Strawberry Letter Matching for Preschoolers
Affiliate Disclosure: “This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using those links.”
This FREE Strawberry Letter Matching activity is another way to help your preschoolers work on their pre-writing and pre-reading skills and build a strong foundation for their emerging writing and reading development.
This Strawberry Letter Matching activity pack includes three pages with all the letters of the alphabet in lowercase form, and two pages with the uppercase letter tiles. You can get it at the end of this post.
Benefits of Matching Letters
Matching letters is a powerful developmental activity that will set up a strong foundation to learn how to read and write, helping children build critical pre-reading and cognitive skills, such as:
- Pre-writing & Pre-reading – Learning to recognize and identify letters in different forms and fonts will lay the groundwork for future handwriting, spelling, and literacy success.
- Cognitive Development – Skills such as concentration, focus, memory, problem-solving, and attention are developed as children use their eyes, hands, and fingers to match uppercase and lowercase letters. They have to focus on what they are doing, making sure they are matching the correct letter pair.
- Fine Motor & Hand-eye Coordination – This simple activity can build strength and coordination in the children’s hand and finger muscles, helping them refine control over their writing tools and movements, as well as their hand-eye coordination.
- Visual Processing – Develops the ability to identify letters, whether in their uppercase or lowercase forms, written in different fonts.
- Phonemic Awareness – Working with these types of activities helps children connect letter shapes to their names, creating a bridge between visual symbols and the sounds they represent, which is essential for phonics and decoding words.
- Confidence – Completing the matching task provides a sense of achievement, boosting the children’s confidence and motivating them to explore more difficult literacy concepts and engage in independent learning.
Strawberry Letter Matching
The Strawberry Letter Match activity can be used in different areas and ways, such as:
- Small group activity.
- Writing center option.
- Reading area option.
- Take-home activity.
- Quiet area option.
This low-prep activity will only require the following materials:
- Free Strawberry Letter Match printable (find at the end of this post).
- Printer.
- White cardstock.
- Scissors.
- Laminator or dry-erase pockets.
- Small basket or Ziploc bag.
To prepare the activity, print all the pages on white cardstock. Cut out the letter tiles, laminate everything, and place them in a small basket or a Ziploc bag to protect them.
Depending on each child’s developmental stage, you can ask them to identify each letter and/or its sound before they match it. If your kids are just starting to learn the letters, let them start with just a few. Then you can add two or three more every time they play.
Place sets in different centers, and invite children to match the letters. For children who are developmentally ready, ask them to choose a letter and say the name and sound before they place it on the correct mat.
Other Ideas:
Below are some activities you can do to complement this one.
- You can have the children match the letter with magnetic, wooden, or foam letters as another option.
- They can write the letters on separate paper using pencils, markers, or crayons.
- They can find words that start with all or some of the letters and match them to the appropriate letters.
- You can review the letter sound and find words that start with that beginning sound.
Strawberry-related Storybooks
It is important to keep children interested in books by periodically changing your library according to the theme and season. That is why a good practice to fill your library and the different centers with books related to your theme.
Below are some suggestions of books related to strawberries you can use. You can find some at your local library or used bookstore, and on Amazon. Using my Amazon affiliate links by clicking the titles will take you to the right page.
- Strawberries Are Red by Petr Horacek. This fun book teaches the primary and secondary colors using fruits.
- Evie and the Strawberry Patch Rescue by Stephanie Dahle. Using detailed, charming illustrations full of character and fun, children will learn about the natural world, how plants grow, and how all living things are connected. This is a story about determination, working together, caring for each other, and correcting mistakes.
- Strawberries! by Hope Aicher. Filled with vibrant full-color photos and fun facts, this non-fiction book teaches children about these delicious fruits, how they grow, and why they are loved by people and animals alike.
- The Growth Stages of Strawberries, From Seed to Harvest by Rochelle Reid. This is a fun and educational book that will teach children the life cycle of strawberries and how they grow with easy-to-understand explanations, vibrant illustrations, and hands-on activities.
- The Very Berry Counting Book by Jerry Palotta. Covering different North American berries, this book combines evocative adjectives with berry names, numbers, and colors in a sweet and simple way.
- I Love You Strawberry Much by Jerry Lott. This book sweetly delivers a wonderful message of love.
Pin It for Later
If you are in a rush and don’t have time to read the post and download the printable, but want to save it for later, pin this to your literacy or Spring board on Pinterest.
I hope you find this Strawberry Letter Match activity helpful and that it makes your lesson planning a little easier. Don’t forget to get your FREE printable! Just click the button below to download it.
Be happy, safe, and creative. I wish you well.
Love,
P.S. Please let me know if this activity works for you. My goal is to help you in any way I can, and I don’t like anything better than posting something you might find useful.
