Learning Letters with a 3-Year-Old

Learning letters is one of the basics of early education, and incorporating letters into playful activities is a great way to start kids on the road to learning their letters without a lot of pressure.

The Measured Mom did a great series of letter of the week posts that she did with her three-year-old son. They include activities for forming the letters in playdough, writing them in sensory materials, art projects, activity sheets using dot markers, little books and more.

There are so many great ideas here for activities, even if you don’t necessarily do them in order or related to a letter of the week study. For instance, potato printing, making lacing cards shaped like letters, an I-spy sensory bin and making monsters out of play dough would all be fun for littles anytime.

If you have a preschooler at home or teach little ones, you’ll want to keep this list handy for a lot of quick activities that make learning fun and introduce kids to letters without stress (for either of you).

Do you have any favorite letter-related activities? I’d love to hear about them.

[Photo via the Measured Mom.]

Check out these Alphabet Learning Games we found on Amazon.

There’s something great about every state, and Clive Gifford has collected fun facts, trivia and firsts from every state in Record-Breaking USA: Celebrating America’s Biggest, Brightest and Bravest.

Each state gets a one or two-page spread, with facts scattered around the page and illustrations by Paul Hammond. The page lists a state nickname, the capital, state mammal, a fun fact and some famous residents, as well as firsts and record breaking events that happened in each state.

You’ll learn that Alabama is home to the biggest unclaimed baggage center in the world, that Florida is home to the most toxic tree (the manchineel tree, which has sap that can burn the skin and make people go blind, and its fruit is toxic) and that Iowa is home to the largest model of a strawberry, to name a few facts. Loma, Montana, holds the record for the largest temperature range in a day (from -54 to 49 degrees F, which is a 103 degree difference), while Ohio’s Geauga County once employed the smallest police dog on record, an 11-inch-tall chihuahua/rat terrier mix.

South Dakota has the world’s biggest Bigfoot statue, the cotton candy machine was invented in Tennessee, and a car that was 91 percent cake was driven (and eaten) in Washington state in 2021, now holding the record for the fastest moving mostly edible car.

As you might guess from these sample facts, kids will find this book funny and probably learn some things, too. In addition to the states there’s a page for Washington, D.C., where President Theodore Roosevelt broke the record for the most hands shaken in one day (8,513, a record that’s held since 1907), and the US territories, as well as records that cross state lines and span the globe.

Readers will also learn about records set in space and read what it takes to be a record breaker. There are even a few records listed that you can try to break yourself.

This fun and colorful book is sure to engage kids who love facts, and would be a great one to take along on your next road trip.

About the book: 96 pages, hardcover. Published 2026 by Wide Eyed Editions. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Have you read?

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