Where to Find Free Online Preschool Alphabet Games for Your Classroom

ABC Games

Children love to play games to learn new things. Some children require movement to appease their kinesthetic learning style. Others prefer to quietly work alone on a simple matching game to challenge themselves. Many free preschool alphabet games are available online. Some can be printed for repeated manipulative use. Others can be done right online.

Jan Brett Games

On Jan Brett’s official website, she has donated hundreds of free printable activity pages that are designed to help children learn. Favorite characters and intricate drawings make for beautiful activities and allow for creative games.

• Alphabet Flash Cards - Print off two copies of these flash cards, and laminate them for repeated use in different games. Kids can play concentration or memory. Have a round of Go Fish. Hide one set around the room, then deal the rest of the cards to the children. Send them off to find their match.
• Craft Stick Alphabet Flags - Print off both the uppercase and lowercase sets of flags. Affix them to the craft sticks or coffee stirrers. Give half of the children a lowercase set and the other half an uppercase set. Tell them to find their partner.
• Bulletin Board Alphabet: Print out and laminate the set of bulletin board alphabet cards. Post them around the classroom. Children can move around the room, matching the smaller flash cards. Call out clues to direct children to go stand by a certain letter or sound. “If you are wearing red, stand by the sound for ‘hedgehog’!”

Games from Cherry Carl

Cherry Carl is a retired teacher who has dedicated her retirement to providing quality free materials to teachers. Her website, Carl’s Corner, got so large that she recently split it into several. Alphabet Avenue, the one featuring activities for letters, now has its own site.

• Alphabet Go Fish - There are two sets of these cards. One has a letter with the picture on the same card. Match two sets of identical cards. The second set requires matching the letter to the picture card.
• Alphabet Partner Puzzles - Each card has a picture, with the uppercase beginning sound on one side of the divide and the lowercase one on the other. Children can match them in concentration or memory games.
• Font Sorts - A letter is depicted pictorially in nine different ways. Children can sort or play a sort of memory or Go Fish game, trying to collect each set.
• Letter Lotto - This game is played just like Bingo. Choose to play with just pictures, just letters, or a combination of both.
• Little Critter Letter Match - Turn this into a file folder game or concentration. Dress pictures of Mercer Mayer’s Little Critter by matching the lower case letter on the shirt to the upper case letter on the character.

Free Online Games

Lots of website offer free online ABC games for your preschool class. PBS Kids and Starfall are two legitimate, teacher-approved sites for learning.

PBS Kids is a great educational tool that can be used both at home and at school. On their website, they have numerous free preschool alphabet games. Go to their website and look for these fun games under “Letters.” Some of the games are strictly letter recognition. Some mix both letter and sound recognition. Others work on filling in missing letters to make words, taking it to an even higher level.

Starfall is a leveled reading site. For letter sounds and recognition, start with the ABCs section. Choose a letter to see a short video that introduces the letter and an object that begins with that letter.

These free preschool alphabet games are a great way to get children involved in learning letter recognition and sounds. Some will keep those active learners moving. Others are great for those who like to independently concentrate on their activities. Online games will also allow parents to help their children practice their skills at home.