Occupational Therapy, Occupational Therapy Activities

ABC’s of Summer Learning

Colleen Beck OTR/L

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

by Colleen Beck OTR/L
June 16, 2022

Summer is a time to relax and have fun, but with a little thought, play can inspire learning! We created this ABCs of Summer list of summer alphabet activities years ago, but it is still a fun resource! Go through the activities week by week, or use switch to a new letter every few days. The best thing about this list of A-Z summer activities is that it’s very open-ended! Pick the ones that work for you!

ABCs of Summer

This list of a-z summer activities was inspired when our kids were preschoolers. We wanted to pull together a list of fun alphabet themed play ideas that could be a Summer Bucket List of sorts.

With the end of summer looming and back-to-school fall schedules not so far off, we thought it would be fun to present an A to Z list of fun, creative, and educational play and learning activities.

That’s where this summer alphabet comes into play!

There are so many reasons why messy, sensory play supports development and learning. Not only are kids learning the alphabet, they are developing skills in other areas, too:

Learning the letters of the alphabet
Fine motor skill development
Visual motor skills
Gross motor skills
Sensory input for self-regulation
Handwriting or pre-writing skills
Eye-hand coordination
Confidence
Body awareness
Connection with others
Attention and focus
Executive functioning skills

We wanted to pull together a list from around the web and share playful and fun activities to make the most of summer before those fall schedules start up again. Now is the time to make a few memories.

Kids learn through play so the best learning comes through playful activities. Let’s wrap up the summer with a full alphabet of fun. Here we have it…the ABCs of Summer Learning!

How to Do ABCs of Summer

These ideas can be done all throughout the summer, but it’s very open-ended.

You can look through the list and pick and choose a few activities to extend out the dog days of summer.

Motor Skills- Encourage movement. You can use our alphabet exercises to get started with ideas. Pick a letter, do the letter exercise, and then do an activity or two based on that letter. Then repeat in a few days with a different letter.

Sensory-Based- The alphabet summer ideas listed below are mainly sensory-based play, meaning that they involve texture exploration, messy play, and getting the hands and body involved in the play. This is designed to inspire learning! Consider making an alphabet sensory bottle to start off your summer ABC theme. Shake up the bottle, find a letter, and do the activities associated with that letter until you complete the whole alphabet. You could select a random letter or you could look for a specific letter. It’s up to you!

Incorporate Handwriting– For children in kindergarten and above, adding in writing practice is a good idea. Use these letter formation strategies for practicing each letter…also grounded in movement and sensory experiences to promote motor memory of letter formation. For children in preschool, addressing pre-writing skills over letter formation is recommended, based on development. Simply go through the abcs of summer based on the lines used in letters. Our recourse on letter formation covers recommended progression of letters based on development and lines. Older kids can even just write some of the words that start with that letter, for additional practice with copying words, writing on lines, and spacing.

Writing Trays- Speaking of writing practice, there is more than one way to practice forming letters or the lines that make up letters. Use one of our many writing trays for handwriting as an added way to incorporate motor and sensory movements to form individual letters or pre-writing skills associated with the letters. (lines, diagonals, shapes, line changes, etc.)

One final tip: Summer is meant to be a time to slow down on the schedules, lists, educational tips and pointers…and a time for the kids to just have fun being kids. So be sure to make this FUN and a way to connect through play.

With these tips in mind, let’s get started on the ABCs of Summer!