
Creative and Playful Alphabet Activities
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I adore that stage in a child’s life when the World of Letters starts to open up and the magic of the alphabet is discovered.
But how many times can you sing the ABC song before you want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork?!
(Just asking for a friend.)
If you’re looking for some creative and playful alphabet activities, you’ve come to the right place.
Over on Instagram, I co-host the weekly @get.creative.with challenge with the Little Button Diaries team.
Each week, we welcome a guest judge who chooses a theme for our community.
Last week, we welcomed Molly from @littleoneslearn. Molly challenged everybody to #getcreativewith the alphabet.
So much creative, alphabetty goodness!
Creative Alphabet Activities for Younger Kids
The Little Button Diaries team created an alphabet fishing game out of pipe cleaners. Make a fishing rod out of some dowel, yarn and use a hot glue gun to stick a magnet at the end of the yarn.
Over on their site, they also have a tutorial on making your own felt alphabet with it’s own storage bag.
Little Button Diaries website / On Instagram
Oh hey! That’s me on Instagram!
I wrote the alphabet in white oil pastels on paper.
The children then painted over the paper with liquid water colours to reveal the hidden alphabet.
You could also use watered-down food dye.
Using our alphabet charts, we then went on an alphabet hunt around the house.
We collected items beginning with the letters of the alphabet and made a design with the gathered items.
Finally, we played a game of good ol’ I-Spy using the items we had gathered.
Julie Curtin is the kind of Kindy teacher of our dreams. Her classroom looks like such a fun, creative space.
Julie paired her activity with an alphabet book and made letter pebbles. Click on the picture for the full process.
Dig out the fidget spinners! Create a line of letters and get that spinner spinning!
The aim is for your child to name the letter as the spinner moves past it. Extra points if they can provide the corresponding sound!
Raising Kinley website / On Instagram
I love how simple this set up is. Trace around some magnetic letters and then have your little learner match the letter to the traced shape.
Or you could use stickers and add in some fine motor practice!
Busy Little Bodies on Instagram
My friend Amy is the Queen of literacy activities. She’s a bit of a phonemic awareness nerd.
Use stickers on a dice to create a letter dice. Learners keep track of how many times letters have been rolled by using coloured pom poms.
It’s letter identification meets chance and date.
Playful Little Learners website / On Instagram
We have these bath foam letters at our place and they drive us nuts. They appear all over the house.
I love how Cristin and her little learner used the letters to create animals beginning with that letter.
Artsplorers website / On Instagram
Such a genius way to use Duplo with this lower case to capital matching game! And what a great way to build the strength in little fingers through play.
Teacher Types website / On Instagram
I love that this art invitation is adaptable to younger and older learners. This would be a cool way to make some personalised, alphabetty art for a bedroom or playroom.
Check out the tutorial here.
Art Camp La website / On Instagram
Creative Alphabet Activities for Older Kids
Joanna has 4 children and this activity appealed to all of them. Such a great activity for elementary students.
Using pencils and sharpies, the children designed their own letters and incorporated zentangles into their designs.
The Blue Barn website / On Instagram
I love the process behind this alphabet art. A grid was drawn on some water color paper with pencil. One letter per square, each having upper and lower case letters. Once the letters were written in black oil pastel, the entire page was wet watercolored. Wet water coloring is when you dip the entire page in water, making sure the entire page gets wet then add your pigment. Such a cool result!
The Mama Juggle is Real on Instagram
Amanda was inspired by the work of conceptual artist Xu Bing who created a lesson using Chinese calligraphic principles to write English.What a super fun way to explore mark-making and art materials with older learners.
Barley and Birch website / On Instagram
My friend Agnes developed this super cute Unicorn Alphabet poster after a conversation in the car with her kids.
It’d look so sweet in a nursery!
You can purchase your copy here.
I also adore these personalised napkin rings! Bringing together fine motor skills with nature and playing with letters. Darling!