Alphabet Games for Kids
Alphabet games for kids play a huge role in teaching young learning minds the alphabet. We all know that learning the alphabet is the foundation of literacy. By understanding how letters and sounds work, kids will learn to read and write—both are crucial for their academic success.
One of the best ways for children to learn the alphabet is by using alphabet pieces. Yes—if you think they’re just toys, you’re quite mistaken. You can use them as letter manipulatives.
Letter manipulatives offer incredible benefits. Aside from being fun, they are also an excellent teaching tool. In fact, they are just as important as having a visual alphabet around. Alphabet pieces can set the stage for writing, reading, and more literacy foundations.
Using Letter Manipulation Through Alphabet Learning Games
Letter manipulatives enable children to interact with alphabet letters through hands-on plays. Children can feel the shape of the letters and arrange them to form letter strings or words. They can also see the curves and the lines that form each letter. Some letter manipulatives even allow kids to trace and explore letter formation.
Young kids love letter manipulatives, and there is massive value in setting up a tub with letter manipulatives—you can make simple activities using letter beads or even having kids explore with letter lacing beads.
Letter manipulatives are perfect for kids who are not able to write yet. It is also effective for kids who are beginning to read and write.
Letter Recognition
Letter recognition is a key step to teaching a kid to read and write. As kids play with letter manipulatives, they will gain knowledge about the letters they interact with. They can also see (and feel) the difference between letters (for example, O and L).
Kids usually explore letters they are familiar with, and that’s usually their first name. That being said, you don’t necessarily have to teach them the alphabet in the A-Z format. Instead, you may introduce the letters in their names first.
Then, they will start to expand their knowledge of letters to the rest of the alphabet. Soon, their ability to recognize letters will grow, and they will begin to identify and associate letters in uppercase and lowercase forms.
How Zoolingo Can Help:
Zoolingo’s alphabet games are designed to help children recognize letters through fun, challenging games. Our first letter game is the letter tracing game, where kids can trace letters by hand. As they trace the letters, they will understand how each letter is different in form and shape.
Our letter tracing game includes lowercase and uppercase letters, helping children recognize alphabet letters in both forms and match them.
The second alphabet game in Zoolingo is the letter recognition game, where we challenge kids to select the letter being called out in the app. This technique proves to help young kids match letters and their sounds.
Letter Sounds
After exploring and learning letter recognition, a kid will move on to learning the alphabet sounds.
There are many ways to do this; one being the most popular is by playing alphabet songs. Don’t mistake the classic ABC song for just being a catchy, baby song—we know it’s more than that. In fact, many of us today have learned the ABCs with the help of the classic ABC song.
Fortunately, there are thousands of fun, giggle-inducing alphabet songs on the internet. Here’s one from us:
https://youtu.be/AoGZe2j5wNk
At first, your little one will be able to identify some alphabet sounds. Remember, they will start to identify the letters they are most familiar with, especially the first letter of their name. As they gain mastery in this, they will move on to the rest of the alphabet sounds.
Next, you will see them use the letter pieces and sound them out more intentionally. When they talk about things, a dog, for example, they will notice which letter says /d/. Use this time to talk about how letters can have multiple sounds.
Learning letters using alphabet pieces have endless possibilities. So, think of more ideas on how you can use letter manipulatives to introduce letter sounds to your child.
How Zoolingo Can Help:
Zoolingo is all about helping children gain mastery in literacy. We added phonic songs to our app that kids can listen to and sing along with. In our letter tracing game, our app will play the phonic song of each letter before moving on to the tracing phase.
We used expertly animated cartoons and cheerful music in our phonic songs to ensure they catch your child’s attention. They are easy to follow and highly engaging—just as how kids like it.
Aside from phonic songs, we also added a collection of popular nursery rhymes. The word repetition in the nursery rhymes will help them develop their language skills.
Word Formation
Word formation starts once your kid begins to ask questions about words. You might hear them ask how to spell certain words, like dog, cat, or bird.
Again, you can work around alphabet pieces to teach your child about word formation (you can use letter magnets, Scrabble letter pieces, or wooden letter manipulatives).
Kids begin to form the words they hear once they understand letter sounds. As they continue to master letter sounds, they will be able to break words into sounds (i.e., breaking “dog” into three sounds: /d/ /o/ /g/. Then, they can replicate those sounds with the letter pieces to form the word.
Clearly, letter manipulatives have so much to offer. Letter manipulatives can be anything from letter magnets, letter beads, foam letters, movable alphabet, letter jewels, and so much more. You can also create your own using bottle caps and a permanent marker.
How Zoolingo Can Help:
As your child aces the alphabet forms and sounds, they can move on to our other games. We added more games to our app to allow children to practice their word formation skills. Our spelling game, in particular, will help them enhance their ability to break out sounds and identify the letters that form the sound.
Our vocabulary games also prove beneficial for helping young learning minds master word-formation. Our vocabulary game will make your child familiar with different words—from body parts, emotions, seasons, weather, shapes, colors to fruits, vegetables, animals, and so much more.
As their vocabulary widens, they will have more words to explore. They can practice breaking out the sound of each word.
When Using Alphabet Games for Kids
It’s important to remember that you must use alphabet games that your child will enjoy the most. The goal is to ensure that they are enjoying as much as they are learning.
Every child is unique. One particular alphabet game may work on someone’s child but not on yours. And that’s okay. You don’t have to force your child to engage in an activity they don’t find interesting.
In such cases, it’s best to observe your child and find out what activities they enjoy the most. Do they love reading than playing with toys? Or is it the other way around? Do they enjoy drawing or doodling? Or do they have more fun watching videos?
Once you find out what your child likes, use it to introduce the alphabet. We also advise spending time reading to your child every day. While they may not be able to pick up everything that you read, it can help them get more familiar with letters and their sounds.
We have covered alphabet games for toddlers and preschoolers before, and if you need more ideas, you can check out our other guides: Alphabet Activities for Toddlers and Alphabet for Kids.
If you notice your child is struggling with learning the alphabet, don’t worry. The alphabet is relatively new to them. If anything, you must change your strategy and find ways on how you can help them get a grasp of the alphabet.
The Best Educational App for Kids
Zoolingo offers the best kid alphabet games. All of the activities in Zoolingo are fun, easy, engaging, interactive, and highly-addicting. Parents love our app because not only it helps their kids build their literacy skills but also it also keeps their children engaged and focused (which gives them hours of free time to do household chores without interruption).
And because Zoolingo is a mobile app, your child can play it anytime and anywhere—in the car on the way to granny’s house or during playtime. Also, Zoolingo can help them build their digital literacy skills as they engage in alphabet type game.
Zoolingo is an All Digital School-approved app and is being recommended by thousands of parents and educators from different parts of the world.
As of date, our app has received over 4 million downloads and a massive amount of positive feedback from parents and educators. Zoolingo is a free-to-download mobile app for kids aged 2 to 7.
Download the game now and supercharge your child’s early childhood education right at your home. You can download Zoolingo on your iOS and Android device. So go ahead and give it a try.
