Letters of the Alphabet for Preschoolers: D, E, F, and G

This week we didn’t do quite as many alphabet activities because the girls started swim lessons and we were busy with a few other things.  Sunshine was quite ready to continue doing her letters of the alphabet on the weekend, so she’s really been enjoying this.  I think having a letter a day gives her some structure to her day while also allowing for creativity and flexibility.

Each day, I’ve given them a printable to practice the letter of the day.  We have also continued creating a collage or putting letter-themed stickers into their notebooks (more on that below).  Here’s what else we’ve done to learn each letter.

The Letter D

For the letter D, we talked about dinosaurs, dolphins and ducks.  I had some dino and dolphin stickers and a small Dora colouring page for their notebooks.  Sunshine pointed out to me that Diego started with D, so they watched part of a Diego movie from the library in the afternoon.

I also made them a stuffed duck (using a kit I’ve had sitting around for quite a while).  They did their stickers and writing at the table while I was sewing the duck, so I could talk to them about what they were doing.  We sang duck songs such as “Five Little Ducks”  and “Six Little Ducks” (which also introduce numbers and counting).

The girls are also interested in money, so I dumped out my piggy bank and explained to them which little coin is the dime.  I asked them to sort out the dimes from the other coins.  Sunshine did well with this and amassed a large collection of dimes, which of course disappeared into her little purse.

The Letter E

I cut out little squares of construction paper and then drew a letter E in glue and let the girls stick the squares onto the letter.  Lily really enjoyed this project and wanted to make a B as well.  I also found an elephant craft on Pinterest, which I printed for them.  Sunshine cut it out herself and I helped Lily, and then they glued these into their notebooks.

We also read Ella the Elephant by Bill Peet and I saw some cute Elmo cards/pictures on Pinterest, but we ran out of time to do them.  I found some cute colouring pages, so I printed those for them.

The Letter F

F is for fairy and the girls had a large collection of Tinkerbell stickers, so they put stickers in their notebooks.

We talked about “F is for Friends” and they watched The Friendship Show.

And we sang some frog songs: “Little Green Frog” (which makes Jade laugh) and “Five Green and Speckled Frogs.”

The Letter G

For this letters of the alphabet activity, I went through our bookshelf and pulled off any books with G in the title.  It was quite a large pile, mostly older books from my husband’s childhood.  We read about a giraffe and some Curious George stories, as well as Goodnight Seattle (which helped illustrate the two different sounds “G” makes).  Before we started each book, I asked the girls to point out letters they recognized in the title.

We also talked about “G is for Grandma and Grandpa,” so they made all of their grandparents cards.  Lily used construction paper squares to make “G” on the front of her cards, similar to the “E” above.  She and Sunshine drew pictures of themselves in the cards and signed their names.  I added a note about what they were working on and mailed the cards.

Letters of the Alphabet Notebooks

As a neat freak, I’m not a fan of having artwork all over the house.  Most of Sunshine’s preschool paintings and drawings have gone straight into the recycle bin (although a few end up on the fridge or in her photo album).  When I’ve browsed for crafts for them for our letters of the alphabet, I’ve sometimes thought, “Well, they could make that and then we could throw it out, so why make it?”  (Yes, I know, it’s all for the learning experience.)  My solution: their notebooks.

When I printed the elephant craft for them, I realized it was small enough to fit into their notebooks.  Bingo!  Everything they made could be glued into their notebooks.  It kept their artwork neat and also made it easier to save, since it was all in one place.  Plus, they could easily show off their projects to Daddy or another friend.

On our “F” day, we headed to the church for a potluck in the evening.  I knew there wouldn’t be many other kids there, so I threw the girls’ notebooks and a few pens and markers into the diaper bag.  While they waited for supper to start, the girls coloured and drew and wrote in their notebooks.  We’d filled enough pages with various crafts that they had quite a bit to do, yet there was still space on most pages for them to practice their letters.  It kept them busy and continued the learning.

Have you worked on teaching your children the letters of the alphabet?  Check out what we did last week for ABC and come back next Friday for the letters HIJK!