Lowercase Letter I Craft for Preschool

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I’m not a huge fan of touching these beautiful, slimy, fast-tongued creatures, but kids are often fascinated with them! Iguanas are the perfect animal to showcase a very clear short vowel sound of i. In this lowercase letter I craft, students will transform i into an iguana while learning the name, shape, and short vowel sound of i.

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Introduce the Letter with a Scavenger Hunt

The letter I is a vowel with two different sounds. We introduced the long vowel sound of I with this uppercase letter I craft. For the short vowel sound of I, we are making an iguana. Before you start the craft, spend some time introducing the sound of I with a scavenger hunt.

Look through your child’s toys and pull out the different things that start with i. You might find a plastic iguana, an igloo, inchworms, or plastic insects, instruments, the Incredible Hulk, Inspector Gadget, or letter blocks with the lowercase letter I on them.

If you know you won’t find any letter I things in the toy box, try various other rooms in your home. For variety, you can print images of things that start with the short vowel sound of I, and place them throughout a room for finding. As you find each item, state the name, and emphasize the letter sound.

Sing Itsy Bitsy Spider

Preschool children seem to relate really well to music. Get your bodies moving with the Itsy Bitsy Spider song and hand motions. Physical activity gets a child’s brain ready for learning. It also helps for sitting still later. You can have someone else lead you in the song if you don’t remember or are not confident singing. Try this YouTube video of Itsy Bitsy Spider. Iguanas eat spiders so you can chat about that too.

When you sit down at the table to make this iguana letter craft, review words that start with I. Give a few examples (inside, it, icky) and then challenge your student to come up with more examples. Have a piece of paper ready, and write the words you come up with for your child, showing him or her the letter at the beginning of each word. If this activity is too difficult, don’t stress. It’s a skill that develops over time and practice.

If you haven’t yet, reading I Wanna Iguana from our Letter I Book List for Preschool would be a perfect setup for the craft. In this cute book, a little boy wants an iguana and sets out to convince his mom it’s the perfect pet.

Materials for the Lowercase Letter I Craft

Set out the supplies for your craft time before you bring students to the table. Simple crafts are the best for busy moms in my opinion. I love that we just use construction paper, glue, googly eyes, and scissors for our letter crafts, but kids practice super valuable skills! If you are getting low on construction paper I really love this set. If your child is still struggling to use scissors, try these loop scissors to build hand strength.

• green construction paper
• orange construction paper
• construction paper for the back (color of choice)
• googly eyes
• glue
• scissors
• alternative – white paper and crayons

Instructions for the Lowercase Letter I Craft

1. Draw the cut pieces shown above with a thick marker to make it easy for your child to follow the lines while cutting. Only help with the harder parts your student can’t do on their own.
2. Cut out a lowercase i (a straight line and a separate circle for the dot), 2 feet, 1 arm, and a tail from the green paper.
3. Next, cut 5 medium triangles and 3 small triangles from the orange paper.
4. Then, glue down the lowercase i (including the dot) in the middle of the paper.
5. Next, glue the tail at the bottom of the i.
6. Then, glue down the iguanas 2 feet on either side of the bottom of the i.
7. Next, glue down the arm in the middle of the right side of the i.
8. Then glue down the medium triangles along the left side of the I for the iguana’s spikes.
9. Next, glue down the small triangles along the left side of the dot.
10. Finally, glue down the google eye of your iguana.