Alphabet Games for Kindergarter
So, you’re looking for alphabet games for kindergarten? Perhaps you’ve already come across some DIY alphabet activities on Pinterest and other blogs. You might have also read our full guide about alphabet games for kids. If you’re still on the look for ABC games for kindergarten, you’re in the right place.
Teaching the alphabet to kids comes with many challenges—one is that you must engage your child in a game that they will genuinely enjoy. Kids are unique and learn differently. Hence, what works on your kid 6-year-old may not work just as effectively on your 4-year-old.
The best way to start this is to observe what your child likes. Then, use that to introduce the alphabet. Also, you might have to try different approaches until you find the one that they are most fascinated with.
Alphabet Games for Kindergarten
This page is full of ideas that you may use for your child’s alphabet learning. Our collection goes from tracing letters to recognizing them. We also included alphabet games that will help them master the letters in alphabetical order. Hence, you should be able to find something that fits your child.
Alphabet Magnets
Ah, yes, the classic alphabet magnets. They are very common and are always readily available in online stores and local stationeries. One of the best things about them is that they’re typically cheap.
So, how can you use alphabet magnets for your child’s alphabet learning? Here are some fresh ideas:
Letter Hunt
Kids love to explore and find things—and if that’s true for your kindergarten, then this is the best game for them. This is not your typical “Can you find the letter B?” game. To make it more interesting, write a simple word on a board (or you may also print them and stick them to the wall).
Hide the alphabet magnets across the room (make sure your child can easily find them). Then, ask your child to look for the letter magnets that match the letters of the word you posted.
Whenever they find a letter, call it out and have them repeat it. By playing this game repeatedly, they will gradually learn the connection between letters and sounds. This will also enhance their spelling skills.
Alphabet Tower
For this game, you will need playdough and alphabet letters. The objective of the game is simple: make a tower by stacking the alphabet magnets. Instruct them to use the playdough to connect the letters.
When you hand your child the playdough and letter magnets, they are most likely to smash the letters into the playdough. That’s okay—give them time to experiment and play with the materials.
After your child has had time to explore the materials, you can then introduce the challenge.
This is one of the alphabet games for kindergarten that we really love. Not only it teaches children the alphabet, but it also enhances their creativity as they build and design their tower.
Your kid may lay the letters flat and build them. That’s totally fine, as this game is also about how they build and design things.
Alphabet Fishing
If your kindergartener enjoys playing during bathtime, then you’ve got to try this alphabet game. You will still be using alphabet magnets for this activity anda small magnet fishing pole (you can buy this on Amazon or create your own). Make sure to prepare a small bucket where they can put the letters that they catch.
Use alphabet flashcards (or anything similar) to show them what letter they must catch using their fishing pole. At this point, it’s better to show and call out the letter in the flashcard to help them better recognize the letters.
Then, instruct them to put the letters they catch in the bucket. To make this interesting, you may ask them to catch the letters of a word. By doing this, you help them improve their spelling abilities.
What Letter Is Missing?
If your kindergarten already knows the alphabet (or at least memorize the alphabet song), you can introduce this game to challenge their knowledge. You will need alphabet cards for this game (or alphabet magnets, if available).
Simply lay down all the alphabet cards in alphabetical order. Then, ask your child to close their eyes. While their eyes are closed, take one card away. Instruct them to open their eyes and determine which alphabet letter is missing.
You can make this more challenging by placing a card in a different spot. Instruct your child to identify which letter is not in the correct order.
Change a Letter
As your child progresses through the alphabet, you may start introducing simple words to them. You may begin with three-letter words. Change the word by swapping one letter at a time, then instruct your child to sound out the new word. For example, the first word can be “cap,” then change it to “cop,” to “cup.” (Other examples are: hat/ hot/ hut, son/ sun, pat/ pet/ pit/ pot/ put).
Use this opportunity to teach your child about letter sounds. This is an excellent game that will improve their vocabulary and language skills. They will also learn how to properly pronounce words based on spelling.
Sort the Alphabet
This game is fun and simple. You need alphabet cards or alphabet toys for this game. Simply shuffle up the alphabet cards/toys and ask your kindergarten to put them back into alphabetical order as quickly as possible.
If your little one struggles with completing the game, you can show them the correct alphabetical order that they can follow.
Don’t Be Upset
Is your child having trouble picking up alphabet lessons? Perhaps you’re getting worried about your child being at a disadvantage because you did not do enough to get them ready for reading and writing.
What adds to your anxiety is that you’ve already spent so much time searching for alphabet activities on the internet. Yet, it still feels like you still need to find that one elusive activity that will finally work on your child.
Remember this: it’s not your fault and also definitely not your child’s. Perhaps, what you might want to look into is your strategy.
As we repeatedly mentioned in our guides, it’s always best to observe what your child is most interested in. Then, use that to your advantage—use the activities they love to teach them the alphabet.
You may also want to consider your timing. More often than not, some parents start teaching their children too early. One common mistake that parents make is that they think their toddlers are ready for learning letters when their kids start pointing to letters and ask, “What’s that?”
Sometimes, when kids show “interest” in letters, they are just most likely eager for language, meaning they simply want to know the names of everything they see to build vocabulary.
The truth is that it is not until kids are around the age of three that they become ready to be aware of the individual sounds in spoken words.
Of course, you may also want to find signs of dyslexia in your child, but it is not always the case when they have trouble identifying the alphabet.
ReadingRockets give us a list of things to look for when you suspect your child to have dyslexia:
- Failure to understand that words come apart. For example, the word doorbell can be split into door and bell, and later on, that the word bell can be broken down as b-e-l-l.
- Inability to learn to associate letters with sounds.
- Reading errors that show zero connection to the sounds of the letters, such as reading cat as boat.
- Complaints about how difficult reading is (and runs or hides when it is time to read).
Zoolingo Offers Letters for Kindergarteners
Zoolingo is an educational app filled with hundreds of fun learning games. We have a rich collection of alphabet games perfect for both preschoolers and kindergarteners. Our ABC games range from tracing, recognizing to sequencing.
Our tracing game will teach children to identify letters through tracing. By tracing each letter of the alphabet by hand, they can improve their fine and gross motor skills. They can also enhance their hand and eye coordination. Our tracing game can also support your child’s journey to building penmanship.
The second alphabet game for kindergarten in Zoolingo is focused on helping children recognize letters by matching them with sounds. Our app will sound out the letter that your child needs to select. This is a fun activity that will challenge your child’s alphabet knowledge.
Lastly, we have the letter sequencing game where we ask children to select the correct letter to complete the sequence. Letter sequencing game is the perfect activity that will sharpen your child’s literacy and language skills.
Zoolingo is a free-to-download mobile app that’s available on both iOS and Android devices. Supercharge your child’s alphabet knowledge now by downloading the app.
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.
