Helping Your Little One Succeed at Preschool

Very young children in the care of people at a child care center have all different levels of exposure to different concepts like weather, emotions, shapes, colors, and letters. Even if a child care center focuses on play rather than on education, it's a good idea to expose children to some unfamiliar concepts. 

Letters are important things for kids to become familiar with because recognizing letters and realizing they have associated sounds are the first steps kids take toward reading. Read on for some fun ways to introduce kids to the concepts of letters. 

Hook and Loop Blocks

With small wooden cubes, adhesive hook and loop tape and a few stickers, you can make a game that will help kids begin to understand letters. First, stick a set of letter stickers on 27 wooden blocks. Be sure that the letters are all uppercase or all lowercase. On the second set of wooden blocks, attach lowercase letter stickers or stickers that depict images for each letter of the alphabet.

For example, use a picture of an apple for the letter "a" or a picture of a ball for the letter "b." Then on the side of each block, attach a piece of hook and loop tape. Be sure that for two blocks that correspond, one gets the hook side, and the other gets the loop. Place the wooden blocks in a big basket, and let the kids match uppercase and lowercase letters or match a picture to a letter, and stick them together.

Stamps

Kids love stamps, and providing letter stamps is a wonderful way for them to become familiar with the look of letters while playing. Simply provide kids with a set of letter stamps, an ink pad full of washable ink and a pad of paper. Kids who are just learning about letters will stamp random letters across the page, while kids who have already been introduced to the concept might start to form words. 

Sand Tray

Take a shallow tray and fill it with sand or rice. For extra visual stimulation, consider coloring the rice with liquid watercolor. Provide the kids with the sand- or rice-filled tray and a paintbrush, and let them practice making marks in the sand or rice. Provide a letter chart so kids can try copying the letters. Some kids will write letters or even words, while other kids will simply make marks in the sand or rice. Making simple marks, even if they aren't letters, is a precursor to writing, so celebrate their progress!