Bug Alphabet Game

Get kids up and moving around the room or outdoors in this Bug Alphabet Game for your preschool camping our summer theme activities.

Summer is full of so many amazing things. Watermelon, trips to the beach, ice cream, camping, and so much more. Unfortunately with the summer heat also comes pesky mosquitoes. While we know mosquitoes play an important role in our eco-system, they are not always the most welcome visitors at our summer activities. During our camping theme we like to play a fun Bug ABC Game that gets kids moving, weaves in a bit of fine motor practice, and helps them practice letter recognition.

FIND ALL OF OUR CAMPING IDEAS IN OUR PRINTABLE LESSON PLANS FOR HOME PRESCHOOL AND PRESCHOOL CLASSROOMS.

Materials for Bug ABC Game

• Free printable ABC “bugs”–Choose either the full alphabet or limit to a smaller set of letters if children are just beginning to learn the alphabet.
• Your choice: Spray bottle (empty and clean) or bug catcher–We’ll discuss the different uses for each below.
• Optional: If using the spray bottle, you may want to add the “Bug Spray” label included in the free printable. Adjust your printer settings to help make it the right size for your particular bottle.

GET THE BUGS READY

Place the ABC bugs of choice around the room. You can scatter them in various spots, attach to a wall with sticky tack, or attach to magnets and place on a magnetic surface.

Related Resource: Camping Theme Book List

Time to Play the Bug ABC Game

To play kids can:

1. Spray/find the bugs in ABC order.
2. Spray/find the bugs for the letters in their name.
3. Pull a magnetic letter or letter card from a bin and spray/find the matching letter.
4. Listen as the teacher/friend calls a letter/sound to find. Then spray/find it.

Personally I love using the spray bottle because:

• Kids have fun squeezing it and playing with the spray bottle–even if it’s empty
• It playfully adds in an extra bit of much needed fine motor practice

However, when I first introduced this activity some teachers expressed that they preferred not to encourage killing the bugs and wanted to avoid giving the message that we needed to do so since they play an important role in our eco-system.

I understand that point, too.

As an alternative you can give kids bug catchers and play the game in a similar manner. But in this version the bugs can be released and set free at the end of the game instead of sprayed with bug spray.

If you play the Bug ABC Game this way, you can simply place the bugs around the room instead of attaching them to a surface.

No matter which version you choose kids will get a fun and active way to practice learning the letters of the alphabet.

GET YOUR FREE BUG ALPHABET GAME

The 31-page Bug ABC Game freebie includes:

• Game Directions
• “Bug Spray” labels to attach to your spray bottles (in color and b/w)
• Individual bugs for each letter of the alphabet –uppercase and lowercase (in color and b/w)

GET A FULL WEEK OF CAMPING THEME LEARNING AND PLAY

Save time and get right to the playful learning with our printable lesson plan sets. Each set includes over 30 playful learning activities related to the theme, and we’ve provided different versions for home preschool families and classroom teachers so all activities are geared directly toward your needs.

This set includes active hands-on learning ideas and the following printables:

1) Animal Tracks Matching Activity (Color and B/W)
2) Individual Camping Survey Sheets (2 versions)
3) Whole Group Camping Graph Headers
4) Words vs Letters Sorting Activity (Color and B/W)
5) Camping Letter Matching Puzzles
6) Camping Number Cards
7) Camping Pattern Cards (Color and B/W)
8) Ending Sound Matching Activity
9) Gone Fishing Counting and Number Recognition Activity

GET YOUR LESSON PLANS

Preschool Classroom Camping Theme Lesson Plans

All of our products are also available on Teachers Pay Teachers if you prefer to shop there.