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Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers: No Pencil Required!

February 16, 2015 by Sarah 11 Comments

Sammy is very interested in letters and ‘spelling’ right now.  He loves to ask how to spell words, point out letters he knows everywhere he goes, and generally all alphabet activities for preschoolers.

He would also very much love to print these letters.  However, he is simply not quite ready for writing.  He is 3 and has really not had much interest in fine motor activities.  So he has trouble holding a pencil or crayon and trouble making controlled marks – and it was starting to frustrate him.  A lot.

Luckily there are so many different alphabet activities for preschoolers and so many ways to ‘write’ letters.  Many do not involve holding a pencil at all!

Alphabet activities for preschoolers using gross motor skills

Sometimes we use play dough, or a bingo dabber, or beans.  But lately we have been building letters on a ‘Sticky Wall’ – and it has been a huge hit.

I first got the idea of a sticky wall from Two-daloo and their Halloween Frankenstein.  Since then, I have seen sticky walls everywhere on the internet!  One that I love is this Itsy Bitsy Spider sticky wall by Fantastic Fun and Learning – what a wonderful way to retell a story!

Anyways, long story short (well, I guess it wasn’t that short) we made a sticky wall.

We created the sticky wall by simply using Dollar store contact paper – sticky side out.  At first I fixed it to the wall by rolling the sticky edge underneath and pressing to the wall. But after a bit of play – the pushing and pulling on and off of popsicle sticks – we added some painters tape around the sides to give it added strength.

Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers on a Sticky Wall:

I wrote the letters of the alphabet on sticky notes (one letter per sticky) and stuck them above the board (within arms reach for Sammy).  I wanted the letters to be moveable so I could spell a word for Sam, should he ask me to, and he could build it.

These sticky letters are great for so many alphabet activities for preschoolers – we re-use them again and again.

Alphabet activities for preschoolers learning letters

The tools we used for building the letters were craft sticks and pipe cleaners.  I chose two different materials because I wanted Sammy to really think about how he was building each letter – was the letter made of curved parts, straight parts, or both?

The straight parts were easiest made with the craft sticks (either big or broken in half) and the curved parts were best made by pipe cleaners (which I had already bent).

Sammy has been loving building his letters.  He is so very proud of himself every time he makes a letter or word.  He has even started playing with sounds — saying Ben’s name and recognizing that it starts with the sound ‘B’ so he searches for the letter B before asking me to help him with the rest of Ben’s name.

alphabet activities for preschoolers learning sight words

Since this board was such a hit and I knew it would be hanging around awhile, we made a little storage area for all of the craft sticks and pipe cleaners.

I simply took a paper towel tube (covered it with a flowered contact paper only because I had it handy and thought it would look nice) and stuck it to the bottom of the sticky paper.  The craft sticks fit nicely inside (long sticks on one side and halves on the other) and the pipe cleaners wrapped around the outside of the roll nicely.

Neat and tidy and ready for play anytime!

organizing supplies

There are so many ways to learn letters before a pencil grip is needed.  I believe in following my wee ones leads.  If they are interested in learning about something I try hard to make it appropriate for what they are capable of – a challenge, but not a frustration.

Funny side note – Benjamin (12 months) bent over by the sticky wall and his head touched, sticking his hair gently to the wall.  It must have felt funny because he did it again and again.  Madeline and I started laughing – so now of course he does it all the time, with a big smile waiting for a reaction.  Oh the fun to be had with a sticky wall!

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Filed Under: Learn, Letters and Numbers, Letters and Reading, Popular, Preschool Activities, Preschooler, Quiet Time Tagged With: learning letters, letters, preschool, reading, toddler

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Comments

  1. Stephanie says

    November 4, 2013 at 8:14 am

    This is a wonderful idea! Perfect for my twins. We LOVE sticky walls of all kinds- we should have stock in Contact paper at this point, hah! Thanks for the lovely mention 😉

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      November 4, 2013 at 9:39 pm

      My husband said the exact same thing to me yesterday about Painter’s Tape. I have envied many of your ‘sticky’ crafts!! So much fun.

      Reply
  2. Shaunna @ Fantastic Fun and Learning says

    November 4, 2013 at 11:13 am

    What a fun idea! My oldest would love this to practice sight words, too.

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      November 4, 2013 at 9:38 pm

      Sight words would be great on this too Shauna, your right … I love the activities that can be used again and again for different things.

      Reply
  3. Antoinette says

    November 4, 2013 at 9:21 pm

    Wow, this post was timed perfectly for me. I literally started surfing around last night for fun ways to teach spelling & writing. Thank you for sharing! (This is going on my Pinterest Board.) 😀

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      November 4, 2013 at 9:36 pm

      Perfect! So glad it was useful for you Antoinette.

      Reply
  4. Sarah says

    November 5, 2013 at 8:47 pm

    This is an awesome idea for my house and for my classroom! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      November 5, 2013 at 9:42 pm

      So glad you found it useful Sarah! That is why I started this blog – so glad to hear it is serving it’s purpose.

      Reply
  5. Catriona Walsh says

    September 22, 2014 at 1:43 pm

    Great idea

    Reply
  6. Laura says

    February 20, 2015 at 2:53 pm

    Looove this activity! How simple yet effective! We love contact paper activities!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      February 25, 2015 at 9:53 pm

      Thank you Laura! Yes, contact paper is a regular occurrence around here too … and painters tape!

      Reply

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