How to Teach Your Preschooler Letters
Learning the alphabet is one of the most exciting milestones your preschooler reaches. While it all started with singing the alphabet song in his toddler years, your preschooler should be able to identify most letters by age 4 or 5 -- but he needs practice and help to get to that point. Teaching letters readies your preschooler for reading and writing.
Things You'll Need
- Books
- Letter magnets
- Letter puzzles
- Shaving cream
- Salt
- Primary paper
Instructions
Read often to your child. You likely started reading to your child at a young age, but, by your child's preschool years, you can push this learning experience further. Point to words as you read aloud and ask what your child thinks the book is about or what will happen next based on the pictures. Let your preschooler handle the book and turn the pages -- the concept of print and pictures is a pre-reading skill. Introduce letters one at a time. You might choose to follow the alphabet, or you can start with letters that will spell your child̵7;s name. You can use an alphabet book to introduce letters or try letter magnets or puzzles your child can play with. After you introduce a few letters, pull those letter magnets out and ask your preschooler to find the A. Let your preschooler decorate a drawing of a letter or a construction paper cutout of a letter with markers, crayons, paper or other art supplies. Introduce the letter and play word games like saying words that start with the letter as your preschooler decorates. Write your child̵7;s name on his artwork. Draw each letter slowly and point out each one when you finish. Practice tracing letters with your preschooler. You can use printable worksheets or let her trace letters in shaving cream or salt. The cream or salt lets her ̶0;erase̶1; the letter if she makes a mistake, and it̵7;s an enticing tactile experience as well. Use primary paper with lines to encourage your preschooler to write letters. You can compare the boundaries of the lines to objects, such as a roof for the top line, a fence for the dotted middle line and a sidewalk for the bottom line. Ask your preschooler to write a T by drawing a line down from the roof to the sidewalk followed by a shorter line across the top just below the roof.
