Uppercase Letter A Craft: Alligator

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Preschool is the perfect time to start learning the letters of the alphabet with your child. Over the next twenty-six weeks, I’ll be adding a craft for each uppercase and lowercase letter of the alphabet. In this post, I’ll show you how to help your child turn the letter A into a chomping alligator with this fun uppercase letter A craft your preschool child will love. This simple craft is the perfect introduction to your Letter A unit!

Children need to create. Giving your child a chance to craft helps create neural pathways for learning, develops fine motor skills, builds the imagination, and creates a foundation for artistic development and appreciation. It might seem like busy work to you, but in fact, crafting develops many foundational skills for preschool children.

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The Value is in the Creative Process

For this uppercase letter A craft, you should let your child do as many of the steps as possible. You may need to help with some of the cutting, but whatever is within their abilities let them do. Remember, the value is in the process, not in the finished product.

You can’t develop fine motor skills for your child by doing all the cutting yourself, but giving them freedom with kid-safe scissors will help them develop fine motor skills for themselves. Scissor skills are a foundational step in building up hand strength as well.

Watch Letter A Circle Time Here!

As parents, it’s really hard to let go of the creative process because we have this crazy need to have everything look “good” and “right.” Let it go. Your child will think whatever he creates looks perfect if he does it himself. If you do it for him, you are teaching him that he is not good enough to do things on his own. When she’s in charge of the process, she will be building self-esteem as she crafts.

If your child doesn’t glue each piece in exactly the right place its okay! Using a glue stick helps with hand-eye coordination and provides sensory input. Squeezing a glue bottle builds hand strength. These are valuable experiences for your preschool child.

Uppercase Letter A Finished Craft

The finished product – an alligator created from the uppercase letter a – will be something both you and your child can be proud of. Your child will be proud because they did it all (mostly) by themselves. You will be proud because you understand how hard your child worked and how valuable the activity was for her preschool development. Also, don’t forget to be proud of yourself for pulling all the parts of this craft together for your child!

This is a really simple uppercase letter a craft. I’m including a materials list and step-by-step instructions below to get you started. Because every child is different, feel free to adapt the process to fit the needs of your child. If your child isn’t comfortable with scissors yet, try these loop scissors. Be encouraging and helpful enough that your child’s frustrations are kept to a minimum. It’s a tricky balance, I know!

You can do this mama!

Watch Letter A Circle Time Here!

Here’s what you will need for your Uppercase Letter A Craft.

• green construction paper
• black construction paper
• white construction paper
• one background color of construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• Alternative – White paper + crayons

How to complete the Uppercase Letter A Craft.

1. Cut out a large uppercase A from the green paper. (Trace a letter A onto the paper and let your child do the cutting.)
2. Next, cut out 2 circles for eyes and 8-12 triangles for teeth from the white paper and cut 2 smaller circles from the black paper for the inner eyes.
3. Then glue down the A in the middle of the paper.
4. Next, glue down the white circles for his eyes towards the top of the A.
5. Then glue down the black circles for his middle eyes in the middle of the white eyes.
6. Finally, Glue down the teeth on the bottom of the A to make his mouth.

Crafting with your child.

Don’t give up! Since this is our first letter craft, things might have been a little bumpy, but don’t despair! Once your child gets a little practice with scissors and glue, craft time will be a breeze and you will both enjoy the time well spent.

Find Additional Letter A Resources Here!

Related: Our Relaxed Preschool.