Happy February! I have been busy whipping up some fun and engaging Valentine’s Day themed alphabet activities for your preschoolers! I am excited to share some alphabet cover up mats, a roll and write game, an alphabet building mat, as well as an alphabet clip card in this post. Everything in this post is designed to help your preschoolers develop letter recognition, writing, and fine motor skills.
The idea behind this set of resources was to create several engaging activities that you could do with the SAME set of letter cards. My hope is that this saves some of your valuable time!! All you have to do is prep the cards once and you will have them ready to go for all of the activities in this post.
Alphabet cover up activities are always a go-to for practicing letter names and sounds. You can set the letter cards that you want to use (uppercase or lowercase) in a sensory bin for your preschoolers to find. They can take turns finding a letter, saying the name and/or sound, and covering it up on the mat. It’s always fun to add Valentine’s Day themed manipulatives for covering the letters. I am using Valentine heart table scatter from Hobby Lobby in the picture but you can also use mini erasers, flat marbles, pom poms or red or pink unifix cubes. If you don’t mind using the cover up mat only once, dot markers are always a fun choice too!
The cover up mats come in two variations – uppercase and lowercase letters. You can choose to have your preschoolers match uppercase to uppercase, uppercase to lowercase or lowercase to lowercase. The black and white version of each variation is also included if you prefer to print in black and white for single use on print on colored paper.
This set of activities also includes a Color the Room and Trace the Room recording sheet for both uppercase and lowercase letters. You can place the alphabet cards around the room and have your preschoolers find them and color or trace the matching letter on their sheet. My 4 year old loves doing these activities because it gets her up and moving around and because it is like a little game of hide and seek with letters.
If you have a pocket dice, the alphabet letters are perfect for making a Roll & Write game. Simply choose the letters that you want your students to practice writing, place them in the pocket dice and give them a copy of the Roll & Write recording sheet. Students can rolls the dice over and over while writing down the letter that they land on each time. Make it festive by using colorful red, pink and purple markers. If you don’t have a pocket dice, that’s okay! Put the letter cards of your choice in a draw pile or inside a bag to reach into and grab. This is a fun and engaging way to practice writing.
Don’t put the letter cards away yet!! The Say, Build & Write mat can be used with the letter cards in a draw pile or bag. Students can reach into the pile, grab a letter and place it on the mat. The mat will prompt them to say the name of the letter, say the sound of the letter, build the letter with manipulatives, and write the letter. You can decide to use these mats over and over by placing them in a page protector and using dry erase markers or copy them for single use to really focus on your letter of choice. The manipulatives that work well with this activity are mini erases, flat glass marbles, small cubes, or even playdough.
The last Valentine’s Day alphabet activity that I want to show you is the Find and Clip mats. These mats are designed to help preschoolers practice identifying and naming letters of the alphabet as well as strengthen fine motor skills. You can use these mats with or without the alphabet cards. If you choose to use the alphabet cards, you can present them face down in a draw pile. Have your students pick a letter card and clip the matching letter on the Find & Clip Mat. If you have the alphabet clips from Target, you can choose to just use those without the cards. It’s up to you!
I hope you were able to get some inspiration from this Valentine’s Day Alphabet Activities post. If you are interested in the activities highlighted in this post, click the icon below to visit my TpT shop.
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Mrs Mama Bird 