Literacy Games & Activities for Preschool Centers

6/19/2024

Looking to bring interactive and enjoyable literacy activities to your preschool center? You're in the right place! We’ve put together a fantastic array of hands-on literacy games that make learning through play both fun and effective. From letter recognition to phonics and sight words, these activities are designed to help preschoolers develop essential early reading and writing skills while having fun. Perfect for small group instruction or independent play, these games will engage your preschoolers and nurture a love for literacy.

Literacy Games & Activities for Preschool Centers

20 Games to Enhance Your Preschooler's Literacy Skills:

We've compiled a list of 20 activities that you can do at home or school to support your preschoolers development and improve their literacy skills. From puzzles to hopscotch these activities are simple to implement and can be differentiated to fit the needs for your preschoolers.

Letter Matching Puzzles

Incorporate puzzles that feature both uppercase and lowercase letters. This activity not only helps with identifying letters, it also enhances cognitive skills and hand-eye coordination as they piece the puzzles together. Perfect for individual or small group play, these puzzles are a fantastic addition to any preschool literacy center. These word family puzzles- are great for preschoolers who are ready to work on building words.

Literacy Games & Activities for Preschool CentersPicture

Word Family Puzzles

Alphabet Bean Bag Toss

Set up a target with letters of the alphabet and have children toss bean bags onto the corresponding letters. Use paper plates with the letters written on each plate as the target. Children will toss a bean bag on a plate, then identify the letter their bag landed on. Advanced preschoolers can name a word that starts with the letter. A great activity that encourages gross motor movement while practicing letters. It helps children improve their hand-eye coordination, motor skills, and letter familiarity.

Sight Word Bingo

Bingo is a classroom favorite and you can use this game to practice sight words! Zingo Sight Words is a great game to practice sight words.

Phonics Hopscotch

Create a hopscotch grid using letters instead of numbers. Call out a specific sound, and have children jump to the letter that makes that sound. Great for both outdoor play and large indoor areas, phonics hopscotch adds an element of physical activity to literacy learning for your preschoolers.

Story Stones

Craft story stones with pictures of objects or animals. Have your preschoolers use stickers or even paint to create their stones then have them tell a story based on their rocks! Take a look at this Make Your Own Story Stone blog post for more ideas on how to include this activity in your classroom.

Make Your Own Story Stones

Magnetic Letter Sorting

Provide preschoolers with a set of magnetic letters and sorting mats. Encourage them to sort the letters by various criteria such as the actual letter or a beginning sound. You can use a cookie sheet or a large whiteboard to have your preschoolers sort on. You can also try this Find the Missing Letter Summer Vocabulary Centers

Find the Missing Letter Summer Vocabulary Centers

Word Family Fishing

Write words on paper fish and scatter them across a designated area. Provide children with a magnetic fishing rod and challenge them to "fish" for words by catching the paper fish. As they reel in their catches, encourage them to read the word families aloud and identify words that belong to each family. This is a fun one!

Rhyming Word Memory

Prepare cards with pictures of rhyming words you can use the pictures from this Rhyming Words activity and shuffle them face down on a surface. Encourage preschoolers to take turns flipping over two cards at a time, aiming to find matching pairs of rhyming words. As they play, they will enhance their phonemic awareness by identifying and remembering words that share similar sounds.

Rhyming Words Match Up

Letter Sound Scavenger Hunt

Hide objects around the room that begin with different letters of the alphabet. Provide children with letter cards and challenge them to find objects that match each letter sound. As they discover objects, encourage them to match them to the corresponding letter cards.

Sensory Letter Writing Tray

Prepare a tray filled with sand, salt, or shaving cream as a tactile surface for children to practice writing letters with their fingers. Encourage them to trace the shapes of letters, feeling the texture of the sensory material as they go. This hands-on activity stimulates multiple senses, enhancing letter recognition and promoting fine motor skills development. On our blog we have a ton of examples and ideas that you can implement, try this Rainbow Writing Tray to start!

Make Your Own Rainbow Writing Tray

Phonics Tic-Tac-Toe

Turn the classic game of tic-tac-toe by using phonetic sounds instead of Xs and Os. Draw a tic-tac-toe grid and write different phonetic sounds in each square. Children take turns selecting a square and naming a word that corresponds to the sound. They then mark the square with a symbol representing their phonetic sound. The first to create a line of three wins!

Alphabet Bingo Dabber

Provide each child with a bingo card featuring a grid of letters from the alphabet. Call out letters one by one, and have preschoolers use their dabbers to mark the corresponding letters on their cards.

Story Sequencing Cards

Encourage children to explore their storytelling abilities with sets of picture cards designed for sequencing. Distribute sets of cards featuring various scenes or events from a story, mixing them up initially. Challenge the children to arrange the cards in the correct order to recreate the narrative. As they piece together the sequence, they'll develop critical thinking skills, comprehension, and narrative fluency. Here is an example of a Story Sequencing Set that you can use with your preschool students.

I Can Give my Dog a Bath Read & Sequence Activity

Build-a-Word Blocks

Provide children with wooden blocks adorned with individual letters of the alphabet. Encourage them to arrange the blocks to form words by matching letter sounds. You can also do this activity with dry erase markers with letters written on legos or mega blocks.

Letter Sound Relay Race

Divide children into teams and set up a relay race to reinforce letter sounds. Assign each team a specific letter sound (e.g., "b" or "s"). Scatter objects around the room that start with the designated letter sound. At the "go", one member from each team races to find an object that corresponds to their assigned letter sound and bring it back to their team. Once they return, the next teammate goes. The first team to collect all their objects wins!

Rhyming Word Puzzles

Craft sets of puzzle pieces, each featuring a word and its corresponding rhyme. Mix up the pieces and challenge children to match the rhyming words together. As they piece together the puzzles, they reinforce their understanding of rhyming words and develop phonemic awareness skills.

Alphabet Play-Dough Mats

Use play-dough and alphabet mats to encourage letter formation skills while practicing letter sounds. Each mat features a letter of the alphabet along with a corresponding image. Here is a set of Play-Dough Mats that you cant print, laminate, and use with your preschoolers!

Alphabet Play Dough Mats

Letter Hunt Sensory Bin

Create an exciting letter recognition activity by filling a sensory bin with rice or beans and hiding letter cards or letters within the bin. Encourage children to dig through the sensory material to uncover the hidden letters. You can have a recording sheet to go along with the sensory bin so as they find the letters they can match it to their sheet.

Word Wall Guessing Game

Select a word from the word wall and provide children with clues to help them guess the mystery word. Offer hints about the word's meaning, its characteristics, or its usage in a sentence. This is a great activity to include during your circle-time.

Phonics Obstacle Course

Turn phonics practice into an adventure with a themed obstacle course! Set up various stations, each representing different letter sounds or phonetic concepts. For example, one station might feature a large "S" where children must hiss like a snake, while another station could have a "B" where they bounce like a ball.

With these 20 interactive games, you've got a toolkit full of ways to keep your preschoolers engaged and excited about reading and writing. Whether it's mastering letters or venturing into phonics these activities are all about making learning fun and impactful.

Integrating hands-on literacy activities into your preschool curriculum is an incredible approach to captivating young learners and nurturing a solid base in reading and writing skills.