While using technology as a teaching resource is a great option, we should be intentional about the screen time we have in our primary classroom. Hands-on activities help our students do more than just learn, it provides them with fine motor skills practice, develops hand-eye coordination and more. Things that screen-time activities just don’t do. If you are looking for some amazing alphabet activities for your students that don’t include using technology, this post is for you! I am so excited to share 5 of my favorite screen-free alphabet activities with you. Your kindergartners will love the fun activities, and you will love giving your students the opportunity to use hands-on, engaging activities to learn.
Why Should I Use More Hands-On Learning in My Classroom?
As teachers, we know how important it is for our students to have the opportunity to review a new skill or concept repetitively. But repetition in and of itself is not enough. Providing a variety of activities to practice a skill or concept allows students to use multiple neuro-pathways while learning. This not only helps them remember but also understand. Variety and diversity in learning activities helps the learning to stick.
When you give your students manipulatives like play-dough, puzzles, and clip cards, more senses are engaged which helps commit the new learning to long-term memory and understanding. While there are lots of apps, YouTube videos, and songs to help students get exposed to the letters of the alphabet, the real magic happens when the screen turns off and the hands-on learning begins!
#1. Play Dough Alphabet Mats
Okay, who doesn’t love play dough? It’s awesome activity with so many benefits and an instant crowd pleaser in any Kindergarten classroom. Play dough is so much more than fun! It allows students to develop hand strength and fine motor skills without even realizing it.
With our beginning writers, must be intentional about building in activities to help them strengthen their hand muscles. It is those same muscles that squeeze and roll out play dough that will also hold and manipulate a pencil and crayons. Developing hand strength is a key to helping our young studnets build stamina when writing.
Play dough alphabet mats make a great alphabet learning activity in the kindergarten classroom. While students can practice identifying and forming letters, they also get the extra fine motor benefits. Additionally, using the play dough alphabet mats during centers is a great way for students to learn from one another and work on their language and social development.
On the back, there is a page of tracing lines so students can practice writing the letter! Students can use a dry-erase marker to get handwriting practice too! These low prep play dough mats will provide you with hours and hours of use. I like to print them two-sided (play dough on one side – tracing on the back) on card stock and laminate them for students to use in centers all year long. You could also copy them separately and use them as two different activities. The letter tracing page is great for writing centers, morning work, or even at home practice.
#2. Letter Puzzles
Kindergartners learn best when their bodies are in motion, so anytime I can incorporate physical activities into my lessons, I’m all about it. Puzzles are a great way to get students moving, but also get them to focus on a meaningful task cooperatively with their peers.
I love puzzles, and so do my students. Puzzles are so great for students to work on in a group during center time. Students can move around and spread out on a carpet or large table.
Ways to use puzzles for alphabet practice could include:
- Uppercase matching
- Lowercase matching
- Mixed case
- Make matches then put in ABC order
One of my favorite puzzle alphabet activities has to be the Penguin Theme Alphabet Practice Matching Puzzles set. Not only do they provide some great alphabet practice, but they are self-checking too! The facial expressions on the penguins in these puzzles allow students to check their matches and work independently.
#3. Alphabet Clip Cards
Clip cards are one of the easiest alphabet activities to put together and require the smallest amount of prep on your part. All you need to set up a clip card center is your laminated cards, a pencil box, and some clothespins. Honestly, it’s as easy as that.
My students love to practice matching all of their alphabet letters with the clip cards. To make the activity self-checking for your students, you can add an answer key on the back of the clip cards with a dot or sticker to indicate the correct answer. I suggest doing this before you laminate the cards so you don’t have to worry about the answer coming off.
Using clothespins with this activity adds a level of fine motor practice to this alphabet center. As students pinch the clothespin they are building they all important hand muscles that they will use for writing, coloring and cutting.
But, you don’t have to use clothespins. In fact, if you laminate the cards students could mark their answer with a dry erase marker or a dab of play dough. The could also set the cards out and put a block or mini-eraser over their answer. So many possibilities!
Keeping the clip cards together in the pencil box with the clips means you have a ready-to-go center activity students can get out and put away on their own.
These Alphabet Clip Cards include cards for uppercase matching, lowercase matching and matching uppercase and lowercase. This makes the cards perfect for differentiating and can challenge all of the learners in your classroom. Students can progress through the cards in order, or you can assign specific cards for extra letter practice throughout the school year.
#4. ABC Order Puzzles
These alphabet strip puzzles are such a great activity for students learning how to arrange the letters of the alphabet in order. Students learn to develop fluency with ordering the letters of the alphabet. While some puzzles start with the letter A, others do not. This means students will learn to order letters from different starting spots in the alphabet.
This puzzle pack includes 6 strip puzzles and 9 strip puzzles. They are easy to keep in plastic zipper bags for easy access throughout the school year. Because these puzzles are smaller, they are perfect for independent work at desks or tables.
Each puzzle is made from a scene which allows students to look at the entire picture when they are done to do a quick self-check. If the picture doesn’t look quite right, they are able to rearrange the strips and check again to make sure their letters are in alphabetical order.
For extra fun, use the puzzles as part of a team challenge. Students love competing against each other in small groups to complete the alphabet puzzles. I love hearing my students excitedly discuss where each piece of the puzzle goes as they are working together.
#5. Hands-on Spelling
Quickly and easily create your own spelling manipulatives by using bulletin board letters. These large letters make a fun word work activity for little hands. Students can use the letters to spell words for a word list, spell the word wall, or practice building CVC words. They can even practice putting the letters of the alphabet in order too!
While any bulletin board letters can work, my students LOVE these apple letters! After printing them out, I store them in a small basket. The students love grabbing their “basket of apples” and working on word work. Inside the basket I add the word list I want students to work on. This might be sight words, their names, or words that match our phonics concept.
The hands-on spelling alphabet activity is perfect to use as a center activity as well. Similar to the puzzle strip challenge, students can work in groups to spell sight words as a team. Having students work collaboratively helps them build important social and cooperation skills.
After students have spelled out the sight word with the apple pieces, you can ask students to write each of the words they make with the apples on a whiteboard or in their spelling notebooks. This also helps your students get in some extra writing practice.
Grab the FREE apple-themed EDITABLE Bulletin Board Letters and create a fun hands-on spelling practice activity. And . . . you can use them for bulletin boards too!
Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
The key to mastering a new skill is repetition. It is the repetition that helps these new skills and concepts go from new to mastered. Students need lots of practice to master the alphabet, so the more activities you can offer the better. You can grab all of these hands-on alphabet activities in the Alphabet Practice Activity Bundle.
Save These Screen Free Alphabet Activities
Be sure to save this to your favorite classroom Pinterest board so you can come back when you are looking for more hands-on learning activities.
