3 Fun Alphabet Games For Your Pupils
Updated on: December 9, 2024
A playground can be a host for many activities with either a fun, sport, or educational purpose… or sometimes all three! Letter games are one of the easiest ways to seamlessly teach your pupils the alphabet and enrich their vocabulary. What’s more, the games are practical and interactive which means they get children moving and having fun! It’s a win-win for both students and teachers!
Try these three excellent letter games for learning the alphabet in the playground:
1. Letter Harvest
One of the simplest ways to test how well your pupils know the alphabet is to do a letter harvest. This provides a good amount of physical activity to keep the children moving but is also a great resource for allowing them to learn together and practice their memory.
The game is straightforward and easy to play. First, start with small pieces of paper, each with a letter written on it, spread out on the playground. Select a child who will play the “farmer”. They will then call “letter harvest”, with the other participants having to race, grab a letter and make it back to their spot, before the “farmer” tags them.
Those who make their way back to their spot with a letter, have to say the letter correctly, while the ones who are tagged or say the letter wrong, will have to return it back to the pile. Once all letters have been harvested from the playground, the game is over. If you want, you can make the game more competitive for children a bit older, having whoever says most letters correctly be the winner. You could also use phonics sounds instead of single letters.
The shapes alphabet playground marking, as well as the alphabet jump playground markings, can be a fantastic way to make this game even more interesting, having children use a letter as a “safe house” instead of having to run back.
2. Guess the Word (Hangman)
This game is great for both smaller and older children, since it’s very easy to modify its difficulty. It is a game for two or more participants and can be played in teams to make it even more fun. Either way we suggest using a different name when playing with children, like “Guess the word”, for example. Spaceman is another variation you could check out!
Select a neutral player to be the “word master”, who will choose the words for everybody to guess. Once a word is chosen, in order to reveal it, each participant or a team will call one letter per turn, until they run out of turns or they guess the right word. When a letter is present in the word, the “word master” will say how many times a letter appears in their word and where its place is. The first team or player to guess the word will win the game.
The alphabet spiral playground marking is fantastic for your pupils to use, so they can choose letters for guessing with ease. Additionally you can use phonics markings in order to explain letter sounds to older children.
3. Word Search
A fantastic follow up to the first two games and a very popular game for children is “Word Search”. It’s a great game to test alphabet knowledge of your pupils, but also to use in combination with multiple other games, to improve their phonics learning, for example.
Your pupils could play solo or in groups to socialise. This game is very easy to set up since there are a host of word search generators online. Print enough copies for all of your pupils, share them with the class and let everybody do their best finding as many words as possible, diagonally, vertically, horizontally, and backwards.
You could introduce competitive elements or play the game just for fun. Once everybody has finished, share with the class how many words there are and help them learn how to pronounce them too! The safari phonics playground marking is a fantastic choice to help your pupils learn phonics, as well as the names of some animals!
Learning how to play classic playground games and alphabet games can be a fantastic way of making your playground more appealing and engaging to your students. Playground markings are a fantastic choice to make your playground safer for your pupils, and there are many more options available along with the literacy playground markings. Our range features a huge variety of top-quality thermoplastic playground markings which can be used for numerous games to make them even more immersive!
Jess Sparks
Jess is deeply committed to supporting our mission of positively impacting UK outdoor play environments to promote healthy lifestyles in children.
With a CIM Level 6 Diploma in Sustainable Marketing, Jess channels her passion for sustainability into her marketing role, using her skills to promote eco-conscious practices and raise awareness for our initiatives.
Jess’ experience within the industry is instrumental in driving engagement and supporting connections with those who require ultra-durable, high-grade playground markings both locally and internationally.
