Preschool Alphabet Game - Mystery Letter Bag

Teaching the alphabet and letter recognition is one of the basics of preschool teaching. Use a preschool alphabet game to grab their attention and engage their curiosity.

Try this game that one of my readers sent in. I can't remember any preschooler who doesn't love mystery and guessing games! Thanks so much for sharing this.

Mystery Letter Bag
Every Friday my 4 year olds look forward to The Mystery Letter Bag.

A small white paper gift bag covered with question marks appears on a hook near our calendar each Friday. It's contents includes several small mysterious items that begin with our letter of the week.

I provide "clues" as to what they might be Letter O. "The first item in my mystery letter bag is a sea creature who starts with the letter O and lives on the bottom of the sea." If their hand is raised they will be given an opportunity to guess. If the correct object is not guessed I will provide further clues. "This item that begins with the letter O has eight legs".

I keep providing more clues until the correct answer is guessed. I will frequently put an interesting food item in for the children to sample Olives, Kiwi etc. They really look forward to this game each week.


If you like this preschool alphabet game, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Alphabet Game - Name That Footprint Letter

Teaching the alphabet and letter recognition is one of the basics of preschool teaching. I love to physically involve my preschoolers while teaching them and I use this preschool alphabet game to teach letter recognition.


Name That Footprint Letter

1. Cut out footprints with light brown construction paper. You will need one footprint for each letter you wish to practice. You may want to make these out of tagboard as they will be stepped on.
2. Print letters of the alphabet on each footprint to help the child identify whichever you choose. Choose one in the same for each footprint (like all numbers or all letter etc.)
3. Laminate the footprints or cover them with clear contact paper.

Place the footprints in a line on the floor. Don't put the letters in alphabetical order or you'll get the "A,B,C's" sung to you.

Choose a number of footprints appropriate for the skill level and attention span of your students. Some children are not ready to recognize all 26 letters at once or to wait in line very long for a turn.

Children form a line behind the first footprint.

The first child walks the footprints, saying the sound or each letter's name before it is stepped on, trying to get to the end without making a mistake. If a child does make a mistake, tell him the correct letter name and let him continue.

When a child gets to the end of the footprints, he sits down to watch the next child in line. Listening to their peers reinforces their own letter recognition also.

Variations:

Instead of letters you can put numbers, shapes, or even different colors by pasting a piece of colored paper on the footprints. Then they can say the number or color or shape as they step on the footprint.

If you like this preschool alphabet game, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.


Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Preschool Fire Safety Activities

I believe all children should be offered preschool fire safety activities. It is critical to make these instructive and yet not frighten your preschoolers. Giving them the opportunity to pretend in a safe setting is a good place to start.

One of my readers shared the activities below. These activities also include alphabet recognition and reasoning skills.

Blanket of Smoke
I just did a fire safety unit and to reinforce crawling if there is smoke and letter recognition, I had the children pretend a blanket was smoke. They had to crawl under it and then find an alphabet letter. It was a fun way to handle a scary subject. I also bought some fireman figures at the dollar store and we talked about when it is appropriate to call 911. If it was a good reason we decided how may firefighters to put on the job and then counted them on a firehouse I made.

The kids loved it!

If you like these preschool fire safety activities, check out the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html

There are Two Editions now for the Preschool Planner: Basic or Platinum.

If you prefer lessons which have ideas for the Toddler Age, go here to the second volume of lessons. There is an entire bonus section devoted to TODDLERS.

http://www.preschoolwhiz.com/v2.html

Send me any ideas you would like to share and I will post them on my Blog.

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

Preschool Learning Activities - Hide & Seek Alphabet

Are you searching for preschool learning activities to teach letter recognition?

One of my readers sent me this Hide & Seek game that she uses to teach letter recognition. Preschoolers love the thrill of active involvement searching for treasures, letters, etc.

Try this activity to teach upper and lower case letters to your preschoolers. I'm sure you'll be reaching for it time and time again.

Hide & Seek Alphabet

Make uppercase letters on fun designed paper (mine were polka dot) about 6 inches in size & cut them out. Then make matching ones in the same fun print, but in lowercase on a small card.

Put the small letters in a lunch sack, and hide the large letters around the room. The children would reach in the bag and choose a lowercase letter card. They then would search the room looking for the matching uppercase letter.

When they locate the letter, they bring it back to circle and tell me what the letters are and then lay them in the center of our circle area. They can then choose another letter from the bag and begin searching again. When all letters are found, review all the letters together.

They loved the "hide and seek" element of this activity as well as reaching into the bag to see what they would get.

Thanks so much for sending me your preschool learning activities. Enjoy and remember to send in any preschool ideas you wish to share and I will post them here. Thanks for all the ideas that come in daily.

If you like these ideas, you'll love the other ideas in the Preschool Planner.

Check them out:

http://www.preschoolplanner.com/thefullstory.html


Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com


PS: If you would like to receive my free newsletter for more ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html

Free Preschool Lesson Plans - Letter Recognition Activity

Hi there,

If you're like me you're always on the watch for free preschool lesson plans. Here is an idea for a Letter Recognition Activity which is fun, engaging and successful! What more could we ask for as preschool teachers!

Try this idea that Jamie, one of my subscribers sent to me, and let me know how it works for you. My preschool class loved it!


From Jamie...
Letter Recognition Activity

The obstacle course was a way cute idea! Today we had the same problem in our class room and we played a game of musical alphabet.

We placed several letter cards face up on the floor and we walked around on each card. (They are laminated and strong enough to step on). The children took turns holding the music (which was a toy that plays music that they could stop when they wanted) then the children would stop and pick up the card they ended on and say the name of the letter and a word that starts with the same sound. We kept going until we were out of cards. They enjoyed taking turns. It got them moving any way.

We also played a game of head and shoulders knees and toes and we upped the tempo until it was really fast, all the kids loved that one.

Thank you for all the amazing information I have obtained off of your sight it has been very helpful and a fantastic preschool resource!!



If you have ideas to share, send them along and I'll post them here for all of us to use and enjoy.

Thanks,

Mary
marys.plans@gmail.com

P.S. If you would like to receive my free newsletters for ideas for your preschool class, enter your name and address at the site below:

http://preschoolplanner.com/preschool-activities.html