ABC Learning Games

Use our ABC learning games to teach and reinforce letter recognition and letter sounds. Oral lessons and worksheets are good, but sometimes there's nothing better than some free preschool games for learning excitement!

Stand Up, Sit Down

Skill: Auditory discrimination
Players: Whole class
Supplies: List of similar words, like the ones listed below, that focus on initial consonant sounds

1. Tell students that you will be calling out pairs of similar words. Remind them to listen very carefully to the sounds at the beginning of each word.

2. If the words are exactly the same, children should remain seated. If the words are different, the children should stand up.

3. Call out pairs of words such as the ones listed here.

Notice that words like beach and peach are more difficult to discern than top and pop.  Use the difficulty level that's best for your group of students.

4. Play until time runs out.

Team Variation 1:

1. Divide the class into two teams.
2. Play as described above, except that when a student makes a mistake, he is out of the game.
3. The team with the most players still in the game when time runs out is the winning team.

Team Variation 2:

1. Divide the class into two teams.
2. Play as described above, except that when a student makes a mistake, the OTHER team earns one point. 
3. The team with the most points game when time runs out is the winning team.

More ABC Learning Games & Activities

Letter Lane  A phonemic awareness board game that features beginning consonant sounds for the letters b, d, f and m. No reading is necessary. Free printable board game and complete instructions are included.

ABC Pop Up!  This just might be the simplest preschool alphabet game you've ever tried! Not only is it easy to play, it's also educational and a lot of fun for your students. Try it, and you'll see! It's a super-simple classroom activity to practice saying the letters of the alphabet in order.

Alphabet Phonics Booklet  A printable booklet for each child to customize! Kids will trace letters, color and add their own own pictures for each letter of the alphabet. Free, complete pdf template and instructions are included on the web page. 

Alphabetical Objects and Which One  Simple activities for the home or  classroom to practice beginning sounds. You may use these activities again and again with new words, whenever you like!  

Tic-Tac-Toe and What's Right?  Two very easy-to-implement ways to practice primary phonics skills. Be sure to try them both! Spell words using letters in a tic-tac-toe board, or decide which letter combinations spell actual words, and which do not. 

ABC Phonics Poem This is fun and funny! Goofy pictures and silly phrases will reinforce the sounds for each letter of the alphabet. For example, did you know that "P's parrot picked a pickle?"  Discover the fun words and images for the remaining letters of the alphabet!

Consonant Clues - A perfect companion activity to the one at the top of this page! Kids listen carefully and try to guess the mystery object. Use language related clues, such as

• "My object begins with the letter …
• It rhymes with …
• It ends with the same sound as the word ...

It makes learning just a wee bit more fun!

ABC Printables

 Alphabet printables - Worksheets for ABC learning practice, free and  ready-to-print.  Activities include cut-and-paste letters of the alphabet, upper-lowercase ABCs, connect the dots ABC, How Does Your Garden Grown, and more! Please see the whole collection!

 ABC Fill-Ins: Two pages give students practice in completing the alphabet, then finding letters that spell a few kid-friendly words.  

Circles and Sounds 1:  Here's a fun maze for your preschoolers! First, kids must decide which pictures start with the letter B. Then they find a path from Start to Finish as they color all the pictures that begin with B.  Simple, fun and educational!

Circles and Sounds 2: This time, kids must decide which pictures start with the letter P. Then they find a path from Start to Finish as they color all the pictures that begin with P.  More learning fun!

Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.

Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.

Visit my YouTube Channel for fun spelling practice videos!

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