Back to school is my favorite time of the year. You have a whole new group of eager Kindergartners arriving ready to learn! The first reading skill you will review or teach is letter recognition. There are so many easy and low prep alphabet activities you can do using a simple set of flashcards! Today, I am going to share four Alphabet Back to School Activities you can play with your students, along with a free set of back to school themed flashcards.
*Pair this with our Alphabet Mega Bundle for Beginning of the School Year!
Alphabet Back to School Activities
To prep the FREE Printable flashcards:
- Print the flashcards
- Laminate for durability (you can use these all the time!)
- Cut the flashcards out
Related Resource: Alphabet Writing Centers
4 Ways to Play!
School Bus, School Bus, what do you see?
This game takes after the playful rhyme found in the book, “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,” by Eric Carle. We usually read this story during the first week of school, so my students remember how it goes. This activity is a great warm up lesson, or review game to play as a class.
Here’s how to play:
Place all the flashcards in a small basket and shake them up.
Call up a student and we all say this rhyme together “School bus, school bus, what do you see?” The student chooses a card (without looking) and looks at the letter.
They say “I see the letter __ looking at me!”
Sensory Bin
Sensory bins are an exciting, hands on center activity! My students love to dig around to find letters!
You can fill your bin with anything you can find. I’ve used sand, pasta noodles, rice, beads, foam shapes, paper shreds, or pom poms to fill it.
After I fill the bin, I spread the cards throughout the bin.
Students take turns finding a card and naming the letter.
To challenge your students, you can have them name the letter, sound, and a word that starts with that letter.
Memory
Most teachers have probably had their students play this game before! This game works best at a center or as a small group activity.
For Memory, you will need to print and prep two sets of the flashcards.
Here’s how to play:
Place your flashcards face down. I usually only choose 10 letters, so 20 cards in total.
Students will take turns picking two flashcards at a time. They will name each letter they pick up.
If it’s a match, they get to keep it. If it’s not, they have to put it back where they found it.
Students continue to take turns until all the flashcards have been matched.
Letter Hunt
Letter Hunt is a fun activity that gets your students up and moving! It’s a quick game you can play when you have a few minutes to spare.
Here’s how to play:
Pass out each of the alphabet flashcards face down to your students. Once they are all handed out, you will say, “We’re going on a letter hunt!”
They will turn their card over and look at their letter.
Next, they will walk around the room until they find a word on something that starts with that letter.
When they find their letter they stop and wait for others to finish.
Once all students have found their letter, go around the room and have each student name their letter.
You can collect the flashcards and play again!
Any of these activities can easily be differentiated to fit your student’s ability level! You can use the flashcards to name the letter sounds or words that begin with that letter to challenge your students.
Hope you enjoyed these easy letter recognition activities! Grab the FREE Back to School Alphabet Cards below, by clicking on the large, yellow button.
Then, hop on over to see our First Day of School Craft and Writing Prompt!
Kristina
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