Alphabet Teaching Resources

Introduce the alphabet this school year with printable worksheets, engaging ABC activities and reading center games to teach students how to recognize and correctly write each letter.

This collection of curriculum-aligned resources was created by teachers for teachers just like you. Each printable and digital activity has been carefully reviewed by a member of our teaching team to ensure it's ready to be used by a student in your classroom, and many resources are already differentiated for you!

Explore ideas for teaching the entire A to Z alphabet, including ways to teach alphabetical order and letter recognition!

New to teaching the alphabet? Or maybe you're just looking for fresh ideas to get students excited about their ABCs? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including a way to explain what the alphabet is to kids and what order you should follow when teaching the letters from A to Z.

What Is the Alphabet? A Kid-Friendly Definition

Of course, you know what an alphabet is, but how do you explain the meaning of the alphabet to young students who are just beginning their journey into letter recognition? Here's a kid-friendly definition that primary-grade students can understand:

The alphabet is a special set of letters that we use to write and read words. They are the building blocks of words and sentences and books!

How Many Letters Are in the Alphabet?

We often refer to the alphabet as the ABCs, but of course, there are many more than three letters! The modern Latin alphabet has 26 letters, including five vowels and 21 consonants.

In What Order Should the Alphabet Be Taught?

Most of us remember singing the alphabet song in school from A to Z, but most phonics experts suggest starting to teach the alphabet with specific groups of letters rather than starting at A and moving on to B, C and so on.

These days it is common practice to teach a group of letters at a time in the following order:

1. s,a,t,p, i,n
2. c,k,e,h,r
3. m,d,g,o
4. l,f,b,q,u
5. j,z,w
6. v,y,x

After learning the first group of letters, students should be able to write and read a collection of very simple word families:

• at
• an
• it
• ip
• ap
• in

Allow a basic introduction to sounding out words and practicing writing those letters before you move on to the next group of letters and corresponding alphabet activities!