Preschool Letter N

It was time for Preschool Letter N, and this was an especially exciting week in our house because my little man was counting down to his fourth birthday. According to Filip, the big day was taking forever to arrive!

In between the birthday excitement, we explored Letter N over three preschool days. We practiced letter recognition and formation, listened for the /n/ sound in different positions, built and read CVC words and completed several fine motor activities. Our focus number for the week was number 6.

Throughout this post, you can click the linked resource names to find the complete packets in my Teachers Pay Teachers or Kinder Resources stores. Many of the photographs also link to free Letter N printable pages.

Day 1: Introducing Preschool Letter N and Number 6

We began our Preschool Letter N activities with our (TpT) Alphabet Vocabulary Cards (K-R link here).

I printed several beginning N cards and mixed them with a few picture cards from other letter sets. I then covered the printed words with sticky notes so Filip could not see the answers. Click on either picture to get the Letter N vocabulary cards.

Filip named each picture and said its beginning sound. Once he had given his answer, he peeled away the sticky note to reveal the word and check whether he was correct.

He loved the self-checking part of this activity. Peeling away each note made every card feel like a little surprise, and he could confirm his answer immediately without waiting for me to tell him.

We then sorted the cards according to their beginning sounds. Filip quickly noticed that our Letter N group had more cards than the other groups, which made sense because N was our focus for the week.

As we did with all our preschool letters, we brought out our (TpT) Alphabet Play Dough Mats (K-R link here).

Filip first finger traced uppercase and lowercase N while following the formation arrows. He then traced the letters with a whiteboard marker before building them with objects we found at home.

This time, he used linking cubes. Placing the cubes along each straight line encouraged him to look carefully at the direction and order of the strokes.

We then played our (TpT) Sound Hound Letter Sound Game.

This continued to be one of Filip’s favorite activities. We said each word slowly and listened for the /n/ sound. At this stage, I exaggerated the sound isolation so he could hear whether N appeared at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word. Our words sounded something like “n-ecklace,” “pri-n-cess” and “ca-bi-n.”

Click on the picture to get the Letter N Sound Hound activity.

Next, Filip completed a Letter N page from our (TpT) Beginning Sounds Color It unit (K-R link here).

He named each picture, listened to the beginning sound and used dot paints to mark the pictures that began with N. Dot paints were still an all-time favorite for my little man, so this activity never felt like ordinary worksheet practice.

Click on the picture to get the Letter N page.

Filip then searched for uppercase and lowercase N using the Letter N page from our (TpT) Alphabet Letter Find unit (K-R link here).

He looked closely at each letter and marked the Ns while leaving the other letters untouched. Click on the picture to get the Letter N practice page.

We also practiced lowercase n formation using a handwriting page from The Measured Mom.

This gave Filip an opportunity to move from the large reusable mat to smaller letters on handwriting lines. We worked slowly and paid attention to where each letter began and ended.

We then moved on to our focus number for the week, which was number 6. We used our (TpT) Number Play Dough Mats (K-R link here).

Filip formed number 6 with play dough and added six pieces to the ten frame. Using both representations helped connect the written numeral with a quantity of six.

We finished Day 1 with a free preschool number cut and paste activity.

Filip matched the different representations of number 6 before cutting and gluing them into place. The activity reinforced number recognition while also giving him some useful scissor practice.

Day 2: Letter N Fine Motor Work and CVC Words

We started Day 2 with some more finger tracing and whiteboard marker practice on our (TpT) Letter N Mats (K-R link here). Repeating the formation routine helped Filip remember the direction of each stroke.

This time, he used LEGO bricks to build uppercase and lowercase N. The blocks did not fit the diagonal lines perfectly, so he needed to think carefully about how to arrange them while keeping the overall letter shape recognizable.

Filip then used a rather funky stamp to make his way through our (TpT) Letter N Maze (K-R link here).

He followed a path of uppercase and lowercase Ns while avoiding the other letters. Using the stamp made the recognition activity feel new and gave him another reason to look carefully at every symbol. Click on the picture to get the Letter N maze.

For some extra fine motor practice, we used glitter paint to complete a Q-tip printable from 1plus1plus1equals1.

Filip dipped the cotton swab into the paint and carefully filled the small circles. The glitter made the activity especially appealing, while the tiny dots encouraged controlled hand movements.

We then moved on to some word building with our (TpT) Beginning N CVC Puzzles.

Filip arranged the puzzle pieces to match each picture with the letters needed to spell the word. Click on either picture to get the Letter N puzzles.

Here are the four words he built during the week. Filip was especially intrigued by the word “nun” and wanted to know whether it was a teasing word for the lady. I think he thought we were saying “none.” You have to love a child’s sweet innocence!

Next, we used our (TpT) CVC Phoneme Segmentation Cards (K-R link here) with Scrabble letter tiles.

We said each word slowly and listened for the beginning, middle and ending sounds. Filip pointed to the sound boxes while I isolated each phoneme, and then he selected the letters needed to build the word. Click on either picture to get the Letter N word building cards.

Filip still needed my help to isolate each sound, but he was getting very close to being able to complete the process more independently. It was lovely to see him beginning to understand that a spoken word could be pulled apart into individual sounds and represented with letters.

We then read some simple words using our (TpT) CVC Word Slider Cards (K-R link here).

Filip moved the slider slowly and said each sound as it appeared. Once all three letters were visible, he blended the sounds together and read the complete word.

Click on the picture to get the Letter N word slider cards.

After our literacy activities, we returned to number 6. Filip traced the numeral and drew circles in the ten frame using a dry erase crayon.

He then stamped his way through the (TpT) Number 6 Maze (K-R link here). He searched for number 6 among the other numerals and followed the correct path through the page. Click on the picture to get the Number 6 maze.

Filip also completed a (TpT) Number 6 Concepts Worksheet (K-R link here). He became rather creative with this page because he did not want to leave any white spaces on the hands. Sometimes the best part of watching him work was seeing how he made each activity his own! Click on the picture to get the Number 6 worksheet.

Day 3: CVC Word Work, Flip Books and a Letter N Craft

We started Day 3 with a (TpT) Beginning N CVC Cut and Paste Worksheet (K-R link here).

Filip looked at each picture, said the word slowly and listened for the sounds. He then selected the letters he needed, cut them out and glued them into the correct spaces.

Click on either picture to get the Letter N page.

I also introduced a new booklet this week: an (TpT) AP Word Family Flip-Flap Book (K-R link here).

Filip loved booklets and often asked for his own readers when his older brothers and sister brought out their school books. This was not quite the same as their readers, but it was a good fit for where he was in his learning journey.

Click on any of the following pictures to get the AP word family booklet.

To assemble the booklet, I cut out the letter flaps and picture flips.

I stapled the letter flaps to the left side and the picture flips to the right. Once everything was attached, the booklet was ready to use.

Filip turned the letter flaps, blended the sounds and read each new word. He then matched the word to the corresponding picture on the right.

This activity was a big success. He felt very proud that he could read the words and find the correct matches all by himself.

We also completed a (TpT) Number 6 Flip Book.

Filip dot painted the pictures and counted each group to six. The completed booklet gave us something small that we could read and count together after the activity was finished.

We finished our Preschool Letter N week with our (TpT) Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Craft Templates.

Filip made an uppercase N night craft and a lowercase n numbers craft. The projects gave him one final visual connection between the letter shape and words beginning with the /n/ sound. Click on either picture to get the Letter N craft templates.

N is for night, and n is for numbers!

And there you have it, Preschool Letter N all completed!

Over the three days, Filip practiced recognizing and forming uppercase and lowercase N, listening for the sound in different positions and using the letter to build and read simple CVC words. He also explored number 6 through play dough, tracing, counting, matching, a maze, a concepts worksheet and a flip book.

I loved watching him become more independent with the self-checking cards, word puzzles and flip-flap booklet. He still needed support with phoneme segmentation, but he was beginning to understand how spoken words could be separated into individual sounds and built again with letters.

Most of all, the week was memorable because my precocious little boy turned four. Here is a picture of the two of us on his special day. He even brushed his hair for the occasion!

My Online Stores

I have included links throughout this post so you can easily find the complete resources in my Kinder Resources and Teachers Pay Teachers stores.

To check out more resource, click either store link below.

Happy Teaching!

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