6 Fun ABC Activities

Wondering the best way to teach the ABCs to your child? The answer may surprise you… just PLAY!

Here are some of our favorite ABC games to play with the ABC Wall Hanging and the ABC School Bus:

“I Spy” Letters: Using the wall hanging or the school bus, play “I Spy” with letter names and sounds. You can switch off who gets to “spy” and who will find. This works for both the letters found on the outside of the pockets AND the soft pillow items within each pocket. 

Here are some example scripts: 

• “I spy the letter Q. Can you find the letter Q?” 
• “I spy a letter that makes the sound /s/. Can you find the letter that makes the sound /s/?”
• “I spy something hiding behind the letter F. Can you find what’s hiding behind the letter F?” 
• “I spy something hiding that starts with the sound /mm/. Can you find the thing that starts with the sound /mm/?”
• “I spy the letter that Emma’s name starts with! Can you find the letter that Emma’s name starts with?”

Children can also find vowels, consonants, or any other concept you want to reinforce. 

“The Letters on the Bus”: Using the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus,” sing about the letters on the bus. “The E on the bus says /ee/ and ɛ, /ee/ and ɛ, /ee/ and ɛ, the E on the bus says /ee/ and ɛ, all through the town.” Focus on a few letters at a time, picking letters that your child needs reinforced or let your child pick which letters to sing about.

“All Aboard”: Pull all the soft pillow items out of each pocket. Have your child load the school bus by matching all the items to the correct “seat.” You can even spread the items out around the room and drive around to each “bus stop” to pick them up. The back of each piece has a letter printed on it; the simple repetition of matching the letters will help familiarize your child with each letter form. By saying the letter name aloud as you make matches, you can further reinforce connections.

Letter Hunt: Hide some or all of the soft pillow items around the room. As your child finds each item, read the letter on the back of the item, talk about the sound that letter makes and listen to that sound in the name of the item. Then have your child match that item to the correct pocket. 

Scavenger Hunt: Pull an item from a pocket and find other items in the house/ room that start with that letter. For example, the item in pocket T of the School Bus is a triangle. Help your child find items that start with the sound /t/. Items collected may include a toy tiger, a tissue, a teddy bear, a toothbrush, etc. They may even find a book on a shelf that has the letter T on it. We like to collect items in a backpack and as we unload them at the end, we repeat the name of the item, emphasizing the letter sound we were focusing on.

Sing the ABCs: Sing through the ABCs, touching each pocket as you say its name. This helps strengthen the connection as your child matches the name of each letter to its form. 

While plastic/ magnetic letters are not included with the purchase of any of our ABC products, you may certainly use them to extend the play of our items! Even ABC puzzle pieces could work. Use such items to fill matching pockets.