The best websites for learning the alphabet
The alphabet is the core point of any language. It comprises the letters and the sounds that children will need in their listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities. While some ELT experts claim that children should learn the letters as early as possible, the others maintain the idea that they can learn them after having some introductory lessons. Both statements can be considered right and justified, but first of all, we have to take into consideration students’ abilities and interests. If you are really sure that it is time to teach the alphabet to your students and in search of appropriate websites to practise the letters and sounds with your kids, here we suggest the list of the best websites that can be used in your classes.
Click on the names to open the links.
The website offers several fun tools and ways to practise the alphabet. The first thing that may be quite helpful for the introduction of the letters is the section of videos. Here kids watch the videos with animal ABC songs and dances and get acquainted with letters along with names of animals.
The next fun and useful tool is the online animal dictionary. Here your kids learn the letters with the animal shapes. They can also click on the animals and hear their sounds.
Another thing that my kids enjoy doing is Typing game. It allows children to type their names and even to print or share on Facebook*. While typing the names, students also hear funny animal sounds.
Here you will find educational games for grades PreK through 6 that will keep your kids engaged. To start the activity choose the appropriate grade and task. There are several types of games to practise the alphabet, such as “ABC and magnets”, “Alphabet bingo”, “Letter bubble”, “Alphabetical order”, etc.
Learning English Kids British Council
This website is probably known to many ESL teachers. Among worksheets on different topics, vocabulary work, there is also an Alphabet section. The activities, such as “Secret Code”, “ABC countdown”, “Wordshake”, “ABC zoo” and many others, will boost your kids’ interest and motivation to practise the letters.
On this website, kids match stickers that begin with the letter shown on the left. The website is very colourful and inspires children to play and move forward.
PBS Kids
Here children play a game where they fly and have to collect letters to form words. The student can choose between the options ‘easy’ and ‘hard’.
At “Turtle Diary”, you will find various ABC games for kids to practise recognizing and using letters. The collection of alphabet games include “Alphabet Crossword”, “Learn ABC”, and “Color by Letter”, “Letter matching”, “Letters that look similar”, “What letter is missing”, etc. These funny and motivating online alphabet games will be very helpful for children to master their ABC’s in a short time.
Big variety of online games to practise the alphabet can be found on this website. One of the favourite games of most children is Alphabet Space Photoshoot, where they hear what letter they should find and when they have it, they just “take a picture”.
Alphabet Balloon Pop is another nice game that many children enjoy playing. Here they find the appropriate letters behind the windows. If they find them properly, the balloon goes up.
The last but not the least website is Learning games for kids. Here you will find games that may be quite helpful both for ESL learners and those learning English as the first language. After mastering the letters, students can move on to spelling games, root word games, and work on learning better vocabulary and writing skills.
This was the list we had prepared for you. We really hope that you will find the most useful websites that will match your students’ interests and age.
Маргарита Аветисян 
