Early literacy is built on five different skills, but some of them start developing in infancy while others come much later. One of these later skills is letter knowledge: being able to recognize the letters of the alphabet and the sounds they make. For many parents, this can feel like the first real step towards their child learning how to read, and it’s fun to give kids a hand with this stage! Here are some of our favourite letter knowledge games that you can customize for your child’s level of letter knowledge:
- Letter Match-Up
- You will need a collection of both uppercase and lowercase letters. You can cut these out of magazines, print them off a computer, or grab those alphabet magnets off the fridge! Choose a smaller number of familiar letters to play with if your child is just starting with this skill.
- With all the letters before you, model matching an uppercase and a lower case letter together (e.g. “here is an uppercase A and here is a lowercase a”). Now invite your child to find a pair. Take turns finding pairs or work together.
- Letter Sounds
- Using the same set of letters, ask your child to make a letter sound (e.g. MMMM or SSSS) and then you try to find the letter that makes that sound. You can switch roles with each turn.
- Letter Shapes
- Using the same set of letters, you and your child can take turns selecting a letter and challenging the other player to make that letter shape with their body. Stretch first!
- I Spy Letters
- When it comes time to wind down with a good book, you can keep the games going by asking your child to point out a special letter as you read. For example, “Let me know if you see any Bs in this book!”
Reading together is so important at any stage in a child’s early literacy development, and of course we have you covered with these books that emphasize having fun with the alphabet: Alphabet Books