10 Ways To Use An Alphabet Chart

Do you think that an alphabet chart is boring and not interactive?

Let me tell you ten ways to use an alphabet chart to make it fun, interactive, and helpful for students to learn phonics. Place an alphabet chart in the writing and reading center. It can be very helpful to use during journal time for reference. 

The alphabet chart I created is different; the letters are in both upper and lower case, lowercase only, uppercase only, an image with a written keyword and an image with the beginning letter and keyword for each letter to help students match sounds to letters.

1. Matching Game

This activity is perfect for letter recognition. Have students place the magnetic letters (or any letter manipulatives you have) on the corresponding box of the Animal Alphabet Chart. Ask your student to say the letter name, the beginning sound, and the animal name: “d, /d/, dog“. You can also use the letter tiles printables and make students lay the letters on the corresponding beginning sound. 

2. Find the Letter game 

Ask students to find and point to a certain letter on the Alphabet Chart that you name. If the student is in the beginning stages of learning the alphabet and is struggling to find a letter, give them directions by telling them where to go down or up or what row they can find the letter. The most fun clue is to make the sound of the animal that represents the letter. If they find the letter correctly, put a cute Cat Paw Pencil Top Eraser on that letter on the Alphabet chart-kids love it! 

3. What letter makes this Sound Game 

This game is similar to the game at point 2. But instead of saying the letter name now ask the student to find and point to the letter that makes the sound you say. You can give the same directions at point 2 if the student is at the beginning stage of phonics. It is really fun to add some drama if the student can’t find the letter. Act out the animal or make the sound or tell them the specific row to help them find the letter.

4. Hiding  letters Game

Cover up some of the letters on the Alphabet Chart with post-it notes and have your student guess what letters you’ve hidden. If your students are starting out on their alphabet journey, it is crucial that you only cover up the letters, but leave the animal picture visible. When they said the correct letter you can ask them to write it on the post-it note.

5. Name a Word that Begins with the Letter…

To extend your student’s learning beyond the chart, ask them to think of a different word or animal that is NOT on the Alphabet chart and make them draw it in the box with the corresponding letter. To make this a little more fun, play with them by having them say a word, then you say a word. Keep bouncing back and forth saying a word that begins with the target letter until you’ve out of all the ones you can think of. This is also very engaging in small groups as all students have to say words with a particular letter fast and they can’t say the ones that are named already. 

6. Find the Letter that “______” Begins With

This game is the opposite of point 5. Instead of having your student tell you words that begin with a particular letter, you’re going to name random words and have the student point to the correct beginning letter on the Alphabet Chart. This is a great phonological awareness practice as well, since the student had to discriminate the initial sound of words that you say in order to find the matching letter on the chart.

7. Make Your Own Alphabet Chart

Use the blank printable Alphabet Chart and have students draw pictures to go with each of the letters. This makes a meaningful Alphabet Chart for your students to use and practice alongside the animal alphabet chart. Place the new chart in the classroom library to share during buddy reading. Students always enjoy sharing their own work with peers. 

8. Write The Room Activity

You can cut the chart or use the word picture cards to get your students moving around and write the letter as they find the picture cards spread widely in your classroom. For more advanced kids you can ask them to copy the word and for beginners just to jot down the beginning letter.

9. Alphabet Order

Copy the Alphabet chart and cut the boxes with the letters and if you want with or without the supporting beginning sound prompts.  Let students order the alphabet by using the original alphabet chart as a reference. If you don’t have time to copy and cut the chart you can use the alphabet order worksheets provided in my Alphabet Chart pack in my TPT Store. 

10. Alphabet mini booklets

Give students a A4 size blank paper and fold it into a mini booklet. Next ask them to make an alphabet booklet. They can use the alphabet chart as a reference and the they can even can draw the reference animals and make up a story. Kids love to make mini booklets. Just tell them that you clearly want to see what letter is on the page and something that begins with that letter. If you want something ready to go please check my animal alphabet chart activities here.

I really encourage students to use the alphabet chart when they get stuck on spelling words. So, if they weren’t sure what CAKE started with, I would ask them to think about what picture on their alphabet chart that begins with the same sound, hoping they would think “Oh, CAKE starts like CAT on my alphabet chart, so they both must begin with the letter C.” 

I strongly believe that consistency is important when students are first learning the alphabet, so I make sure  that they use the same alphabet chart with the same picture icons for everything.

With these activities your are teaching the following RF.K.1d, RF.K.3A Common Core standards.

How do you use an Alphabet chart? If you don’t use it I would like to know why not. Comment below please!