Skip to main content

Alphabet Centers

So it's been forever!  I have these big ideas and dreams that I'm going to post a new product and new post everyday, but let's face it with four kids it just ain't happening, lol.  While it's been a long time since I've posted I think it will be worth your wait!  I've been working on a huge alphabet bundle for a long time now.  My goal is for my 5 year old to be able to identify, write, and know all the sounds of all the letters in the alphabet before she starts kindergarten in August.  I've noticed that she is my "difficult" child.  She is not super fond of sitting down and working on her letters.  My older girls liked to draw and color and sit still, lol.  This little squirt however does not.  So my usual let's sit down and write our letters over and over does NOT work for her.  I love this about her.  Why have only one way of learning?  So I spent several months coming up with ways to keep her engaged.  While she is still not super excited to sit down and work on this she is improving and I couldn't be more proud of her! 
SO with that out of the way, let's talk about this bundle.  I've racked my brain on how to post these activities and how to post on my blog.  So I decided I am going to do it in three parts so it's not so long.  Post one (this one) I'm going to talk about the centers I created for this bundle.  I will have them posted individually and in the bundle in my TPT store.  Post two I will talk about the worksheets for this bundle and post three will be how I put all of these together in my Huge alphabet Bundle.
 
Here we go:
In this bundle I have eight centers (a center to me means it is more than just a worksheet)
 
Beginning Letter Sound Graphing Sheet
Alphabet Play-doh Mats
Find that Letter
Beginning Sound Check YES or NO
Alphabet Puzzles
Sort and Match Cards
Memory Game
Introducing letter sound cards
 
I will give a brief description of each of these centers with pictures of each activity.  Let's start with the first one. 
 
Beginning Letter Sound Graphing Sheet
 
 
I don't know about your kiddos, but my girls love to spin a spinner! For this center all you have to do is laminate the spinner mat and let the kids do the rest.  There is a worksheet for every letter in the alphabet.  The students will spin the spinner and use that color of marker, crayon, or whatever you have to graph on their worksheet.  So if they land on blue they use a blue crayon to write in the blue column the given letter.  Simple but more fun than a regular old worksheet.  And they don't realize they are writing the letter over and over, because practice makes perfect.  For the worksheet, I decided to leave four for tracing and the rest for "all by myself" writing.
 
 
 
Play-doh Mats
 

 Now on to the Alphabet Play-doh mats.  So PLAY-DOH, enough said.  These are super easy to set up, simply print and laminate.  Students will build letter with play-doh, work on beginning sounds by circling the pictures that start with the given letter and then also work on handwriting by using an expo marker and tracing the given letter.  There is a mat for each letter.


 
 
 
Find that Letter - Cube Mats
 
 

So, I have seen the fun cube mats everywhere, so I had to make some for us!  This center let's them use their little hands and also works on counting skills!  Yay!  Simply print and laminate and give them some cubes.  Students will fill mat with the red/blue cubes, but their not done yet!  They will then count all the red cubes and all the blue cubes and write their answer on the mat with a expo marker.

 
 

Check Yes or No 
 
 
Now we have one of our favorites.  Beginning Sounds Check Yes or No.  This center includes a worksheet so you can check their progress even if you are not sitting with them while they work. 
 
This file is a large file.  There are 26 worksheets, one for each letter and then two pages of cards to laminate and cut.  Students will also work on number recognition in this center.  I like to make this one more fun by cutting the cards out and putting them in a large box of colored beans or sand whatever you have to make it a little more interesting.  The kids will love doing something different and let's face it beans are not very expensive so there's no reason not to make this fun!  Students will pick a card from box then match the number on their card to the number on their worksheet.  If the picture on the card starts with the given letter they will color, paint, or stamp the Y.  If it doesn't start with the given letter they should check the N.  Pretty simple fun learning!


 
 
 
Alphabet Puzzles

 
So my idea is to print these on magnet paper, but this will be pricey.  I still plan to print each puzzle onto magnet paper, I will just have to do a few at a time, so I'm not spending $100.00 for alphabet puzzles, lol.  For a cheaper version you can laminate and put Velcro on the backs to stick to the puzzle sheet.  Wal-Mart also carries magnet strips you could stick to the backs and use as magnets.  A way cheaper way to use as magnets.  The pictures below are the puzzle sheet and an example of the puzzles.  There is a puzzle for each letter of the alphabet.


Get It Here

Sort and Match Cards



 
We like these.  They are just the right size to fit in a pencil case for storage.  We work on three letters at a time, so instead of trying to do the whole alphabet at once we just pull out three letters and letter mats at a time.  I set out the three letter mats like below.
 
Then I set out all of the cards for letters A,B,and C like this.
 
 
 
Students will then sort the cards and stick to the correct letter mat.  I laminate the cards and the mats and then use sticky Velcro so they will stay in place.  Once student has sorted and finished mats they can then trace the letters with a expo marker.
Memory Game


 
 
Good old memory.  I still like to play this game and this is one of our favorites to play together.  There are 12 cards per letter.  It is a huge file, but I didn't want to mix the letters yet because we are learning one to three at a time, so I thought it best to have a memory game per letter.  Once they have mastered the letters I then put a couple letters together to make it a larger game area. 
Introducing Letter Sounds Cards
 
 I actually should have posted these first because it is probably the first thing you will use when introducing letters.  These cards can be used in pocket charts as well.  We just go over the pictures and the letter and the sound it makes.  Just a ice breaker really.   

 
 
Well that's finally all of them, I hope it wasn't center overload.  Click on the Get It Here links if you would like to purchase the centers individually.  Save 50% when you buy the centers bundle!  This bundle includes all of the bundles you see here!  Get It Here!
 
Teach On!
 
 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Love is in the Air! Valentine's Day Bulletin Board Ideas

  I am so excited to share this with you all.  I have fallen in love with creating bulletin boards.  The thing is all that super cute clipart out there that would make things so much easier for me, well it doesn't allow you to create bulletin boards due to copyright because you are not changing the image in any way. So don't do it!  In comes my small artistic ability and an apple pen!  I created three different Valentine's Day displays!  And the best thing is they are all interactive!  Yay!  So, the first one is my "Muffin" board.  This one is for a smaller board about half the size of the great big hallway boards.  It turned out super sweet and fun!  So how does this work interactively? Students will scan thee QR page. The QR code will take students to my first directed drawing with Shelia and Joe!  Here they will draw their very own muffin and then color.  Click the picture to see the video!   After they complete the directed drawing all you have to do is lamina

Kindergarten Halloween Centers

I am so excited to start this new blog!  I have put some serious hours in!  Last year I drew some really cute halloween cuties but with 4 kids under 8 I never got around to posting them.  So I thought I would start this new blog with some Halloween fun!                                                           Click here to buy at my tpt store I was so excited about these cuties I decided to make a few things with them.  I wanted to make these centers 5x7 cards so I could buy one of those super cute photo boxes that everybody is using, but I can't justify the price tag! So for now I think some cute titled envelopes will do. My soon to be 5 year old and I have been getting ready for next year and kindergarten!  So these were made for her, so preschool/kindergarten.  First we started with these cute play-doh mats. I was over the moon with my witch fingers I found at Target.  I was immediately 8 years old and pretending I was the witch in wizard of oz.  I love

20 Small Group Center Ideas

SMALL GROUP...  My two most hated words my first 3 years of teaching... the sound of these words together made my stomach turn!  Everyone from coworkers to specialists had the ideas, but the countless hours I spent trying to make these "ideas" and this time engaging for the ENTIRE class was disgusting. I gave up many nights and weekends trying to find something that worked and kept the littles attention for longer than 2 minutes! I spent hours laminating and cutting - trying to make hands on activities that not only kept them engaged but was also growing those little brains!  Everything I tried just didn't seem to keep them at their desks working independently , so I could work with the kiddos at my small group table.  I was defeated. I felt like I was failing my students. I knew my low babies needed this time more than any part of the day, but I just couldn't find a way to make it successful. Fast forward out of my self pity to a Christmas craft fair in my hometown.