Felt Alphabet Letters

Ask any child if she knows the alphabet and she'll likely start singing the well-known tune for you. But knowing the song and being able to identify letters are two different things. Learning to recognize letters and the sounds each letter makes is an important skill your child will learn in preschool so that when she reaches kindergarten, she can start stringing sounds and letters together to make words and sentences.

Treat your child to this fun activity with colorful letters and pictures to match up. Help her learn to recognize sounds and letters! She'll have fun sticking felt pieces on a flannel board as she sounds out words and masters the alphabet; kindergarten will be a breeze!

What You Need:

• Fabric scraps
• Scissors
• Red felt
• Sewing machine or fabric glue
• 26 pictures
• Oak tag poster board
• Rubber cement
• Flannel board (can be found online or in craft stores)

What to Do:

1. Cut out every letter from the alphabet in 3" letters using the scraps of fabric.
2. Use the red felt to cut out 26 red pieces, about 3 1/2" x 4" each.
3. Attach each letter to a piece of felt using a zigzag stitch on a sewing machine. Another alternative is to use fabric glue to attach the letter.
4. Search for cute pictures starting with each letter of the alphabet. (For example, an airplane for A, butterfly for B, cat for C, and so on.)
5. Glue the pictures to the oak tag poster board using rubber cement. Cut around each picture so that it is approximately 3 1/4" x 3 3/4", then laminate the pictures.
6. Use rubber cement to glue felt onto the back of each picture so they will stick to the flannel board.
7. Set out the letters, pictures, and flannel board. Invite your child to attach the letters in order on the flannel board. Encourage her to identify each letter as she attaches it to the board.
8. Then ask her to match each letter to the picture that has the same beginning letter or sound. Invite her to say the name of the object in the picture. Sound out the word together until she figures out which letter matches the picture.
9. If the flannel board is not big enough to fit all the letters and pictures, only put out half the activity at a time.