10 Fun Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers

Teaching our Preschoolers their letters doesn’t have to be boring and tedious. I have designed these 10 Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers to be Fun for them and Low-Prep for you.

What’s more, I have created these activities with tight finances in mind, so they are all budget-friendly, mostly using items you’ll already have around your home or classroom. I also link to the occasional free printable to make prepping them even easier for you.

Pin text reads alphabet activities preschool kids will love. 4 images of these ideas.

My daughter has tested all these out, so we know they work well for little one’s! These alphabet activities are all hands-on and play-based. Many of them can also be done in a child-led way.

Whether you’re at home or teaching a group in a classroom, these activities work well for Preschoolers and those in their first years of School who are beginning to learn their alphabet.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure for more information.

Pin text reads, free printables alphabet activities and there is an image of the 3 alphabet scavenger hunt pdf printables that are available to download for free.

1. Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

An Alphabet Scavenger Hunt is great for little kids who struggle to learn sitting still (so most little kids, right?).

They can search for things around your home, classroom, or outdoors that begin with each letter of the alphabet, or you can hide items (or pictures) in a specific space for them to find.

This one can be adapted for different stages of learning. You could hide all the letters of the alphabet, and get them to tick off each letter as they find it. Alternatively, give them all the letters in the alphabet on a sheet and ask them to write or draw a picture of the item they find for each letter.

For more ideas of fun variations of the Alphabet Scavenger Hunt, and 3 FREE Printable Resources, take a look at my FREE Printable Alphabet Scavenger Hunt here.

Pin text reads, letter recognition activities for busy preschoolers. Image of a sensory bin with water, ladle and foam letters.

2. Alphabet Soup

Alphabet soup is a great sensory activity for learning the alphabet and practicing some fine motor skills at the same time.

Simply fill a tub up with water and add in some foam alphabet letters, like these from Amazon. Then give your child a ladle and some bowels and let them make some soup!

You could allow them to play independently (with supervision, of course), learning to recognise the letters themselves, or for further development, put a letter beside each bowl and get them to scoop out those letters to put in the bowl.

Another way you could play this one is by writing their name and encouraging them to scoop out the letters they need to spell out their name. This method can also be used to teach common sight words.

There are so many fun variations to this one to keep it fresh!

pin text reads, low-prep abc activities preschool kids will love and an image of a letter basket with letter 'b' in it and objects beginning with 'b'

3. Letter Baskets

Write a Letter on some card and place it next to or inside your basket. Then challenge your children to scout the classroom or home for items beginning with that letter.

This is a lovely interactive activity that helps our Preschoolers relate their learning to the real world, and learn in a hands-on way.

It’s also great if they’ve got the wriggles and need to be on the move! I have found that my kids do some of their best learning when they are moving about at the same time. This is a great play-based activity too!

pin text reads, low-prep alphabet activities preschool and the image shows a sensory bin with dry pasta and alphabet letters hiding in it.

4. Sensory Alphabet Match Up

Ideal for kids who love sensory play and finding things, this activity can be set up in 5 minutes!

Fill a sensory bin (tub) with rice, lentils, dried pasta, or sand and then hide some letter flashcards, like these from Amazon, in it. Then encourage your kids to match up the letters they find with the letters that you have put at the side of the sensory bin.

This one can be played in two ways. The first way helps with letter recognition and simply involves finding the matching pairs (matching ‘a’ with ‘a’ for example). The second way helps them practice their upper and lower case letters, as they match an upper case letter to it’s lower case counterpart (‘a’ with ‘A’ for example).

Pin text reads, Alphabet games for preschool. The alphabet pairs game. Fun alphabet games for fun-loving little learners! Image of pairs of alphabet letters turned upside down and two matching pairs the right way around.

5. Alphabet Pairs

A nice easy one! To play alphabet pairs, simply grab a set of Alphabet Flashcards that have upper and lower case letters, like these from Amazon. Turn them upside down on the table and mix them all up. Then take it in turns to turn over two cards and if you get a match (e.g. an ‘a’ and an ‘A’ card) then you can keep them. The winner is the person with the most cards at the end of the game.

TIP: You may want to select just the letters you’re working on that week, or do half the alphabet rather than the full alphabet at once for this game!

Pin text reads, letter recognition activities for preschoolers.  Perfect for the bus homeschooling mom!

6. Alphabet Sticker Tracing

This one combines learning a new letter, with some fine motor skills (developing those important finger muscles needed for writing later on!)

Grab some little dot stickers, like these on Amazon, and then write or type out the new letter you’re learning on a big sheet of A4. Encourage your child to stick their dot stickers all around the edge of their new letter.

This one is so simple, but so effective. They are building their recognition for this letter. It’s also great fine motor practice as they peel those fiddly, little stickers off and place them carefully along the lines of their letter.

Most kids love stickers so this is a popular, low-prep, alphabet activity for Preschoolers.

Pin text reads, letter recognition activities for preschoolers. Perfect for busy homeschooling moms. Image is of a letter b in bubble writing with a glue stick and glue and tissue paper nearby. some of the tissue paper has been scrunched up and glued onto the letter.

7. Letter Collages

Another great one for learning multiple skills, is this letter collage!

This activity develops scissor skills, color recognition, creativity, and letter recognition.

Simply print out (or draw) the letter you are learning in bubble writing onto an A4 sheet. Then provide colored tissue paper, glue, and scissors to your Preschooler. They can creatively fill in the letter with their colored tissue paper.

Pin text reads, letter activities, low-prep and budget-friendly. Little letter books for creative little learners. Image of a book with the letter 'a' written in it and some crayons and a pencil and some drawings of things beginning with 'a' and attempts to write the letter 'a'.

8. Create Letter Books

In my experience, Preschoolers love to make their own books and write their names on the front, so this is a great way to capitalise on it!

Each time you learn a new letter, add it to a page in their book and encourage them to practice writing it themselves and draw pictures of things beginning with that letter.

If you don’t have an empty book, grab some paper, and a stapler and get them to help you make one! Sometimes that’s more fun than being given a blank book!

Pin text reads, letter recognition activities for preschoolers, perfect for busy homeschooling moms. Image shows a sheet of paper with an upper and lower case 'B' on it and surrounding it are pictures of items beginning with 'b' and the letter 'b' cut out from magazines.

9. Magazine Letter Search

Combining scissor skills, fine motor skills, letter recognition, and real world application, this is a lovely creative task for our little ones.

Simply write the letter you are learning in the middle of an A4 sheet of paper and then give your kids some old magazines and newspapers, scissors, and glue. Encourage them to cut out pictures of things that begin with the letter they are learning and the letter itself, and then stick them onto their paper.

Pin text reads, alphabet games for preschool. The Musical Alphabet Game. Image of some boxes marked out on the floor with tape and a different letter in each box. text at the bottom reads, fun alphabet games for active little learners.

10. Musical Alphabet

Combine Physical Education with Literacy in this fun game of Musical Alphabet!

Place the letters you are learning on the floor (between 3-5 letters is usually a good number). Then use masking tape to make a square around each letter, as I have done in the photo above. To play the game, simply turn on your music for everyone to dance to and when the music stops, shout out a letter. Everyone then needs to jump into the box with that letter.

If you want to play it competitively, the last person to the letter is out! However, I prefer to just play it for fun and let everyone stay in.

More Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers

These alphabet activities make learning letters so much more fun for our Preschoolers! My kids loved trying them all out. I hope you and your kids enjoy them just as much!

If you’re looking for more ideas to help your Preschooler learn their alphabet, you may find these posts helpful:

Phonics Tuff Tray Ideas

Alphabet Scavenger Hunt  [FREE Printable]

Teach Your Kid to Write their Name with these Fun, Sensory Ideas