m glad it was helpful for you. That is amazing that you still remember sandpaper letters!! I didn’t have them growing up, but hoping my boys enjoy learning with them! Thanks for your comment.
Thank you for making this post. It is so helpful. I am actually interested in getting the sandpaper letters. I remember learning the alphabet from them and alphabet boxes. I found it fun and useful. This is amazing since i dont have many memories from this age.