Letter Recognition Game

I play This simple letter recognition game at least once a week in my multi-age preschool class. You can use this letter recognition game as a whole group game, in a small group, or even one on one. I love the flexibility of this and how easy it is to differentiate to meet your specific preschooler’s needs.

How to play “Is This The Letter P?” letter game in preschool

Start by placing several letters in your mystery box or just a bowl. I use these letter magnets, and yes I use upper and lowercase simultaneously. Add in more of the letter you are focusing on, and if you have been introducing specific letters, use the letters you have already introduced to your class as the others. For example, if I am focusing on the letter P, I’d add in 5-8 letters Ps, both upper and lowercase, and the other letters would be ones I have previously focused on ( A, M, B…). That way, there is a review, and we are using familiarity to learn.

I love this game so much because in-group vs. out-group activities are powerful learning tools. It helps preschoolers differentiate between the shapes of the letters, and if they are still working on mastering letter recognition, they don’t have to be able to quickly name the letter; they just need to answer, “Is this a P?” Yes or no. This makes the learning accessible in multi-age and multi-ability groups.

When it’s time to introduce the game to your students, I like to write the letter ( both upper and lowercase) we are highlighting out on the board or have a poster with the letters on it. Then I make a simple chart with Pp written on one side and Pp on the other. I tell my students we are investigating this letter and we need to find all the letter Ps in the box and pop them in the Pp column and if it’s a different letter we put it in the Pp one.

How to Introduce this letter game in your preschool class

The very first time we play I usually pull out a letter or two to start as a model. Then I invite each student to come up and pull a letter from the box. I will say to the whole class, “What did they get?” so that the children who can name the letter do, and the ones who can’t, are still supported. Then I always repeat it. “Yes, Gigi found a lowercase a! Is that a P?” they respond, “No,” and the student places the letter in the correct column. Repeat until all the letters are sorted. Then we could up the letters on each side and decide which wins. I always try to have the letter we focus on that day win. The more often your students look at specific letters and name them during meaningful play, the better, but it has to be fun and meaningful.

Variations for this preschool letter recognition game:

*Upper and lowercase letters. Is This A Lowercase Letter? – sort the upper vs. the lowercase letters.

*Numbers. Is This A Number 5? – you get the idea!

*Letter Sounds “Does this start with the P sound?” – have pictures of things, just make sure they all start with the same phoneme (letter sound) not just the letter p. Popcorn and phone both start with p but not the same phoneme.