A small child with brown hair and pigtails paints with a jar of yellow paint. Two children beside her are painting in the background with red, blue and green paint.

5 Zero Waste Preschool Literacy Crafts to Teach Letter Sounds

Discover 5 fun and creative crafts to teach letter sounds and names to preschool and kindergarteners! These interactive alphabet crafts are perfect for helping young learners develop letter recognition and essential phonics skills. Whether you're looking for hands-on activities for toddlers or phonics crafts for early learners, these DIY projects will make learning the alphabet both enjoyable and educational. Use materials you find around your house - no need to purchase anything new. 

 

a plate with yellow dyed salt is shown with the letter c written in in.

1. Salt Tray Letter Writing Practice

Color some salt, by placing salt in a plastic bag with a few drops of food coloring. Squish it around until it's well mixed. Then, pour the salt into baking trays or plates. Practice writing letters in the salt using your pointer finger to make letter shapes. When you make the letter shape, practice saying the letter sound.

 

Some yellow leaves are on top of a white piece of paper. Capital letters are written on the leaves with black marker.

2. Leaf Letter Matching

Collect some leaves and write out the alphabet in both lower and upper case letters. Practice matching the lower and upper case letters together, while saying the letter sounds. 

 

A blue wipes container is shown being opened, with a letter card peeking threw the window where the wipes would come out.

3. Peekaboo Letters Upcycled Wipes Container

Cut the top off of an empty wipes container and dry it out. Close the lid and hide an Alphabites letter card (or use a cue card with a letter written on it) inside. When you open the window, practice saying the letter sound and tracing the letter. 

 

Pink hearts with lower and upper case letters written on them are on top of a kraft paper background. The hearts are cut in half, so the letters can be matched.

4. Letter Matching with Stickers, Hearts, or Sticky Notes

Cut hearts or other seasonal shapes out of construction paper or use sticky notes for this letter matching game. Write the lower and upper case letters beside each other on each heart. Cut the heart in half, in a zigzag pattern, so each piece has one letter on it. Then, have your child match the lower and upper case letter shapes back together. Have them say the letter sound several times as they make a match. 

 

Three tunnels are made out of paper and blue masking tape. A wooden car is being driven through a tunnel. Letter cards spelling c, a, r are placed on top of the tunnels.

5. Car Ramps & Tunnels

Make some tunnels out of paper or cardboard and masking tape. Place letter cards or sticky notes with letters on them on top of the tunnels. Have your child drive their toy cars through each tunnel, saying the sound of that letter as their car drives through. 

You can also make a ramp and place letters at the bottom, practicing the sound the car lands closest to each time. 

Making the Games More Challenging

For older children, or those who already know the basic letter sounds, make these games more challenging by working on sound blends, CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and word endings such as: -er, -ing, -tion, -ed.

Make Learning Fun!

At Juneberry Learning our goal is to make learning fun and easy, using objects you have around your house to help your child learn their letter sounds through play. Our blog includes learn to read tips and activity ideas that help toddlers, preschool aged children, as well as kids in kindergarten and grade one build a strong foundation for reading. Whether your child is just starting to learn their letter sounds, or they're starting to read and need help practicing their blends and ending sounds using combinations of letters - our games meet you where you're at.

Hop on over to our Shop and grab some of our Freebies once you order our Alphabites game pack. Give the gift of reading to a child today!

 

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