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10 Hands-On Alphabet Centers

One of the most important factors in helping students identify letters and sounds is providing plenty of repetition through meaningful activities!  If you’re looking for additional alphabet activities to add to your preschool or kindergarten literacy toolbox, I have you covered! These hands-on alphabet centers are perfect for young learners who need more practice with uppercase and lowercase letters, beginning sounds, and even letter formation.

Alphabet Centers - 10 Letter Activities

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10 Letter Activities for Alphabet Centers

These alphabet centers are designed for preschool and kindergarten students to complete mostly independently during centers rotations or small group instruction.  Many of these activities have options for modifying the task based on age or ability level through the recording sheets and sometimes within the activity itself.

1. Alphabet Catch

This letter matching activity will help students identify uppercase and lowercase letters.  Each baseball mitt has an uppercase letter and students need to find the baseball with the corresponding lowercase letter.  

Baseball themed alphabet center with two letter writing recording sheets.
Baseball themed alphabet center, with lowercase letters being matched to uppercase letters

This center activity has multiple recording sheets to make it easy to differentiate the activity based on student needs or grade level.  For example, some students might need a recording sheet with letter tracing while other students can write the letters independently.

2. Alphabet Caterpillar

Another engaging letter activity to help students match letters and sounds is the alphabet caterpillar center.  Students will build a caterpillar using an uppercase letter, lowercase letter, and a picture with the correct beginning sound. 

Building alphabet caterpillars

3. Alphabet Dominoes

This alphabet center is another example of a letter activity that can be differentiated based on individual learning goals.  One set of alphabet dominoes has students match letters to beginning sounds.  The other set has students match uppercase and lowercase letters. 

Blue domino center where letters are being matched with pictures that use that beginning sound.
Green domino game where uppercase letters are being matched with lowercase letters.

Each set of dominoes has a start and finish domino, which encourages students to complete this task one domino at a time.  As they find a match, they can trace the set of letters on the recording sheet.

4. Alphabet Mystery Puzzles

These alphabet puzzles are an engaging literacy center for young children!  Each puzzle piece has a small letter on the picture which students use to complete the puzzle.  In one option, they can match the puzzle piece to the picture with the correct beginning sound.  The other puzzle option has students matching uppercase and lowercase letters.

Matching puzzle pieces with uppercase letters to a picture with the associated beginning sound.
Matching uppercase to lowercase letters to complete a colorful puzzle.

5. Alphabet Train

This fun alphabet activity gives students a chance to build multiple different train options!  First, students can practice putting letters in alphabetical order by building a train with just uppercase or lowercase letters. 

Putting train cards with uppercase letters in order
A train theme alphabet center where lowercase letters are being linked in alphabetical order
A train theme alphabet center where uppercase numbers are being linked to lowercase letters
A train theme alphabet center with uppercase letters being linked up with pictures

Another option is to have students alternate both uppercase and lowercase letters as they build the train.  Finally, students can use train cards with pictures to match beginning sounds with the correct letter. 

6. Clip It Beginning Sounds

I love to use clothespins to add some fine motor skills practice to literacy centers. This beginning sounds clip activity is a great example!  Each letter card has multiple pictures that use the corresponding beginning sound. 

Adding clothespins to circular letter cards with pictures around the perimeter

Students will add a clothespin to each picture on the card, then use the recording sheet to demonstrate their knowledge of this task.

7. Letter Clips

Put those clothespins to good use by adding them to another alphabet center!  In the letter clips center, students will find the corresponding letter in multiple fonts.  This helps students learn that letters might look slightly different depending on font style. This is especially important for those tricky lowercase letters!

Clothespins are being added to purple cards on letters that match the alphabet letters in the center.

8. Play Dough Letters

There’s something about play dough that makes a centers activity an instant hit with students!  After adding the letter building mats to a paper protector, students will build uppercase and lowercase letters using play dough.  

The letter B is being built with play dough on a play dough and letter writing mat.

The paper protector doubles as a dry erase surface, so students can also practice writing the letters with dry erase markers after building them with play dough.

9. Building Letters

Another fun letter building activity for young students is to use snap cubes!  Students will use a letter building mat to line up snap cubes into the correct letter formation for uppercase and lowercase letters.

Building the letter Ee on a mat with colorful snap cubes

After building the letters on each card, they will find the matching letter pair on the recording sheet and color it in.  This recording sheet increases the accountability for this center but it also encourages students to stay on task.  They love to see how many of the cubes they can color in on their recording sheets before time is up, so they are quick to move on to the next letter after finishing each set!

10. Uppercase and Lowercase Sort

Students can sort goldfish into the correct bowls in this fun alphabet center!  Each goldfish has either an uppercase or lowercase letter and students will place each fish in the correct bowl.  The recording sheets have students either color or write letters based on the sort. This helps to differentiate this activity based on student needs.

Two papers with fish bowls - one for uppercase letters and one for lowercase letters - with goldfish being sorted.

Alphabet Centers Bundle

Would you like to try these alphabet centers in your classroom? All of the letter activities shared above are included in a bundle to save you time and money!  Just one click and you’ll have ten engaging alphabet centers to use in your classroom. 

Each alphabet activity comes with at least one recording sheet (often more than one option) to make sure students are accountable for their work.  This bundle of centers also includes an “I Can” picture direction card for each task to encourage independence during centers rotations.

You can find this alphabet centers bundle in the A Spoonful of Learning shop or on Teachers Pay Teachers.  

Different alphabet centers included in this alphabet centers bundle. Includes building letters with snap cubes, building letter with playdoh, letter formation, beginning sounds, and mystery pictures.
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More Alphabet Activities

If you’re on the hunt for even more engaging letter activities for kindergarten and preschool, you should check out my printable alphabet books!  Each book is full of interactive activities to help students learn the letters of the alphabet.

You can download the Letter Dd alphabet book for free to check out the engaging letter activities that are included in each book.  Just add your email to the form below and I’ll deliver your freebie straight to your inbox!


Save These Alphabet Centers for Later

Be sure to save these alphabet centers to your favorite teaching board on Pinterest!  You’ll be able to quickly find these literacy center ideas whenever you’re ready to print and download.

10 Hands-On Alphabet Centers