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Home / Early Learning / Literacy / 10 of the Best Alphabet Movement Activities

10 of the Best Alphabet Movement Activities

Shared by Mary Catherine 33 Comments

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.

10 alphabet movement activities the kids will love

Table of Contents

  • Movement Activities for Teaching the ABCs
  • Win a Copy of an Awesome Children’s Book!
  • Done-for-You Preschool Resources

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?

Win a Copy of an Awesome Children’s Book!

I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Recently, I got the chance to meet Eric Litwin, an amazing children’s book author. He’s written the first four Pete the Cat books, the Groovy Joe books, and a series about The Nut family. His newest book is called The Nuts: Keep Rolling!, and it is just as fun as his previous books.

Win a copy of Eric Litwin's new book

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.

I’ve got an autographed copy of The Nuts: Keep Rolling! in my hot little hands. One of you awesome Fun-A-Day readers can win it below! Here are the rules:

  • Only entries through Rafflecopter are valid.
  • Since I’ll be mailing it, the winner will need to provide a mailing address within the United States.
  • The giveaway runs until 11:59 pm on May 1, 2017.
  • The winner will have 5 days to respond to my email. If I don’t hear back in that time, a new winner will be chosen.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Done-for-You Preschool Resources

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Alphabet movement activities that are fun and super easy to set up

Filed Under: Literacy Tagged With: Alphabet, Gross Motor

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  1. Kelly p says

    April 25, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    Letter sound jump!

    Reply
  2. LAura says

    April 26, 2017 at 11:00 pm

    Lettercise song and spelling letters with our bodies.

    Reply
  3. LaQuetha says

    April 26, 2017 at 11:05 pm

    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.

    Reply
  4. LaQuetha says

    April 26, 2017 at 11:09 pm

    I do a letter hunt movement actvity and Dr Jean Who let the letters out. We do lots of Dr. Jean.

    Reply
  5. Christina Nolan says

    April 26, 2017 at 11:31 pm

    Sing the alphabet, then whisper it, then clap it, and finally jump it! Gets all the wiggles out!

    Reply
  6. Michele says

    April 26, 2017 at 11:43 pm

    Love the Have Fun Teaching videos on YouTube.

    Reply
  7. Kim Floyd says

    April 27, 2017 at 12:29 am

    We sign and sing the alphabet! Once we learned the alphabet, we were able to sign simple sight words too.

    Reply
  8. Stacy S says

    April 27, 2017 at 12:34 am

    Letter hunt, indoors or outdoors

    Reply
  9. Jolene R. Fisher says

    April 27, 2017 at 4:37 am

    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.

    Reply
  10. Jeanette says

    April 27, 2017 at 6:08 am

    Great ABC ideas. Always looking or more.

    Reply
  11. Cindy Weems says

    April 27, 2017 at 7:12 am

    Letter sound jump

    Reply
  12. Joanna Kohlbus says

    April 27, 2017 at 7:17 am

    We like to exercise our way through the alphabet (A Arm circles, B, bounce up and down, etc.)

    Reply
  13. Kathleen Sisco says

    April 27, 2017 at 8:27 am

    I love these activities and many can integrate Literacy with Gross Motor Times. Thanks much!

    Reply
    • Kathleen Sisco says

      April 27, 2017 at 8:29 am

      I’d like to enter the contest but did not see Rafflecopter link.

      Reply
  14. Doreen says

    April 27, 2017 at 8:40 am

    Letter Sound Jump!

    Reply
  15. Janet Parks says

    April 27, 2017 at 8:43 am

    These activities are super fun and coupled wit a chance to win a book, FABULOUS!

    Reply
  16. Michelle says

    April 27, 2017 at 8:52 am

    We use Five Finger Phonics. Each letter has a movement that the kids enjoy doing.

    Reply
  17. Lauren says

    April 27, 2017 at 9:33 am

    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.

    Reply
  18. andrea says

    April 27, 2017 at 10:07 am

    Animal motions to the letters and letter sounds as we moved from place to place. (in line going outside, to lunch)

    Reply
  19. Hailey says

    April 27, 2017 at 11:44 am

    Wow! Thanks for the great ideas, my kids will love these!

    Reply
  20. sue siesser says

    April 27, 2017 at 3:50 pm

    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.

    Reply
  21. Kim says

    April 27, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    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.

    Reply
  22. Carol Tavares says

    April 27, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    I love to use the Jack Hartman DVDs or you tube videos as well as Dr. Jean’s videos.

    Reply
  23. Janice Gallagher says

    April 27, 2017 at 9:24 pm

    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.

    Reply
  24. Renee Fehr says

    April 27, 2017 at 9:53 pm

    Letter Sounds Racing

    Reply
  25. Sarah says

    April 28, 2017 at 6:51 am

    Letter musical squares!!

    Reply
  26. Jill says

    April 28, 2017 at 8:27 am

    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!!

    Reply
  27. Kristen England says

    April 28, 2017 at 9:17 am

    We create letter boards using natural and random materials.

    Reply
  28. Dee Duffy says

    April 28, 2017 at 12:51 pm

    I love movement activities to teach concepts!

    Reply
  29. Cindy Lawson says

    April 28, 2017 at 9:37 pm

    Making the shapes of the letters with our bodies.

    Reply
  30. michelle says

    April 30, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    i like the soccer.

    Reply
  31. Sue says

    May 1, 2017 at 7:56 am

    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!

    Reply
  32. Samara says

    October 30, 2017 at 5:03 pm

    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.

    Reply
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My name is Mary Catherine, and I love to share meaningful {and fun} learning activities for kiddos! Feel free to browse and stay awhile!

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