Use a School Readiness Activity to provide early literacy thinking experiences for preschool children that will prepare them to do well in the early grades.
Grades:
Subjects:
Alphabet Matching Game
Purpose/Skills- To see and say letters
- To match letter shapes
- To recognize some letters
Materials
Alphabet poster, plastic or paper letters, hat
Read any interesting alphabet book.
Vocabulary
alphabet
letter
name
match
Warm-Up
- Ask children to tell you the names of some letters.
- Chant the ABC song.
- Sing it again; tell children to put their hands on their heads when they hear the first letter in their first names. After chanting, ask children to tell you what the ABCs are. (alphabet letters)
Procedure
- Display an alphabet poster. Put plastic or paper alphabet letters into a hat.
- Demonstrate how to play an "Alphabet Matching Game."
- Pick a letter. Hold up the letter for all children to see. Say the name of the letter. Have children repeat the name.
- Hold the letter next to the alphabet poster. Ask children to help you match the letter in your hand to a letter on the poster. Encourage them to look at the letter's shape carefully. Trace the letter with your finger and point out how the letter is shaped.
- Find the plastic or paper letters that match the first letters of children's names, and ask them to say the letter and match it on the alphabet poster. Then invite volunteers to take a letter out of the hat and match it to a letter on the alphabet chart.
- Set up a letter-matching activity.
- Make alphabet puzzle strips by tracing the outlines of plastic or paper letters.
- Have children match the letters to the outlines.
- Some children may also enjoy tracing around letters on paper to make designs.
Observation Assessment
- Proficient - Child can repeat letter names clearly and can match plastic letters to corresponding letters on the alphabet chart.
- In Process - Child needs help to repeat letter names and to match plastic letters to corresponding letters on the alphabet chart.
- Not Yet Ready - Child does not yet say the letter names clearly and cannot yet match plastic letters to corresponding letters on the alphabet chart.
