You can click and hear the alphabet song again at any time. An excellent starting point for preschoolers, although the letters are in upper case. After hearing the alphabet song the preschooler can then hit any letter on the keyboard and the letter will then appear on the screen with an animal that begins with this letter. The Alphabet Song, is not so much a game, but an interactive teaching tool. I repeat the word that the letter starts with to my child and then he can move the mouse over the 3 letters to choose which is the right sound. The preschooler needs to find the letter that is missing. I particularly like Loosey Goosey Rhymes as it uses the sounds that letters make in a familiar context for children – nursery rhymes. You can select whether the letters are in lower or upper case. The preschooler needs to click on the coconut which matches the letter on the screen. A monkey climbs a tree and shake off the coconuts. Alphabet AnticsĪlphabet Antics can be found on the British Council website and is a simple game aimed at letter recognition. I like that you can choose which letter the child works on and that you can print out their work, so they can then look at this later and we can talk about the sounds again. The child then has to click on the letter that is the starting sound of the object that appears. As with previous games, I will practice the sound and point to each letter to familiarise them with what each sounds like. Picture Match is a more challenging game for a preschooler as it works on five letters at a time. On the next level they need to choose between two sounds and on the See level they need to choose the object that begins with each sound. They simply left click to move to the next letter. At the Teach level, the child is shown a letter, told its sound and then an item that begins with that letter. It has three levels “Teach”, “Sound” and “See”, each step just extending the preschooler further. This Fisher Price Phonics game is a great one to start with. This game has three levels that have the same basic activity, but as you move up levels the sounds become more similar so the child needs to really listen to work out where the object belongs, foe example j and g. He often needs a little help with the first few, but then can start to use the pictures of the other objects to help him work out where the new object belongs. Before we begin playing I will name and tell the sound of each letter, so he understands what they are. The preschooler needs to click and drag the object to its matching letter.
The preschooler has three letters on the screen and then an object will appear and be named. Letter Sounds is basically the reverse of Letters To Big Bird. They only use the name of the letter in this game, as opposed to its phonic sound, so when I am playing with my preschooler, I explain the phonic sound to him and then he can begin finding the objects which match that sound. Letters To Big Bird requires the child to locate objects that begin with the letter that arrives in Big Bird’s letter box. Once the child clicks on the letter the narrator says the letters name and its sound, then shows a picture of an object that starts with that sound and then a little animation. The Starfall ABC is not actually a game, but is interactive as the preschooler chooses which letter to learn and then follows the prompts to click the arrows. Not all of these games are ones that he can do on his own yet, but with some guidance he is beginning to learn the games and become more familiar with the alphabet. The preschooler is also keen to have a turn on the computer, so I thought I would combine these two interests and let him play some online games that focus on the letters of the alphabet. We have a fantastic alphabet puzzle that we have been playing with and we also have a number of books which focus on the alphabet. I am not a flashcard type of mum, but I do like to follow the lead of my children and at the moment my preschooler is showing lots of interest in the letters of the alphabet.