Ideas for Teaching the Letter “A” to Preschoolers & Toddlers

Glenda C.

One thing I would like to suggest before you begin teaching your children the letter of the week. Teach your children there name and how to spell it and also write it. This way they are familiar with letters and have some ideal of what letters are and why there are big letters and little letters. Once they know there name begin to teach your children there A,B,C’s and I would recommend that you teach them one letter at a time.

For our second week of school we will be learning the Letter “A”. We will go over the big A and little  A. The lessons we are learning will allow us to teach both toddlers and preschoolers. Preschoolers and Toddlers are usually enthusiastic about the letters of the alphabet. You can build on this enthusiasm by presenting an array of different activities to provide an “Amazing A” day. They can eat, cook, cut and paste, trace and read with these activities based on the letter “A”.

Before we begin our lessons I have 5 tips for you:

  1. Read, Read, Read everything and anything to your children and read mulitple times a day.
  2. Have your children practice spelling and writing there name once a day.
  3. In your home or even when your out and about have your children point out letters and tell you which ones they know.
  4. Involve other people in helping teach your children as others may have ideals you didn’t think of or may be able to capture your children’s attention when you couldn’t.
  5. Stop if the child is tired or doesn’t feel well take a free day and just spend time plays as you can still teach your children when there playing.

Gather your students together and tell them that this is going to be an awesome, amazing “A” day (or week if you wish). Begin your day with a story where the letter “A” figures prominently in the title. For our studies we are reading Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett

 I ask my niece and nephew to come to the reading circle and I let them know we are going to learn the letter  “A”. I point out the A in the title of the book we are reading. Then I get up and walk to the chalkboard and I  print the upper case and lower case on  the chalkboard. I draw both the big and little A and I explain the  the upper case is the BIG letter and it is used for BIG important things such as names.
Then I write out my name and I show them that there is a a in my name and it is a little a. Then I write our another name which begins with the letter A and I show them the difference and once again explain why one a is big and why one a is small. Then I give my niece and nephew some paper and let the practice writing out both a big a and a small a.
Lay Cotton Balls out and  on construction paper write out both small and large A’s. Invite the students to glue the cotton balls to the outline of the letters.
For art I provided different colored papers and we cut and pasted pictures of our houses.  Once they was done we cut out the houses and hung them up. After I printed there address and phone number on them for us to practice each day.
Shaving Cream Fun: Spray shaving cream on a table or desktop. Encourage students to draw both the big A and the small a with their fingers in the shaving cream. (Your classroom will smell so good after this activity!)
A is for animals: Provide pictures and books about animals.  I sat down with them and we looked through the books and then we choose our favorite. Then we draw a picture of our animals and we discussed what each one started with and what there name started with.
I provided a dish of animal crackers  and we tried to find our animals in them and then we drew a picture of the animal our cookie was. Then we took a small break and ate the animal cookies with some Apple Juice and discussed why it started with the letter A and if it should be a big a or little a.

  • At the end of the week your student should be able to do the following items:

    Did the student recognize the letter in lower case and upper case?

    Did the student recognize the letter as a beginning sound?

    Did the student print the letter in upper case and lower case?

    Did the student know his or her address.

      At the End…

    At the end of the day gather the students together and share some of their work.

    If there is time read another book that has an emphasis on the letter A or share an alphabet book.

    Have an absolutely awesome “A” day!

    If you take one week per letter, you’ll have time to:

    • read books for each letter your working on multiple times during the week.
    • do activities built around the letter of the week
    • teach your children simple songs and nursery rhymes or watching movies based on the letter of the week
    • create crafts and activities inside the home as well as outside the home
    • as your teaching the letter of the week you can add in math facts

    These lessons do not have to be all done in one day and can be spread over the week. As you know how well and how fast your children learn. If they are having trouble with something or not understanding it take extra time on that activity or if there is something you don’t want to do or your children aren’t enjoying its okay to skip that task and add something new. As these lesson plans aren’t written in stone.

    Next, week we will be learning Letter B and as we are learning a letter each week we will also be learning a number so this week we did Letter A and Number 1 as I would like to have our children able to count to 20 by the end of the year. Now, if there don’t do this it is okay as each child is different. So good luck this week and have fun. As this is key to teaching our children having fun and playing with them as they learn more through play.

     

    A Coloring Sheets

    Thank you,

    Glenda, Charlie and David Cates

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