Penguin Alphabet Find and Cover
Penguins are always a favorite during the winter season, making them perfect for engaging preschoolers in learning. This penguin alphabet activity combines hands-on fun with letter recognition activities, fitting perfectly into your winter theme for preschoolers.
By pairing penguin-themed play with literacy, your little learners will practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters while building their alphabet knowledge in an interactive and memorable way. They will even get a little writing practice in, too!
Penguin activities are fun for preschoolers. I often add a few during our winter preschool theme, or at the very least we do some penguin activities at some point during the winter months.
This penguin alphabet activity is a hands-on way to teach preschoolers letter recognition and matching skills. Designed to be both fun and educational, this activity helps children practice identifying uppercase and lowercase letters in a playful, engaging way.
By incorporating a penguin theme, it ties perfectly into your January themes for preschoolers while keeping little learners interested and motivated to learn about new things.
Whether used in a classroom center or at home, this activity fosters early literacy development while capturing the magic of winter fun. I mean, how cute are those penguins wearing a snow cap?!
Check out our free penguin preschool lesson plans, too!
Penguin Find and Cover Alphabet Activity
Learning the alphabet doesn’t have to be boring. This fun penguin learning activity will have your preschoolers learning uppercase and lowercase letters in a hands-on way. Bring some winter fun into your classroom or home with this printable alphabet game.
Psst…here is a super fun penguin graphing activity, too.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that at no cost to you, I may earn a small sum if you click through and make a purchase.
What’s Included
The freebie includes all twenty six letters of the alphabet. Each alphabet mat features a single letter and also includes three corresponding beginning sound pictures.
Materials
- free penguin printable
- wintery counting manipulative (optional)
- dry erase pocket
- dry erase marker
- Packaging: Package includes 240 pieces 3D Snowflake shaped crystals gems,design in classic winter…
- 3D Snowflake Gems: Our winter snow crystals gems adopt 3D design to make the 3D star shaped crystals…
- Good Quality Material: Winter acrylic gems are made of acrylic, sturdy,with smooth surface,small and…
How to Prepare the Printable
Download the printable from the end of this post. Print it on heavy card stock and laminate. Alternatively, you can simply slip the letter mats into a dry erase pouch.
Cut out the letter sounds snowball cards. Then the winter theme learning activity is ready for your preschoolers.
Penguin Alphabet Activity with Beginning Sounds
Start by having your preschooler identify the letter on the mat. Then they can cover each corresponding letter around the alphabet border using a counter.
If you want to offer a little extra writing practice, place the mats in a dry erase pouch and have your preschooler use a dry erase marker to circle the corresponding letters.
The letters on the border are written in different fonts, giving your preschooler extra practice in identifying letters they might see in text. This helps them recognize letters more easily when they are written by hand, too.
The borders also feature both uppercase and lowercase versions of the featured letter so your preschooler can practice both kinds of letter recognition
Next, have your preschooler place the corresponding letter sounds snowball cards on the mat.
Include these Penguin Crafts for Preschoolers or these Penguin Preschool Printables.
Introducing Alphabet Activities During Circle Time
I like to first introduce these mats during circle time. It’s good practice for my preschoolers to work together to find all the letters on the border; but it’s also an opportunity to show my preschoolers smart strategies in finding all the letters, like looking at each letter from left to right rather than randomly.
I also like to model for my preschoolers how to find the right snowball beginning sound cards. I’ll pick one up and ask,
“What picture is this?”
“A duck!” they might say.
Then I might respond, “I hear /d/ at the beginning of duck. Is that the right sound?”
Taking the time to “think out loud” (which is called metacognition) also helps preschoolers develop strategies for alphabet activities like this that simply require a little more work.
If your young learner is having difficulties, work with them or remove some frustration by only offering a few letter mats and beginning sound snowballs at a time.
Help your preschooler identify the letter on the mat and point out how the letter looks. Maybe it has straight lines or curvy lines. Maybe both the uppercase and lowercase letter looks the same. These are important characteristics to point out when teaching struggling learners.
Encourage your preschooler to make the letter sound as they search for the correct snowball cards, and remove some variables by only offering a handful of snowballs at a time. This will help them make connections between the letter sounds and the beginning sounds of words.
Doing a polar animals theme? Try these Arctic Animal Alphabet Activities.
More Ways to Use Penguin Find & Cover Alphabet Mats
These alphabet mats are not limited to this single activity. Try some of these alternative ideas to differentiate your instruction.
- Add a fine motor element and have your preschooler use clothes pins and pom poms to cover the focus letters on each mat.
- Use these mats during circle time to discuss how letters can look slightly different based on the font used. Then, discuss the characteristics of the focus letter.
- If you have a younger preschooler, use the mats by working with them. Point to each letter around the mat and ask, “Is this letter ___?”
- Place the mats in dry erase pockets and invite your preschooler to draw pictures in the snowballs of other beginning sound words.
- Add a sensory component by using sparkly and glittery white playdough. Have your preschooler roll snakes to form the letter in the penguin box, and then roll a snowball for each corresponding letter around the perimeter of the mats.
- For more sensory input, hide the snowball cards in a shallow bin of rice or fake snow for your preschooler to dig through as they look for correct pictures.
More Penguin Alphabet Activities
Need more penguin alphabet activities? These are some of our favorites.
- Penguin ABC Matching Game
- Penguin Alphabet Sensory Bin
- Penguin Beginning Sound Match and Cover
- Penguin ABC Clip Cards
- Penguin Letter Search Worksheets
- Penguin Letter Tracing Worksheets
Get Your Free Penguin Find & Cover Alphabet Mats Here
Think these preschool alphabet activities will make a great addition to your preschool literacy centers? Go ahead and grab your own copy by clicking the image below.
You can also print the “how-to” card at the end of this post and file it away with this printable so you can always remember the different ways to use these mats.
Recommended products
-
Arctic Preschool Centers
$8.00 -
Winter Preschool Centers
$8.00 -
Yetis Small Pack – 6 Activities
$5.00 -
12 Fine Motor Task Boxes
Original price was: $10.00.$4.00Current price is: $4.00.
Penguin Find & Cover Alphabet Mats
During the winter months, some of the best activities for preschoolers are penguin activities! Try this fun preschool activity activity that has a friendly penguin theme.
Materials
- free Penguin Find & Cover Alphabet Mats
- dry erase pockets
- dry erase markers
- counters (optional)
Tools
- printer
- scissors
Instructions
How to Prepare
- Print the alphabet mats in color on heavy card stock.
- Place alphabet mats into dry erase pockets (or laminate).
- Cut out snowball beginning sound cards.
How to Use Penguin Find & Cover Alphabet Mats
- Select a letter mat and identify the letter on the penguin.
- Use a dry erase marker and circle all the corresponding letters around the perimeter of the mat.
- Then find the corresponding beginning sounds snowballs and place them on the snowballs on the mat.
More Alphabet Activities Using This Printable
- Add a fine motor element and have your preschooler use clothes pins and pom poms to cover the focus letters on each mat.
- Use these mats during circle time to discuss how letters can look slightly different based on the font used. Then, discuss the characteristics of the focus letter.
- If you have a younger preschooler, use the mats by working with them. Point to each letter around the mat and ask, “Is this letter ___?”
- Place the mats in dry erase pockets and invite your preschooler to draw pictures in the snowballs of other beginning sound words.
- Add a sensory component by using sparkly and glittery white playdough. Have your preschooler roll snakes to form the letter in the penguin box, and then roll a snowball for each corresponding letter around the perimeter of the mats.
Notes
Preschoolers can easily become overwhelmed when presented large tasks. Try offering your preschooler only a small set of letters to complete in one sitting. Be sure that any offered letters have already been introduced to your preschooler.
Recommended Products
As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.
