Young children need to be up and moving throughout their day. That’s why it’s important to incorporate fun movement activities into the preschool day, whether at home or in the classroom. Below you’ll find some of my favorite ideas for teaching the alphabet while in motion.
The great thing about each of these ideas is their simplicity. Most of them require just a couple of materials and are very simple to prep. I think it would be easy to swap out the materials for each of these activities, too, based on what you have on-hand.
Movement Activities for Teaching the ABCs
String Scavenger Hunt | Hands On As We Grow
Encourage letter learning with a string course little spies are sure to love. This can easily be changed up depending on what letters the kids are working on.
ABC Ball Toss Up | Playdough to Plato
Work on letter identification with just a beach ball! Love how simple this activity is, but I also love that it can easily be adapted to kids’ needs. I think this would be a great group game to play, as well.
Letter Sound Jump | The Imagination Tree
Grab the chalk and head outside with the kids. Practice letter sounds while jumping and playing on the sidewalk. This is definitely one of our go-to movement activities about letters and sounds.
Basketball Alphabet Game | School Time Snippets
Kids enamored with basketball will get a kick out of tossing the alphabet through the hoop. This comes with a free printable, and you can set up a bucket or a bin if you don’t have a little basketball hoop.
Pillow Jumping ABCs | Toddler Approved
This one would work well with pillows or carpet squares. Kids will definitely have a blast jumping through the alphabet. It would be super simple to change it up and focus on letter sounds, too.
Hunting for Letters Outdoors | No Time for Flash Cards
Such a great idea for hiding the letters outdoors, and I love the tip for removing permanent marker. Add to the letter hunt by having the kids search just for the letters in their names, hopping from one letter to another, etc.
Letter Sounds Racing | Inspiration Laboratories
You just need some magnetic letters, a magnetic board, and little running feet for this alphabet movement idea. I’m sure any kind of alphabet manipulative would work well here, if you don’t have any magnetic letters.
Alphabet Wheelbarrows | My Mundane and Miraculous Life
Kids can work in teams, leading a “wheelbarrow” to collect letters. Love the inclusion of heavy work to this alphabet movement fun.
Kick the Cups | Mom Inspired Life
Use a soccer ball, or any ball you have on-hand, for some hands-on (ahem . . . feet-on) alphabet learning. Change things up depending on what letters the children are working on, as needed.
Grab and Pull Letters | Growing Book by Book
Set this up in the backyard on a sunny day, or inside if the weather isn’t cooperating. Use whatever alphabet manipulatives you have and get the kids moving their letter loads.
What are some of your favorite alphabet movement activities? How do you incorporate movement into learning throughout the day?
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As part of the roll-out of his new book, Eric Litwin is hosting a dance party contest. The dance that goes along with the book is sure to have the kiddos giggling (I know I was when he taught it to a room full of teachers). And the dance contest prize is an author visit from Mr. Eric, himself!
Eric also has a “Be a Health Nut” campaign to go along with his new book. It encourages children to get up and move! You can read more about it on his website.
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Letter sound jump!
Lettercise song and spelling letters with our bodies.
The favorite movement activites are Jack Hartman Top Dog, Body Rock. We have been doing the chicken dance. Learning Station Movement Cds. I just taught Mother May I on the playground.
I do a letter hunt movement actvity and Dr Jean Who let the letters out. We do lots of Dr. Jean.
Sing the alphabet, then whisper it, then clap it, and finally jump it! Gets all the wiggles out!
Love the Have Fun Teaching videos on YouTube.
We sign and sing the alphabet! Once we learned the alphabet, we were able to sign simple sight words too.
Letter hunt, indoors or outdoors
I love to incorporate activities from the books we are currently reading and enjoying. We search for the letters in our names, etc. We will make letter or sight word cards and dance around them, stopping and identifying cards nearest to us or running to find our favorite letter, etc. We also like to use concepts from Zoophonics to act out the letters.
Great ABC ideas. Always looking or more.
Letter sound jump
We like to exercise our way through the alphabet (A Arm circles, B, bounce up and down, etc.)
I love these activities and many can integrate Literacy with Gross Motor Times. Thanks much!
I’d like to enter the contest but did not see Rafflecopter link.
Letter Sound Jump!
These activities are super fun and coupled wit a chance to win a book, FABULOUS!
We use Five Finger Phonics. Each letter has a movement that the kids enjoy doing.
We also like to use squirt bottles outside to squirt chalk letters. I write sight words for my older son and letters for my daughter.
Animal motions to the letters and letter sounds as we moved from place to place. (in line going outside, to lunch)
Wow! Thanks for the great ideas, my kids will love these!
I give each student a capital letter or a matching lower case letter. All students stand and find their buddies. You can start this with all alphabet letters and then graduate to matching capital with lower case.
I like using motions to go along with the letters and their sounds. The kids love it and it definitely seems to help them make connections between the sound and the letter.
I love to use the Jack Hartman DVDs or you tube videos as well as Dr. Jean’s videos.
Love so many ideas in one place. Pinning for future use. I’m a new Pete the Cat fan. The kids shared the Four Groovy Buttons to start my collection.
Letter Sounds Racing
Letter musical squares!!
We love to sing with Dr. Jean and act out! We also just did a rhyming activity with throwing a ball at a cup with the rhyming word. I love the idea of kicking it! We will try that next week!!
We create letter boards using natural and random materials.
I love movement activities to teach concepts!
Making the shapes of the letters with our bodies.
i like the soccer.
In my school library I have a center where all the letters are written on the top of paper cups and the kids like to stack them and make words with them. It’s fun although not super active!
Hey Mary Catherine,
Cool post! Lots of great ideas here. I especially like how easy they are to put together—that’s key for me : ) I can definitely see us hunting for letters outside and playing alphabet ball. My daughter loves to play catch, so I can see this one in her near future.