Activities to Develop Letter Knowledge
Alphabet Books
Read alphabet books aloud to your child or have your child listen to them on CD or tape
to develop his/her letter knowledge. Select books that feature upper and lower case
letters.
Before, during, or after reading aloud and/or listening to alphabet books, …

Point to the featured letter on each page and ask your child to point to the letter
and say the letter name and/or sound.

Show your child a letter card or magnetic letter that matches the featured letter
on the page.

Ask your child to count the number of times a featured letter appears on a given
page.

Put letter cards or magnetic letters in a bag or container. Ask your child to pull
out a letter and locate the matching letter in the book.

Write a letter on a piece of paper. Ask your child to turn to the page in the book
that features that letter. Ask your child to draw a picture of something that begins
with that letter.
Recommended Alphabet Books
 Alphabet (Van Fleet, 2008)
 Alphabet City (Johnson, 1999)*
 Gone Wild: An Endangered Animal Alphabet (McLimans, 2006)*
 The Turn-Around, Up-Side Down Alphabet Book (Ernst, 2004)
 A Is for Salad (Lester, 2002)
 The Farm Alphabet Book (Miller, 2000)
 ABC Kids (Williams, 2000)
 The Graphic Alphabet (Pelletier, 1996)*
 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Martin & Archambault, 1989)
 Eating the Alphabet: Fruits and Vegetables from A to Z (Ehlert, 1989)
 Dr. Seuss’s ABC (Seuss, 1963)
 Alligators All Around (Sendak, 1962)
*Caldecott Honor Book
Alphabet Songs and Games
Play alphabet games and sing alphabet songs with your child to develop his/her letter
knowledge. Play games that feature upper and lower case letters.

Sing alphabet songs and point to letter cards or magnetic letters as you sing the
names of the letters.

Play ABC Bingo.

Sort letter cards or magnetic letters by shape (i.e., circles, tails, straight lines).

Match upper and lower case letters using letter cards or magnetic letters.

Put upper and lower case letters in alphabetical order using letter cards or
magnetic letters.

Name or locate objects that begin with the different letters.

Search through newspapers, magazines, and books to see that letters appear in
different fonts.

Make an alphabet book out of paper. Write each pair of upper and lower case
letters on the same page. Draw a picture that begins with each letter.
Recommended Alphabet Songs
 Alligators All Around (Carole King)
 Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (Crystal Taliefero)
 Geography of Nations (They Might Be Giants)
Dear Barrett Families,
Thank you for joining us this morning. We ask you to read books aloud to your child for at least 20 minutes
everyday. When you read aloud to your child, you develop his/her letter knowledge, word knowledge,
language proficiency, vocabulary knowledge, and listening comprehension processing. Our school library
has hundreds of fiction and nonfiction books for your child to check out and bring home.
We wish your child a kindergarten year full of learning and fun! We are here to support your child’s reading
and writing development.
Sincerely,
The Barrett Reading Teachers: Judith Concha, Meaghan Kearney, Josh McLaughlin, and Julie Schneider