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I shared this post years ago, when my children were young. I love looking back at the fun things we did to fill our days as I taught my kids the alphabet! I highly recommend doing sensory, art, and fine motor activities with your preschooler simply because it’s fun. These activities also provide opportunities to develop oral language and other early literacy skills. However, please note that research tells us that direct instruction in letters and sounds is the most efficient way to teach and learn the alphabet. Find our full alphabet curriculum here.
Balloon Painting
I blew up a few small balloons and set them on the table with some paper andwashable glitter paint. This didn’t keep my kids’ attention as long as I thought it would, but it created some cool effects!
Printingwith Toy Bugs
My Two dipped our plastic toy bugs into paint and stamped them on his paper.
Blast off with Balloons
When I saw this project, I knew we had to try it. The kids loved the final effect, but we had a fair amount of crying when doing this project. This is totally worth doing, but let me share a few tips so your experience is happier than ours: First, cutting tissue paper is a little tricky. Do this project on a day when your preschooler has a lot of patience! He can easily tear the paper for the clouds, but you might want to cut out the balloons. Also, we found it necessary to glue down the tissue paper with a glue stick before painting over with a glue solution.
B is for Bird
Here is one of those classic crafts that we just had to do. My Two is learning tosit and do simple crafts, and he loved this. I prepared all the pieces and applied the glue; he lay them down. If you have an older preschooler, I recommend giving him the B cut-out, feathers, googly eye, and some markers. He can draw the beak and feet himself.
Bouncy Ball Painting in a Box
Our grocery stores gives out tokens when go shopping, and we’ve accumulated a giant collection of bouncy balls. I saved a few, dropped them in a shoebox, and added some squirts of paint. My Two loved rolling them around to create this masterpiece.
Paper Plate Butterfly
Get a sturdy cardboard paper plate and raid your craft drawer so your young preschooler can create this striking butterfly. We found this simple butterfly craft at No Time for Flashcards.
Paper Bus Craft
My Two has been obsessed with school buses (and any other vehicle) since he first began to talk. I knew we had to do this easybus craft from I {Heart} Crafty Things. He was thrilled when I gave him the sticky pieces so that he could make his own bus craft. I gave him a marker to draw people in the windows. Obviously an older preschooler would do a more recognizable job ;). You could also give your child square pictures of family members to use as the windows!
B is for Body
Print a giant letter B (from my collection of free block letters) and have your child glue down pieces of body parts cut from magazines. Older preschoolers can find and cut the pieces themselves; my Seven helped me out and got these ready for her little brother. If you don’t have a lot of magazines, no problem! Get a printable letter B and pictures of body parts from A Teaching Mommy.
B is for Butterfly
Over a year ago, I did a letter of the week craft series at Crystal and Company. This was one of our favorites. I love how it works so well for different age levels. You’ll need contact paper, tissue paper, and construction paper to create these butterflies for your window.Learn more about it and get the free butterfly pattern.
BubblePainting
This project wins the prize for most fun and “held their attention the longest.” Since I wasn’t sure about my Two’s ability to blow into a straw without inhaling some of the soapy solution, my older kids (four, five, and seven) did this when he was napping. All the kids ended up with some really lovely artwork! But more importantly, they had a great time experimenting and creating.Learn how to make your own bubble printsat Housing a Forest.
Alphabet Curriculum for Preschool
$29.00
Our curriculum includes lessons for teaching both upper and lowercase letter names and sounds. You’ll get three lessons per letter, built-in review, simple handwriting practice, rhyming, syllable counting, phonemic awareness, and a whole lot more!
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