A bat themed activity is great for Halloween. You could also use it as part of a night themed unit studying nocturnal animals.
Try our beginning letter sounds bat matching activity for toddlers and preschoolers as part of your bat theme or as a stand-alone Halloween activity.
Beginning Letter Sounds Bat Matching Activity
Supplies Needed for the Bat Matching Halloween Game
Bat cutouts (or black cardstock and scissors)
Painter’s tape (optional)
How to Set Up the Beginning Letter Sounds Activity
Determine what letters you want to work on. I recommend working on just a handful of letters at a time. Choose 3-4 words for each letter. I used Halloween themed words. Here’s a list of Halloween words for inspiration. (Use this same idea with older kids for spelling or sight words.)
Write your chosen letters and words on the bat cutouts. I used a combination of foam bats from Hobby Lobby and bats I cut out of cardstock. I simply traced a foam bat and cut it out. You can often find bat cutouts at Target (in the Dollar Spot) or at Michael’s as well.
I chose to write uppercase letters for my letter bats as a bonus letter matching activity. You could use lowercase letters instead.
Now you have the makings of a simple matching game.
How to Play the Beginning Letter Sounds Bat Matching Game
Place your letter bats in one location in your room. You could lay them on the floor, place them on table, or tape them to a wall. (Be sure that your tape won’t harm your wall. Painter’s tape is usually safe on most painted surfaces. Just don’t leave it on there for long periods of time. Take it down when your game is over.)
Now hide your bats around the room. I taped mine to the walls in my sort of dark hallway. You could also lay the bats on the floor or on different pieces of furniture if you don’t want to use tape.
The goal of the game is for your child to take a word bat and match its first letter to the correct letter bat.
Here’s the extra fun part. Use a flashlight. (Talk about flashlight safety with your child and how we don’t shine lights in people’s eyes – including his/her own.)
Have your child shine the flashlight on a word bat. Read the word on the bat to your child. Ask him what letter it starts with. “That’s the word ‘moon.’ What letter does moon start with? What letter do you see?”
As you’re reading the words, also practice the beginning letter sounds. Say: “B says /b/. /b/ /b/ bat. Bat starts with the letter b.”
Have your child take the word bat and place it near the matching letter bat.
It’s not important that your toddler or even preschooler reads the words. You just want him or her to work on letter sounds and associating what that first letter looks like with its letter sound. It is important for you and your child to say the letter sounds as you’re playing.
Using the flashlight helps to highlight the letters. My toddler wanted to play this game again and again just so he could go around finding the bats with the flashlight.
More Bat Themed Halloween Activities
Bats in a Cave Sight Word Game
Bat Number Treasure Hunt at Inspiration Laboratories
Halloween Black Bat Sensory Bin at Pre-K Pages
Do you want to do more activities with your family?
Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.
I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.
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