(I originally wrote this post when Edison was a toddler. This activity was fantastic for practicing the alphabet and phonics. Now that he is in preschool, we are still getting a lot out of it. Even though he knows his alphabet, the game is great for phonics practice and we have modified it to help with vocabulary too!)

I have a lot of board games left over from when I was a kid, and I just can’t wait until my son is old enough to enjoy them. Lately, I have started adapting some of the games to work for younger kids. Even though Scattergories is quite a bit above his level (it requires writing), I did manage to find a great way to “play” it with my son.

My spirited child has more fun learning when he is moving. So, the other day, I pulled the alphabet die out of our Scattergories box and turned it into a little alphabet and phonics game. We called it Letter Ball.

The “rules” were simple. My son would roll the die, run after it, tell me the letter on the top of the die, and then we had to come up with words that started with that letter. The nice thing is that the Scattergories die does not have the notoriously difficult letters like X and Z.

This little alphabet activity kept him occupied for about a half an hour. It also gave him the opportunity to run around and throw things in the house, always a plus with an active child.

Practice Phonics and Introduce New Vocabulary with Your Preschooler

Even though my son is now a preschooler, I am still able to modify the rules to keep it challenging. Now, we pick a category like “food”. Then, when he rolls the die, we have to come up with foods that starts with that letter.

So, not only does the game help him practice phonics, but it also expands his vocabulary because he can’t just come up with the same old words time after time.

Scattergories Letter Ball in Action (Toddler style…)

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With 26 alphabet letters, the pictures are not terribly complex. It was pretty obvious where we needed to draw the next line, and my toddler did not have any trouble finding the next letter. The big problem was that he did not have the fine-motor skills to actually draw a decent line. Suddenly, I loved this activity even more. Not only was he learning the alphabet, but he was practicing his fine motor skills at the same time!

Check Out These Alphabet Dot to Dot Worksheets on Amazon!

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