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Activity - Alphabet builds

Use the alphabet and your imagination to create amazing models.

Download a fully illustrated pdf, or print this webpage.

Skills we will be engaging

  • SOCIAL — Talking, listening, perspective-taking.

  • EMOTIONAL — Happy, excited, interested.

  • COGNITIVE — Learning with letters.

  • CREATIVE — Getting creative within limits.

  • PHYSICAL — Building with bricks, understanding space.

You will need

  • 1 x baseplate.

  • As many bricks as you like.

How to play

  1. Ask your child to choose a letter from the alphabet (for example, ‘c’).

  2. Ask your child to think about what could be built with these bricks that starts with that letter you have chosen.

  3. Let your child start to build his/her model with the bricks.

  4. Guess what each other is building by asking each other questions.

Hints & Tips

  • A nice way to warm up before starting the activity is to walk around the home naming different objects aloud and emphasising the initial letter of the object.

  • Have the alphabet written on a piece of paper. With eyes open or closed, point to a letter. Now build something that starts with the letter.

  • How many builds. How many things starting with your letter can you build in 5 minutes? Agree the amount of time together.

  • Speed builds. To make it a bit more exciting see how quickly you can make your Alphabet Build.

  • Choose a letter for each other to build.

  • To extend the activity, guess the letter! Each build 2 or 3 models that start with the same letters. Try to guess the letter from the models.

Adapt the activity

  • Create alphabet builds using different languages.

  • Create a leter of the alphabet in bricks.

Let's do a challenge

  • Make it into a competition, each family member has their own COLLECTOR’S BAG. The person with the most bricks at the end of the walk wins.

  • Use different shades of colours of bricks. For example, light blue, dark blue.

  • Give your child the role of ‘photographer’ for the Colour Collector activity.

Including others

  • Build in teams - Adults vs Kids.

  • Add in more players and take turns to spot colours.

Signs of Success

Sharing time outside in the fresh-air, in your local environment whatever that looks like can create positive connections. By noticing things around us, it helps to develop our visual attention and helps us to become more aware of our environment.