Exercise the Alphabet Outside!

In kindergarten, children are expected to become masters of the alphabet. By the end of kindergarten, children should be able to recite the alphabet, identify individual letters and associate most of the letters with their corresponding sounds. 

If your child is a mover and a shaker, there’s no better way to practice alphabet skills than to get her outside, and exercise the alphabet! Here's how to help your child make letter-sound associations, while also getting some healthful exercise.

• beach ball
• sidewalk chalk (Note: If you prefer to complete these exercises on the lawn, you can use pieces of paper or foam, labeled with a letter of the alphabet, one per letter)
• a hula hoop
• a partner

Assist your child in using the sidewalk chalk to write each letter of the alphabet in a line on the sidewalk. Leave about a hand’s width of space between each letter. (If you are doing this on the lawn, spread out the labeled foam pieces or papers.) 

Have your child say the first letter, A, and touch it with her pointer finger on the sidewalk. Then say the sounds associated with the letter: /a/ as in “apple,” and /ay/ as in “acorn.” For each letter, have your child repeat the sounds to you, then complete the associated exercise as described below:

Apples and Acorns A’s: Reach up with one hand, stretch tall and make a twisting motion as if picking an apple from a tree, then bend down and put the “apple” in an imaginary basket on your toe. Switch hands, and repeat motions to pick an acorn. Say an /a/ or an /ay/ word as you pick. 

Bendy Beach Ball B’s: Hold the beach ball in front of you with arms outstretched at your waist. Say a word that begins with /b/. Now hold the beach ball to the right, and bend to the side. Say another word that begins with /b/. Back backward and hold the beach ball over your head, as you say another /b/ word. Continue in a clockwise motion, bending with the beach ball and saying /b/ words.