This simple alphabet scavenger hunt game is a great way to get kids to connect the letters and sounds of the alphabet with concrete objects they encounter in every day life.
It’s Monday, and I’m back with another fun preschool idea for you to explore with your little ones. Mommy school has been a little lax around here during the summer, but we’ve still been including lots of learning activities into our playtime. This week, I’m starting another more formally themed week. We’re going to focus on the Olympics, and I’m excited to introduce Little Man to some new sports. He’s all about anything that involves competition, so I think he’ll get really into it.
When I plan each week of preschool (read more about how I plan here), I always try to pick a “letter of the week” to focus on. We identify the letter and the sounds it makes, we practice writing it, and we include the letter in the various games and activities we do during the week.
One of my favorite alphabet activities to do each week as part of our home preschool is an alphabet scavenger hunt. Basically I have Little Man hunt around the house with me for any objects we can find that start with our letter of the week.
Photo Alphabet Scavenger Hunt
Materials Needed:
- camera
- laundry basket
- house full of stuff
- your child
Directions:
- Introduce your child to a letter of the alphabet that fits with your current preschool theme (or any letter you want to focus on). For example, we just finished P for pirates. We made a large letter P and decorated it to look like a pirate. We also talked about the sound the letter makes.
- Explain to your child that their challenge is to find as many items around the house that start with your letter of choice. Give them a laundry basket (or just make a pile on the floor) to collect all the objects they find.
- Brainstorm ideas together, and go from room to room in the house looking for items to add to your list. If you need ideas of objects for various letters, check out this list of objects for each letter of the alphabet.
- Once you have gathered all the items you can find, arrange them around your child and take a picture.
- If you want, you can label each item in a photo editing program like I did, or you can just print the photo and label them by hand.
Here is our letter “P” scavenger hunt picture. Don’t you just love Little Man’s pirate face? š
Once we get through the whole alphabet, I want to create book for my boys that has all their pictures with the alphabet objects. I think it will be a fun way for them to review the alphabet and connect the lettersĀ with concrete objects they encounter in every day life.
Want some moreĀ fun ways to learn the alphabet with your preschooler? Try these:
Preschool Scavenger Hunts: 5 Ways to Play
Rocket Ship Rescue: A Preschool Alphabet GameĀ
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom DIY Board Game
I regularly link up here.
We do photo scavenger hunts like this all the time and we’ve even made an album for some of them, but I’ve never thought to gather a whole bunch of things starting with that same letter and put them in a silly posed picture to then label! Love it and pinned!
This is such a fun idea! Love their poses!
funny pictures and great ideas. i’m using this way in educating my kids , too. it’s very useful and they enjoy it very much. learning in playing is always good for them.
Glad you enjoyed the post, Carol. In my house, the sillier I can make something, the more my boys enjoy the learning process. š
What a great idea! We can make a photobook as good as ones in the bookstore for our kids. It saves kids’ happy moments and is an excellent book at the same time. Thank you for nice suggestion.
Love this idea. Kids can both play and learn at the same time. Thanks a lot for sharing this interesting post.
My whole philosophy on teaching young kids is that everything should be play-based on some level. This is one of the many easy ways we play and learn at the same time. Thanks for reading, Lydia.