Take Learning the Alphabet Outside

Grab some chalk and a few alphabet books and head outside. Today’s activity is inspired by Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdney sent to us by Penguin Kids. Take learning the alphabet outside with a simple letter game you can play anywhere you can draw with chalk. I get commissions for purchases made through the affiliate links in this post.

Llama Llama Loves to Read by Anna Dewdney

Llama Llama Loves to Read is the latest book in the series by Anna Dewdney. Llama Llama Red Pajama started it all with a baby llama who isn’t quite ready for bed. Now Llama Llama is growing up and learning to read. Llama Llama Loves to Read is filled with pictures of Llama Llama and his friends learning letters, writing their names, reading words, and checking out books. With its rhythmic rhyming text, this book is sure to get kids excited about learning the alphabet and reading.

Author Bio from the Publisher: Anna Dewdey passed away in September, 2016, at the age of fifty from cancer. A teacher, mother, and enthusiastic proponent of reading aloud to children, she continually honed her skills as an artist and writer and published her first Llama Llama book in 2005. Her passion for creating extended to home and garden and she lovingly restored an 18th century farmhouse in southern Vermont. She wrote, painted, gardened, and lived there with her partner, Reed, her two daughters, two wirehaired pointing griffons, and one bulldog. Anna was a warm-hearted, wonderful, wise soul who will be forever missed, but whose spirit lives on in her books.

At the time of her death, Anna Dewdney had several books at various stages of development, so I’m sure we’ll see more of little Llama yet. The Netflix series based on the books was released earlier this year.

We took our Llama Llama Loves to Read along with some chalk to the park. When the weather is nice, we often make dinner at the park, hang out in our hammocks, and enjoy playing outside.

The picnic area has a large concrete slab with plenty of room for drawing with chalk. I used chalk to draw the letters of the alphabet making the letters large enough for the kids to stand on. I chose to do uppercase letters because that’s what I’m working on with my toddler. Doing a combination of uppercase and lowercase would be great too.

When Lily (age 4) saw what I drew, the first thing she did was read all of the letters.

Then, I asked if she wanted to play a game. Of course she said yes. I explained what I wanted her to do:

Me: Let’s spell the letters in your name. What’s the first letter?
Lily: L!
Me: Can you find the L?
Lily runs to the L.

Me: Can you find the next letter?
Lily is looking around for i but doesn’t seem to find it. (Here’s where I should have had lowercase letters for her. We always use the correct case for her name.) She finally finds the I. Then, we spell the rest of her name.

I ask her for a new word to spell. She gives me the word and I tell her the letters. Lily jumps from letter to letter as I call them out.

Elon (age 2) wanted to play, too. He’s just starting to learn his letters. I asked him to find a letter. I said the name of the letter and he repeated it. We kept this up for as long as he was interested.

Sometimes he would say the name of the letter first. Sometimes he was right; sometimes he wasn’t. We’ll keep practicing with fun alphabet games like this one.

More Ways Play:

Call out a letter. Have your child jump on it or touch it.
Call out a letter sound. Have your child find the correct letter.
Spell words. Say the word and then spell it for your child. Or say the word and have your child spell it.
Work on beginning letters. Say a word and have your child find the first letter of the word.
Have a beginning letter scavenger hunt. Find an object that starts with a letter. For extra fun bring the objects to the letters when possible. (D is for dirt. F is for flower. G is for grass. R is for rock.)
Have your child erase the letters with water. Grab a spray bottle, squeeze bottle, cup, or other container filled with water. Call out a letter. Have your child pour water on that letter.
Practice drawing letters with chalk. Can you write your name?

More Outside Letter Learning Activities

Dinosaur Alphabet Mazes – Take your favorite toys outside and help them get through the maze. We used dinosaurs, but this works with anything. Learning the alphabet is so fun with special friends.
Alphabet Jumping Games – Get kids moving and jumping while practicing name recognition and letter skills. Download the lily pads to jump like a frog.
Water Race to Learn Letters and Numbers – Toddlers and preschoolers can race to learn letters, work on letter sounds, and practice counting and number recognition.

More Activities Inspired by Anna Dewdney Books

Construction Sensory Bin with DIY Kinetic Sand inspired by Little Excavator
Llama Llama Red Pajama Color Words and Matching Game
13 Llama Llama Red Pajama Activities

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