Alphabet Coloring Pages

• Single letter pages: one sheet for each of the 26 letters, with a large capital, its lowercase partner and one picture
• Letter and picture pairs: A with an apple, B with a bear, C with a cat, S with a sun and so on through Z with a zebra
• Short vowel pictures: apple, elephant, igloo, octopus and umbrella, chosen because each starts with the short vowel sound
• Full alphabet chart: all 26 letters in order on a single page for a wall poster or a folder cover
• Letter groups: small sets such as V, W and X on one sheet for review days

Letter of the week. Print the page for the week's letter on Monday. Say its name and its most common sound, then let kids color while you list other words that begin with it. On Friday the page goes home.

Trace before coloring. Have children run a finger along the outline letter, top to bottom, the same way they'll write it later. Then they trace it with a crayon. Then they color.

Sound sorting. Lay out three finished pages, such as B, M and S. Hold up small objects or picture cards and ask which letter each one belongs to.

Name letters first. Many preschoolers learn the letters of their own name before any others. Print those pages first and tape them in order on the fridge.

Build a book. Staple all 26 pages with a cover, and a child has a personal alphabet book to read back to you.

The English alphabet has 26 letters. Five are vowels: A, E, I, O and U. The other 21 are consonants, though Y sometimes works as a vowel, as in "my" and "gym." Every letter has an uppercase and a lowercase form, and a few pairs look quite different, such as G and g or R and r.

Most children can name many letters by the end of preschool. During kindergarten they're expected to know all of them, upper and lower case, along with the most common sound for each.