Young children will enjoy learning about the letter "A" with hands-on activities. Teachers need a few inexpensive materials and a little creativity for some simple art projects. Children will learn letter shapes by making an "A" out of modeling clay or forming them with pipe cleaners. Children can glue macaroni or cotton balls onto the outline of an "A" on a piece of construction paper. Teachers can display the children's art work in a classroom or hallway exhibition.
With a stack of old magazines or grocery store sales circulars, teachers can create another activity that helps kids learn about the letter "A." At the beginning of the year, students can cut out all the "A"s they see and glue them on a poster or construction paper. After they learn the sound, they can look for pictures of things that begin with "A" and paste the letter "A" around the picture. They can take their collages home or put them in the art display.
Handwriting is an important facet of early childhood education. Students will spend a considerable amount of time tracing and writing letters. To avoid monotony, there are other writing activities that are fun and reinforce letter recognition. Children can write the letter "A" in sand or dessert topping. They can write "A"'s in the air or on a classmate's back with their finger. Adventurous teachers can let students write in paint or chocolate pudding.
Most kindergarten classrooms have a supply of plastic letter tiles. Teachers use them for letter recognition and spelling. They are also useful for an alphabet sorting activity. Students in small groups can sort through a tub of these letters to find all the uppercase and lowercase "A"s. If letter tiles are magnetic, students can place them on a dry erase board where they will serve as visual reinforcement until the next letter is targeted.