Fun activies to teach 3 yr old letter and numbers?

Question

Fun activies to teach 3 yr old letter and numbers?

Answer 1

To teach my boys there alphabet we had a letter per week. For example if A is the letter of the week this week anytime we would use a word that begin with the letter A or if we saw the letter A while out on errands, on TV or around the house we would sing the letter of the week  song which go like this " The letter of the week the letter of the A is the letter the letter of the week.

On a wall in the kids room I made 26 cards with the alphabet and at night before bed we would say all the letters as I point to them up to the current letter of the week and once we got to that letter we would sing our song again.

To teach number at night we would count up to five and once that was mastered I went to 10 then 20 and so on.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

I'm sure you already know this but maybe I'll just add a reminder that rote counting and singing the alphabet song does not mean they know their letters and numbers.  :-)

Something to think about... the majority of letters that a child sees in print are lowercase.  Please consider teaching lowercase letter instead of upper case letters...or teach them as a pair.

Tactile letters/numbers- you can purchase or make sandpaper letters.  I printed numbers in the ballandstick font onto cardstock and traced with glitter glue.  This was a hit for the kids.  We traced the number correctly, put them in numerical order, and then added manipulatives in a vertical line under each number.  Then they can see the "stair step" effect of numbers getting larger.  Same can be done with alphabet but use clipart to go with the letters.  At three, you probably should just do a few numbers/letters at a time.

When you are singing a song or chant about letters or numbers...have a set of flashcards or a chart, etc so that you can point to each letter.

Play I Spy.  It's fun for the child to create their own I Spy board.  Provide large letters/numbers and have them glue to a paper/poster board.  Then play I Spy...have a visual handy in case they can't recall.

Alphabet/number magnets

* work on the letters in the child's name and count the number of letters in their name.

* In my name/not in my name sort

* go fishing for letters/numbers with those children's magnetic fishing poles

Collages are a great way to introduce a letter or number.  It's great to use a material that has the same beginning sound.  With number I provided material and they place the corresponding number of items per number.  So for 2, they did pairs of noodles, foamies, etc.

Block towers:  provide a numeral card and have them make a tower that many blocks tall.

Learning letters in name:  Sidewalk chalk-Make an icecream cone with as many scoops of icecream as letters in name.  In the cone write their name and in each scoop write an individual letter.  Similar to hopscotch but just jumping or leaping, hopping, etc.  Have them yell out each letter as they are saying it.  Similarly done for numbers... make a "phone pad" on the sidewalk with numbers written as they are on the phone.  Write in big numbers the child's phone number and jump from one number to the next...two fold-we want the children to know their phone number as well as using it as a number recogntion activity.

Inflate a beach ball and place letter or number stickers on it.  Put a sticker on the child's right (or left) thumb nail.  Roll or toss the ball to the child and they tell you what number/letter is under that thumb.

Simon Says...jump up and down 3 times.  Have a flashcard with the number on it so they get the number recognition benefit.

Hokey Pokey:  I put flashcards down on the floor and we sang Put your (number 4) in; take your (number 4) out, etc.  They pick up the appropiate card and then do the actions as in Hokey Pokey.  Can be done with letter cards.  To make it more challenging...use cards without the number but with a set of items or use beginning sound pictures instead of letters.

Shoe lace numerals/letters: provide a card and create that number/letter with the shape.

Rubbings: cut letters/numbers out of textured material (sand paper, plastic canvas, corrugated cardboard, etc) and place under paper.  Rub with crayons.

www.childcareland.com has free printables that are related to letters and numbers as well as themes.  I believe she has a do a dot alphabet template ...we didn't do all the letters at one time but the kids loved using do a dots and stamps to make the numbers.  We then made them into a book.

Have fun!

Answer 3

Have you ever try using the Montessori method?

Learn from this website - http://www.montessori-book.com/

Highly recommended. Many fun activities!

Answer 4

Take your child and repeat this:

1-12-123-1234-12345-123456-123... Ask him to repeat after every line. soon he will have it done.

do the same with letters. it might take a while but trust me it works. my little brother got it down at 2 1/2

since i was first can i have the best answer?

Answer 5

Okay, this is going to sound like rambling.  If you go onto word on your computer and type in "a", "b", "c" etc in the clip art search, it will pull up a letter with a picture in it of something that starts w/that letter.  I did the entire alphabet for my little girl and it helped her identify each letter with the beginning sound of the word.  Good luck!

Answer 6

Everywhere you go, every book you read, every toy, etc just point out the letters or numbers one at a time.