Toddler Activities for the Letter S

Here are some toddler or preschooler activity ideas for the letter S. I thought I'd share my usual routine with teaching our letter of the week since some of these letter have endless options:

I typically introduce the letter on Monday. I write both uppercase and lowercase on our white board and have my four year old write her own uppercase/lowercase next to mine. Then I help my two year old trace over my letters. We sing "The S says SSSS, the S says SSSS, every letter makes a sound the S says SSSS." We typically sing the "Days of the Week" song and the "Months of the Year" song at the beginning of our Activity Time, so I have them JUMP or YELL out loud any day or month that starts with our letter (September!). We also sing the alphabet and listen for our letter.

Sometimes I grab 6-8 toys out of our toy box that represent things that start with our letter. I write the letter on a paper bag and put those toys into the bag. As they pull them out one at a time, we talk about those words and the sound of the letter they start with.

The Letter G

It is also helpful to write the letter on a piece of construction paper and have your toddler glue something that starts with that sound (such as Glitter for the Letter G) along the lines and curves of the letter. You could do sea shells or "soft" cotton balls for the Letter S.

Tuesday is our library day and that's when I pick up our books for that week. I find as much as I can on the letter of the week, trying to find one fairy tale, one science topic, one animal, and one or two books that talk about the sounds and uses of the letter we're studying.

And then I choose some crafts and activities that coincide with our letter as well. This is the part I love best about doing preschool at home with my kids; the options are endless and it leaves me a lot of room for creativity. I can also cater to the areas where I feel my kids need some more practice.

Here's our first activity for the Letter S:

We found some great books about the solar system and talked about how our Earth is spinning in a circular orbit around the sun. All of these words were new to my kids, so we just kept it simple. I wanted an activity that showed them what we learned, so this is what we came up with.

We used construction paper and sticky felt to make a sun and earth. I stuck the earth onto a pipe cleaner and poked the opposite end of the pipe cleaner into the middle of the sun.


We practiced rotating the earth around the sun. My daughter had a lot of questions about how the earth is always spinning and why we don't feel it. We talked a little bit about gravity.
I had a book about stars that talked about how the sun is a star. We used our star cutter from the 4th of July to cut out some stars for our mini "solar system."

There's so much you can do with the solar system!

Here's another favorite about stars: