Ready for an alphabet activity that will knock it out of the park with your preschooler? If you have a little one who loves diggers, trucks, and all things construction, this is THE alphabet activity for you!

I recently sent out a survey to those who are on my email subscriber list, and I learned so much from your responses!

The main thing I learned is that you are looking for easy, low-prep, yet stellar resources—things that make learning fun for your little one without needing to search endlessly on Pinterest.

Well mama, you’ve come to the right place!

Whether you’re looking for a complete Play-Based Preschool Curriculum laid out for you day-by-day, guidance on teaching your little one letters and sounds, or fun activities to supplement what you are already doing, I’ve got you!

In fact, before we get into the Scoop and Dump Alphabet Activity, I think you’ll love these Free Printable Letter Cards! They are wonderful for helping your little one learn their letters and sounds through games like Go Fish, Scavenger Hunts, and even a Sock Toss game. You can grab them, along with a sample of How Wee Read, right here:

But back to the Scoop and Dump Alphabet Game! This activity is easily modified to make it engaging for those just learning their letters, as my nephew Carter is, as well as those who are already readers!

Carter is just starting to learn his letters. As his Auntie, I get to share some of my favorite learning activities with him to start him on his literacy journey.

Well, that doesn’t sound very magical… and learning letters and reading is magical.

So, not literacy journey. On his once-in-a-lifetime magical alphabet quest. Better.

Alphabet Activity Using Trucks Diggers

Since Carter is at the very beginning of his quest, we are starting with his name letters. To find out exactly why we do this, as well as the letter order you should use when introducing children to the alphabet, please check out my post on Teaching Letter Recognition.

This fun alphabet activity is so simple to set up!

I took some small rocks and wrote his name letters on them. I took five rocks and wrote the letter “C,” then five rocks and wrote the letter “A,” etc.

I also had some small wooden blocks from the dollar store, so I added his name letters to those, too, and included them in this activity.

Any small items work well. Whatever you have on hand.

I then wrote out Carter’s name on two pieces of paper. One for him to look at and use for reference, and one I chopped into individual letters.

That’s it!

My sister then put the rocks in a pile and spread the paper name letters out around the room.

Carter used his diggers and dump trucks to deliver each of the letter rocks to their proper paper letter.

He was scooping with the lifters and tractors and dumping with his trucks, as well as differentiating between the letters, recognizing them, and saying them aloud as well!

This was a great activity to get Carter familiar with his name letters.

If you have little one’s beyond this step, you can add in the letters s a t i p n, or whichever letters are currently being practised.

Modifications for Older Learners or Multiple Children

This would also make a great sight word activity! Sight words could be written on paper, and little ones would need to find the correct letters and build the word.

Siblings can work alongside each other while still being challenged appropriately.

If you are in a preschool classroom and have many children, I would suggest color-coding the letters. Each name could be written in a different color, which corresponds to the color on the rock. For example, Evelyn could be written in red, and her letter rocks would have her letters E-v-e-l-y-n also written in red. Joseph could be written in blue, and his letter rocks would also be written in blue.

This way, each child would begin by finding all of their color rocks, and then they could build their name. Or they might choose a friend’s name to build! A wonderful activity for a sand table!

I hope you like this alphabet activity! Perhaps it will be the very first activity that sparks a little one to undertake his very own once in a lifetime magical alphabet quest! 

For absolutely everything you need to teach your child to read—from rhyming to reading—check out How Wee Read:

https://shop.howweelearn.com/pages/how-wee-read

Thank you so much for reading,

xo
Sarah