Squirt the Letter! Summer Alphabet Game

Ready for a fun summer alphabet game that might cool the kids off at the same time? You’re going to love this one! It’s part of our favorite warm-weather letter recognition activities, and it’s as easy as it is fun. Using simple materials and a splash of water, this game gets kids moving, laughing, and learning their ABCs—all while enjoying a summer day outside.

Whether you’re a parent trying to keep kiddos busy during the long summer days or a teacher planning a mid-summer letter review, this water-based activity is a total win.

If you’re searching for playful ways to build letter knowledge this summer, this alphabet water game is just the ticket. It’s a hands-on, energetic activity that uses squirt bottles or water guns to target alphabet letters that have been written in sidewalk chalk. This is a super easy add to your summer theme preschool lesson plans!

The idea is simple: children identify a letter and then use a squirt bottle to spray it. This game is perfect for sunny days when everyone’s itching to be outside, and it sneaks in tons of learning while keeping the kids cooled off. In full honestly here, though, don’t be surprised if your kids end up in a water fight afterward!

Read this: One Ingredient Sidewalk Chalk Paint Recipe

What Kids Learn from Splash the Letter Summer Alphabet Game

This water alphabet game may look like fun (and it is!), but there’s also learning happening, too. Win-win, right? Here are two key skills kids build as they play.

SKILL #1: Letter Recognition

This activity encourages quick identification of letters by sight. Children strengthen their ability to name and find both uppercase and lowercase letters. The repeated play helps commit letter shapes to memory. It’s a great way to assess which letters children recognize automatically. Keep this idea with your other summer letter recognition activities for even more fun.

SKILL #2: Fine Motor Control

Squeezing a spray bottle gives little hands a workout! This builds strength in hand and finger muscles used for writing, and aiming the water at specific letters also improves hand-eye coordination. It’s probably the most playful way to support pre-writing skills. Check out this post about hand strengthening exercises for kids.

Get our Summer Alphabet Activities Printables

Support literacy growth all summer long with our printable activities—and get those kiddos ready for kindergarten!

Spray the Alphabet: A Fun Summer Alphabet Game

This outdoor game uses water and letters to create a cool way to practice the alphabet on hot days.

Materials

• Squirt bottles, squeeze bottles, or water blaster guns
• Sidewalk chalk or this sidewalk chalk paint recipe
• Large surface (driveway, patio, playground, etc.)
• Optional: laminated letter cards or printed letters taped up
• Bucket of water to refill squirt bottles

The Set Up

1. Use chalk to write letters across the sidewalk, driveway, or patio, leaving plenty of space in between each letter to allow for movement.
   • If using foam or laminated letters, tape them securely to a wall or fence.
   • The order of the letters doesn’t matter here, but the more variety in letters over a bigger space will increase the difficulty of the game.
2. Fill squirt bottles with water and line them up nearby.
   • Decide which letters or sounds you want to focus on before play begins.

How to Teach Letter Recognition Using Squirt the Alphabet

Step 1: Introduce the Summer Letter Learning Game

Begin by showing the children the letters spread out across the play area, and explain that they’ll be using squirt bottles to find specific letters when they are called out. Practice naming a few letters, and be sure to point out of there is a mix of upper and lowercases letters. Depending on the age of your preschoolers, you might also want to demonstrate how to aim and squirt at a letter target.

Teaching Tip: Lay down some ground rules here to proper use of the squirt bottles. For example, only squirt the sidewalk, not your classmates. Or only spray the squirt bottle when it’s your turn. At the end of the game, they can be rewarded with a full blown water fight!

Step 2: Say a Letter Out Loud

Call out a letter for your preschooler to find. The letters you call out at first will depend on your goals. They can be random, or even the letters in your child’s name. Encourage them to repeat the letter name back to you and visually spot the letter before blasting off their water gun.

Step 3: Add Letter Sounds (Optional Challenge)

For an extra boost, call out a letter sound instead of the name. Ask, “Which letter makes the /s/ sound?” Let the child spray the matching letter. Or, for older preschoolers or kindergarten students, make it even more difficult by having them listen for the beginning sound in a word and then identifying the corresponding letter.

Summer Letter Recognition Games for Preschoolers

Need more letter recognition games to get through the hot summer days of teaching preschool? Not a problem! Check out these other alphabet activities for preschoolers.

• Summer Letter Recognition Activities Pack
• Letter I is for Ice Cream Missing Letters Activity
• Summer Letter Formation Activities Pack
• Sunglasses Summer Alphabet Activities
• Summer Alphabet Beginning Sounds Activities Pack
• Find & Circle Summer ABC Printables for Preschool
• Icy, Fizzing Letters
• Summer Theme Beginning Sound Activities
• Alphabet Learning with Chalk and Rocks
• Pool Noodle Alphabet Basket 
• ABC Sidewalk Chalk Game

Hands-on Alphabet Activities for Letter Recognition

AS a preschool teacher or parent, you can never have enough hands-on alphabet activities to keep the kids working on their letter recognition skills. Try some of these activities, too.

• Hands-on Alphabet Worksheets
• 12 Hands-on Alphabet Activities for Preschoolers
• Alphabet Pattern Blocks Printable
• Alphabet Sensory Bin for Letter Recognition
• Free Printable Alphabet Playdough Mats
• 5 Fall Alphabet Activities that Teach Math, too!
• Engaging Ways to Teach the Alphabet to Preschoolers
• Linking Chain Letter Recognition Worksheets

Grab our Summer Skills Activities Bundle

Support your child’s learning with our comprehensive Summer Skills Activities Bundle—perfect for preventing the summer slide!

Try This Summer Alphabet Game!

We’d love to hear how you used this fun activity with your kids! Leave a comment and tell us how it went. Did they have a blast? Did you try any of the variations?

FAQ: Summer Alphabet Games & Letter Recognition Activities