Awesome Preschool Activities to Teach the Letter A
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Different Types of Learners

The ability to learn new things varies with every student. Some are visual learners, some tactile and others may be auditory learners. Some need the repetition and others remember the first time it is presented. Some students will know it before they even enter your classroom. That’s why you need to present new material in many different ways. Plus it needs to be fun to keep the interest of those who already know what you are trying to teach. Sound difficult? Not for teachers! That’s our job! Now let’s use that knowledge and enthusiasm to do a preschool lesson plan for letter A.

Recognition

Here are some activities to learn to include in your preschool lesson plan for recognizing the letter Aa:

1. Use a baking tray with edges or a pie pan . Put salt in the pan. Students can write the letter Aa with their finger. Say “a” each time they trace.

2. Paint Aa using a bright color on a large sheet of paper at the easel. Say “a” each time they trace.

3. Make Aa with playdoh.

4. With children’s bodies make the letter A on the floor with three students. Use two students for the lower case a.Time to giggle!

5. Look at everyone’s nametags and find all the a’s. Does anyone’s name begin with A?

6. Give everyone a picture book. Can you find any a’s on the cover of the book?

7. Be detectives! Go on a hunt for the letter a around the room and down the hallway.

8. Give each student a white envelope with the letter Aa on the front. Homework assignment: Cut out 5 examples of the letter Aa from the newspaper or magazines and bring them to school in the envelope. Then make a giant collage of the letter a on a poster board. Make sure students know they should never cut a magazine, newspaper or book without permission. A letter should go home asking for the parent to assist the child with the assignment.

9. On a nice day, give all students a fat paintbrush and some water and have them paint the letter a on the playground or sidewalk. Say the letter “a” as you paint.

10. Everyone stand. With teacher’s back to the class make the letter Aa in the air as students do the same.Say “a” each time they trace. Get your whole body into it!

11. Make a block letter A. Put glue on it. Have students fill in the space with cereal, or other small objects.

12. Make cookies in the shape of the a. Yummy! Learning by tasting is good!

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13. Spread file cards all over the floor in the room. Put the letter A on the same number of cards as the number of students in your class. Put other letters on the remaining cards. Teacher says “GO” and students walk quickly around the room till they find a card with the letter A. The student stays in that place and holds the card and says “A!” Wait till everyone finds an A.

What sound does it make?

As with all the vowels, A is hard because there are several sounds that an a makes.So recognizing words that start with the letter A can be tricky. You may want to stick with the long a sound (April,aim,ate,apron)or you may want to add the short a sound as in alligator,ant, apple.

Read each simple sentence slowly. Ask your students to listen for a word in the sentence that has a sound like they hear in apple. After they hear the word with the short a, write the sentence on the board and underline the a that is heard.

1. Joe can run.

2. The man is short.

3. Put the cat outside.

4. Matt went to the store.

5. Will you pat the big dog?

Do any of your students have a short a in their names? Make up a sentence with the name. Children love it when their name is included.

Do the same thing with the long a sound.

1. Mom has the red apron.

2. April is in the spring.

3. Bake the cookies, please.

4. Sue ate her lunch.

5. I will make my bed.

A is for awesome

Activities on teaching the letter A can also include this preschool lesson plan for letter A which provides fun ways for your students to learn letter recognition and find words that start with the letter A. Our activities can also enhance listening skills, fine motor skills and gross motor skills. Also key is that learning can be active and fun!