Lowercase Letter U Craft for Preschool

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For this lowercase letter U craft for preschool, we have the letter holding an adorable umbrella. When you make this with your child, talk about the sound and shape of the letter U.

Make up a story about the little letter U taking a walking in the rain and getting wet until he or she pulled out an umbrella. Stories make everything more memorable!

If you have an umbrella at home, take a walk together and use the umbrella even if it is not raining. Talk about and demonstrate how umbrellas work, how they are used (for sun and rain), and practice saying the word. When you get home watch this short video about umbrellas.

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Short and Long Vowels Sound of U

Since this lowercase letter U craft covers the short vowel sound, I wanted to point out that my uppercase letter U craft covers the long vowel sound of U with an adorable unicorn craft. Make sure to point out to your student that vowels have more than one sound and review both sounds of the letter as you complete these crafts. Our letter U book list also has books for both the short vowel sound and long vowel sound including books about umbrellas.

The long vowel sound is also the name of the letter, so this can provide a certain level of confusion when learning the short vowel sound. Practice switching between the two different sounds rapidly and also brainstorm to come up with words for both vowel sounds and compare.

Lowercase Letter U Activities

Letter Formation Practice

Have your student practice writing the letter U using large muscle groups by providing sidewalk chalk to write the lowercase letter outside, or window chalk to write the letter on a sliding glass door inside. If you have a chalkboard or whiteboard those work equally well. Try to encourage your student to use their whole bodies to make the letter as large as possible. This helps integrate the information more efficiently.

Letter Recognition Practice

Write the lowercase letter U on a piece of construction paper or printer paper, five or six per page. Cut these apart to make cards. Hide these cards around your yard and have your child collect them in an open, upside-down umbrella. Say something like this to begin the activity.

Let’s turn this open umbrella upside-down! Upside-down starts with the short vowel sound of U. See how an upside-down umbrella can act as a basket? All around the yard, I’ve hidden the letter U on pieces of paper like this (show an example of the cards). Your job is to collect as many as you can find in the upside-down umbrella! You can also do this activity inside if the outside is not an option.

Letter Sound Practice

Make a list on your whiteboard, chalkboard, or sliding glass door of all the short vowel sound U words you and your child can think of together. Give a few examples to get the flow of words started: umbrella, udder, up. Then write the words for your child, underlining the letter U in each word. As you repeat and spell each word, emphasize the vowel sound at the beginning of each word. ‘

As a variation on this activity, look around your home for objects that begin with the short vowel sound of U. This letter is a little tricky, so besides umbrella I thought of Up! the movie, and underwear. That will be good for a belly laugh or two and keep your child engaged in this lesson!

Once you’ve finished these activities, it’s time to make the lowercase letter U craft!

Materials for the Lowercase Letter U Craft

• blue construction paper
• purple construction paper
• black construction paper
• red construction paper
• construction paper for the background (color of choice)
• glue
• scissors
• alternative – white paper and crayons

Instructions for the Lowercase Letter U Craft

1. Draw the cut pieces as shown with a thick marker. Then have your student follow the remaining instructions.
2. Cut out a lowercase u from the red paper.
3. Next, cut out an umbrella canopy from the purple paper.
4. Then cut out a thin rectangle for the umbrellas handle from the black paper
5. Next, cut out 8-10 tear drops from the blue paper for rain.
6. Then glue down the U towards the bottom right of the backing paper
7. Next, glue down the umbrella handle on the top left of the U.
8. Then glue down the umbrella canopy at the top of the handle.
9. Finally, glue down the rain drops over and around your umbrella.