Kid Wednesday: Teaching Letters to Preschoolers

Teaching preschoolers letter by letter is a great way of introducing the letters and having them have contact with different letters through art, reading and more.   There are many ways to do it whether starting at the beginning and working your way through from A to Z or easier to learn letters first.  I have used the method outlined in Handwriting without Tears which has an order of letters (found here) that suggests an order that might be easiest to learn capital letters.





I think that it is nice to mix up the letters instead of doing them in order but it has an added benefit that this makes it easier for the kids.

The lower case letters are different orders but we do both capital letters and lower case letters at the same time.

When I was teaching my son, I made a list of all the words that started with a certain letter and a list of all the books that had things to do with that letter.  There are great resources all over the internet but I love the list of the books from Measured Mom because there are so many different ideas.  We had a rough idea that we would use a lot of different ideas to learn the letter such as:

• reading books with the letter
• doing arts and crafts to make things with the letter
• learning math dealing with the letter (my son's favorite subject)
• using writing with the letter
• using fine motor skills with the letter
• using sensory items with the letter
• incorporating science with the letters
• singing songs or learning rhymes with the letter

The hardest part for me was to get so involved in planning that we didn't get anything done because I had too many ideas.  Remember that preschoolers are young and want to have fun so as long as you make learning fun, they will enjoy the process!!  Pick a few things to do and don't feel like you need to do everything with every letter.  I will be sharing letters with you each week with links to find some interesting files and information for yourself.

Enjoy and have fun!!