Homeschool,Learning,Preschool

Letter A: Preschool Activities | “Discover from A to Z” Series

posted on : April 16, 2025 0 Comment

My oldest is now four years old and last school year I resigned from my middle school teaching job to be at home with my girls. My focus now is on teaching my girls. Although we are not “homeschool age” according to our state, I will still be teaching Ellie by discovery through play with a preschool curriculum we have been working through and supplement with animals and discovering the alphabet from A to Z for PK-3. I thought it would be fun to compile a collection of preschool activities that we will work on as we explore the alphabet. This series will be called “Discover from A to Z“. I would love for you to join along!

*This post may contain affiliate links (Amazon, rstyle and ShopMy). By using these links, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

Discover the Letter A: Preschool Activities

When it comes to engaging preschoolers, learning through play is key. The alphabet serves as a magical gateway to the world of language, and focusing on one letter at a time can make learning both fun and educational. Today, we’re diving into the letter A and discovering a range of delightful activities perfect for curious young minds.

If you would like the pdf guide of “Letter A: Discover from A to Z”, you can find it on Etsy here.

Letter Identification

First, I introduce the letter of the week through different methods. In the mornings, I utilize a morning menu routine where I use an empty restaurant menu cover to place worksheets that allow my daughter to trace lines or the letter A, match like items, circle the weather of the day, etc. She uses wet erase markers so that the writing lasts, but can easily be wiped away with a damp cloth.

Second, I present an alphabetical mosaic sticker art by number kit that uses foam and jewel stickers to decorate. For the letter A, it was an alligator with apples and ants.

Letter A Bible:

As part of our morning routine, we incorporate reading the bible. This can either be me reading directly from the bible, or from a children’s bible. For Letter A, you can read bible stories about:

  • Creation of Animals, Days 5-6 (Genesis 1:20-24)
  • Adam and Eve
    • God created Adam and Eve (Genesis 1:26-28 and Genesis 2:4-3:24)
    • Adam named the animals (Genesis 2:19-20)
  • Noah’s Ark (Genesis 7-8)
    • Animals came two-by-two, each of its own kind, to the ark
  • Abraham
    • Abram’s Call (Genesis 12)
    • Sarah and Isaac’s birth (Genesis 21)
  • Angel’s Foretell the Birth of Jesus (Luke 2)
  • Jesus is Alive!
    • Matthew 28:1-10
    • Mark 16:1-8
    • Luke 24:1-12
    • John 20:1-10

Activities and Outings

In the “Letter A: Discover from A to Z” pdf guide, I mention different activities and outings that begin with the letter A. Some ideas include: afternoon tea, animal charades, go to an aquarium, and make apple sauce. There are obviously more things that can be done, depending on the season and where you live. You can do as many as you’d like or keep it simple and only choose two. Since we were sick for a few days, we didn’t get to do all the activities this time around, but will still incorporate it later on throughout the year.

For our outings, we went to Rainforest Cafe to see the animatronic alligator that is at the entrance of the restaurant and we also went into the gift shop to see the salt water aquarium they have. We also went to our grocery store and picked out different types of apples so that we could make a deliciously easy apple sauce.

In the Kitchen: Snack Time!

In the guide, I included a recipe to make apple sauce. This recipe was very simple and was perfect for my daughter to help. It is easy to adjust flavors and textures so the apple sauce tastes exactly as you’d like.

Some other snack ideas include:

  • Apple slices
  • Almonds
  • Avocados
  • Animal crackers (great to identify the different animals as well!)
  • Ants on a log (celery, peanut butter or cream cheese, and raisins as the ants). My daughter loved this one and thought it was so cute and fun to make.

Entertainment:

When learning, I believe that the child should be well-rounded. In this section, I have included books to read, movies and shows to watch, games to play, and art and music to create and listen too.

Story time is a beloved and integral part for young children. Reading to your child is important because it can expose them to a richer vocabulary, promote early literacy skills to recognize letters and words, develop cognitive skills like memory retention and critical thinking, and finally it can foster creativity and imagination. My daughter looks forward to story time and often wants me to read multiple books in one session.

Letter A Books:
Some books that start with the letter A or are about something that begins with A:

Movies/Shows:
I know there are many opinions about screen time, but for us personally, TV and iPad are two different things. My daughter behaves better when she has access to the TV for a movie or an educational show. However, if she is given the iPad, things don’t turn out so well for all of us. So for a happy home, we allow for some TV time, but keep the iPad away from her. If your family has decided to allow some screen time, you can see some of our picks below:

  • The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants (S1 E12)
  • The Magic School Bus Out of This World (S2 E11) – (about asteroids)
  • The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells (S3 E6) – (about artifacts/archaeologists)
  • Wild Kratts Looking for the Aye-Aye (S3 E18)
  • Aladdin
  • Alice in Wonderland

Games:
A few games or activities that start with the letter A:

  • Apples to Apples, Jr. – this might be better suited for older children, but I did include it because it is a classic card game that starts with the letter A
  • Air Hockey – fun for all ages!
  • Arcade – going to an arcade can be exciting! Check out the Groupon app for local deals.
  • Animal Charades – this physical activity game is great to move around and to practice cognitive and gross motor skills. You can play in teams or individually to act out by making animal sounds or moving as they do and make guesses as to which animal you are playing.

Art/Music:
Art and music are fantastic ways to encourage creativity and allow children to express themselves.

  • Abstract art – a great way to showcase shapes, colors, and textures to achieve abstract art
  • Apple stamping art – cut apples in half and use paint to stamp paper to show their shape
  • Alligator toilet paper roll – use a toilet paper or paper towel roll to create an alligator. You can cut out teeth, glue/draw on eyes and add legs, then paint it green
  • Box aquarium – create an aquarium using a cardboard box (shoe box, cereal box, shipping box) and then fill it up with either toy fish or paint and cut out your own.
  • Listen to music with an accordion – allows children to hear music with different instruments and learn to identify them in future musical activities

Science Experiments:

As a former middle school science teacher, of course I want to include science activities. I’m still figuring out what works best for little minds, but my daughter enjoyed both of these activities. The worksheets for these experiments are found in the “Letter A: Discover from A to Z” pdf guide. Although they may be slightly advanced, they can be used with children of all ages or can be skipped or brought down to your child’s level.

Apple Science Experiment
In this experiment, we cut up apple slices and placed the slices into different liquids to see which would prevent/delay apple browning. In the pdf guide, I have two versions: one that is “pre-made” for you with different liquids to test, and the other is “editable” meaning you can fill it out yourself with your ideas to test.

Does it Absorb?
In this experiment, we gathered different materials around the house (i.e. sponge, towel, aluminum foil, cotton ball, wax paper) and used a dropper with water to see if the material absorbed the water or not. My daughter had a lot of fun doing this experiment because she loved using the dropper.

Animal Facts:

Finally, we spend much of our focus on learning about different animals. My daughter loves when we go to the library to pick out a book and I read to her about our chosen animal or if we watch an educational YouTube video about it. We were watching a video about antelopes and she initiated simple research by asking “what does it sound like?”. So we found another video about the sound an antelope makes. We also recently discovered the PBS Kids show, Wild Kratts. Throughout the day, I will hear her repeat different facts that she heard from the show. You can download the PBS Kids app on your phone, iPad, or Apple TV to watch, or you can go to their website.

In the guide I include worksheets for the following animals. It includes a section for your child to draw it, recreate its tracks, give a description, mention where it lives, what it eats, and finally any additional facts that you find. You can research as many or as little of the animals as you’d like. If I didn’t include an animal in the list, you can always use the blank page provided and write it in yourself.

  • Aardvark
  • Aardwolf
  • Albatross
  • Alligator
  • Alpaca
  • Arctic Fox
  • Armadillo
  • Ant
  • Anteater (giant)
  • Antelope
  • Axolotl
  • Aye Aye

For other letter activities from “Discover from A to Z” check out the links below:

  • Letter B
  • Letter C
  • Letter D
  • Letter E
  • Letter F
  • Letter G
  • Letter H
  • Letter I
  • Letter J
  • Letter K
  • Letter L
  • Letter M
  • Letter N
  • Letter O
  • Letter P
  • Letter Q
  • Letter R
  • Letter S
  • Letter T
  • Letter U
  • Letter V
  • Letter W
  • Letter X
  • Letter Y
  • Letter Z

For books and activities for the alphabet and animals check out the links below:

  • Alphabet books and activities
  • Animal books and activities

Stay connected to SimpleCharmLiving so you don’t miss a thing:

 

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *