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Home » Reading Ideas » Alphabet Activities » Alphabet Games: Runaway Letter

Alphabet Games: Runaway Letter

October 12, 2013 •

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Alphabet games are my frequent go-to literacy activities for toddlers and preschoolers. Buying a set of magnetic letters and a magnetic easel were two of the best purchases I made for my budding readers.

Guess what! My almost 3-year-old came up with this letter game.  We call it “Runaway Letter”.  I love that we practiced letter and sound recognition while incorporating kinesthetic learning.  This is a great activity for children who are learning to identify letters and/or letter sounds.

Alphabet Games: Runaway Letter from growingbookbybook.com

Full Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

First, we placed all the letters (here are our favorite [easyazon_link identifier=”B000FA1K54″ locale=”US” tag=”groboobyboo-20″]magnetic letters)[/easyazon_link] in alphabetical order on the board.  This always provides great opportunities to notice differences between letters especially easily confused letters like b, d and p. 

Next, I began to sing the alphabet.  My son removed a letter while I was singing and ran away with it.  I stopped singing and said, “Hey, there’s a letter missing.  Which one is missing?”

While my son was running around with the letter he would call out the letter that had been removed.  I then said, “Come back letter ___.”   Then, I named an action that started with the beginning sound of the letter he was holding as he brought it back to the board.  For example for the letter f, I would say, “Letter f, please fly back to the alphabet. /f/ /f/ /f/.”  I encouraged my son to say the sound as he was bringing the letter back to the board.

Play continues until interest fades.  My son usually asks to play a few times a day and we’ve been playing the game for a few weeks now.

Looking for more letter activities and games?  Check out these other alphabet popular posts.

8 magnetic alphabet games to build literacy skills from growingbookbybook.com

8 Magnetic Letter Games

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ABC Games and Activities


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Filed Under: All categories, Alphabet Activities, Reading Fun Tagged With: learning the alphabet, learning your abcs

About Jodie Rodriguez

Jodie Rodriguez is a mom of two young boys and an early childhood/elementary educator with over 20 years of experience. Jodie's passion is helping parents, teachers, librarians and anyone else interested in nurturing and reaching ALL of our youngest growing readers.

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    May 4, 2021 at 11:26 am

    Cute and active fun! I will play
    It with the runaway bunny book:)

  2. Jackie says

    April 1, 2020 at 7:20 am

    Hello. Your activities are amazing. I love your creative ideas that will spark my preschoolers in making learning fun and exciting. Thank you.

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      April 1, 2020 at 8:37 am

      Thank you, Jackie!

  3. Ashley says

    October 21, 2013 at 4:42 pm

    So cute! Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library! I will be featuring you this week!

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      October 22, 2013 at 2:52 pm

      Thank you so much Ashley!

  4. Sharon@DiscoverExploreLearn says

    October 21, 2013 at 2:11 pm

    How fun ! Such a great way to make learning the alphabet fun and exciting. Thanks for sharing.

  5. amy says

    October 21, 2013 at 5:23 am

    Great idea…sound like fun…going ot try this in my classroom… could be crazy, but that’s what K is all about!! Thanks! Amy 🙂

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      October 22, 2013 at 2:54 pm

      Have fun with it Amy! I’d love to hear how it goes.

  6. Anna@The Measured Mom says

    October 18, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    Love this idea for my preschooler! Thanks so much for sharing at After School.

  7. Malia {Playdough to Plato} says

    October 16, 2013 at 9:13 pm

    Such a fun idea! I can’t wait to play it with my older son. Pinning!!

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      October 17, 2013 at 4:58 am

      Thank you so much Malia!

  8. Jodi says

    October 15, 2013 at 10:32 pm

    Great activity. I love how much fun you all had playing this great game. I like to trick my kids into learning too.

  9. Jill says

    October 15, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    This is a very fun and different way to learn and reinforce the alphabet 🙂 Thank you for sharing and for linking up this week to the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop.

  10. Carla says

    October 15, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    I love how fun you made it–I really think all learning for young children should be a blast!! I pinned this in my (CarlaINHouston) Early Childhood Literacy board–thanks so much for sharing!

  11. Faye Carlisle says

    October 14, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    Making learning fun is so important. I am about to do a talk on language development at a preschool committee AGM and I am incorporating fun phonics games into my talk so I will add your idea. I found you on the Monday parenting pinit party. Please have a look at my latest post on whether attachment parenting is too extreme http://www.pinterest.com/pin/546694842237637249/

  12. Pragmaticmom says

    October 14, 2013 at 8:25 am

    What a fun game you invented! Love it! Pinning and tweeting!

    • Jodie Rodriguez says

      October 14, 2013 at 3:04 pm

      Thank you so much for sharing the post. I hope lots of people have fun with it.

  13. Debbie @ http://kidsbibledebjackson.blogspot.com/ says

    October 14, 2013 at 6:12 am

    This game sounds like a lot of fun! I am going to try it! Pinned it! Thanks for sharing at HSAS!

  14. Norah says

    October 13, 2013 at 5:55 am

    What a great activity. Sounds like fun for all of you!

  15. OneMommy says

    October 12, 2013 at 10:07 am

    Love when you can make a game out of learning!

    • Connie Cantin says

      October 13, 2013 at 3:04 pm

      I really love your website because it encompasses what is known and at some level, what is lacking in today’s world. Children do learn through play; and learning should be fun, safe, engaging and long term.

      Some of you may or may not be aware of Discovery Toys but I welcome you to check our our website http://www.discoverytoys.com/conniecantin

      If the group, or any one of you would like to “host” an online party, especially as we approach the holidays, please let me know. I am offering this to our website host, Ms. Jodie and all of you through her!

      I sure hope you won’t think I’m intruding; I believe just as firmly in the power of learning while children play as you do! I am a private piano teacher as well!

      Ms. Connie

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