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home / Blog / early literacy / abc exercise cards. . . hooray!

abc exercise cards. . . hooray!

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March 16, 2010 by Teach Mama 16 Comments

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Thank you, ABC Exercise Cards, for giving us a fun and burn-some-steam kind of activity this afternoon!abc exercise cards

After a rainy weekend and another rainy–but exciting!–morning at the College Park Aviation Museum with Owen’s class, I found that by the afternoon, my kids had crazy energy to burn.

After playing dress-ups and swinging from the downstairs rings, we used this set of ABC Exercise Cards to keep us busy, make us laugh a lot, and get little brains moving–and reading–along the way.

  • ABC Exercise Cards: These are simple cards each with an uppercase and lowercase letter on them and an action that begins with that letter.

They are similar to our Action, Action 123 Cards, but these cards have the pictures already included and have one action for each letter of the alphabet. And we didn’t use a dice for this game to indicate the number of times to do each action, but you certainly could.

If you’d like to download a set of the ABC Exercise Cards, please visit Homeschool Share, a fantastic site rich with resources for parents and teachers.  I found them under ‘My Body Lapbook‘.

abc exercise cards

Owen’s rockin it out, running in a zig-zag. Obviously.

Owen was in a game-playing mood, so when he suggested we an alphabet board game that we’ve been playing every day (almost for the last two weeks), I said, Hey, I have an idea. I think we have a game that has the letters of the alphabet in it, but it will get us moving and grooving. And I think we all have some energy to burn. Let me get it.

I dumped the bag of cards onto the floor and said, Now here I have a card with an action for each letter of the alphabet. When it’s your turn, you’ll pick a card, we’ll read it, and then you’ll do that action. And what do you think we’ll do with the card after we’re finished?

Owen yelled, Put it in a line! (He has such a good memory from all of our ABC- Style Hide-and-Seek playing. . . )

Exactly, I said. We’ll put the cards in alphabetical order. And if we need to, we can just sing the ‘ABC Song’ to help us. Okay, the first person to spot a circle in the room goes first. Ready, search!

Owen found a circle first, so he led the party, and we went through the entire pile of cards, jumping, hopping on one foot, riding a unicycle (on our backs), waving our arms (like windmills), acting like an inchworm, running in place, and touching our toes–all from A to Z.

abc exercise cards cora leg

Maddy, in her princess shoes, is hopping on one pretty little foot.

When we finished the first time, Maddy and Owen immediately asked to play a second time (Cora was too busy dressing up and playing kitchen). I said, Let’s play tomorrow. Why don’t you go through the pile and read and follow the cards you want? Soon it’ll be dinnertime.

And so they did, and soon it was, and as soon as I slapped my husband five, I grabbed my bags and headed out the door to tutor. A busy, happy Monday it was.

Not only did these cards get us moving, but they also reinforced the all-important letters of the alphabet. Putting the letters in alphabetical order after we completed each card gave Maddy and Owen more practice in understanding where the letters of the alphabet fit in relation to each other, and pictures next to the action instructions made reading easier.

abc exercise cards

Other variations of this activity (that we’ll probably try later this week) include:

  • hiding the cards around the room and having the kiddos find them;
  • trying to do the actions in order, from A to Z and then Z to A;
  • having the kids spell their names with the cards and then complete the actions for their name;
  • spelling our last name and then completing the actions together as a family ‘routine’ (just kidding. . . but not really);
  • giving the kids 3-5 cards and then allowing them to pick an action, demonstrate that action, and then we could guess what letter they had.

Who knew ABC Exercise Cards could be so much fun?

A long while back, I found the ABC Exercise Cardson someone’s website, and (gulp!) I’m not sure whose site it was or who actually created this great resource. However, you can download the same pdf that I downloaded and saved by clicking here: ABC Exercise Cards.

My most sincere apologies go out to the talented creator of these cards, which I did link back to Homeschool Share. I feel strange sharing them without proper linking–which I do feel is extremely important in the world of educational resource sharing–but I am sharing them today because we used them, because I think they’re awesome, and because with rainy spring on its way, I think many others may want to use them, too. Anyone who knows where they originated, please let me know, and I’ll link more properly.

UPDATE, 9/10/11: I did hear back from the sweet Ami, of Homeschool Share, and she asked that I direct readers to The Homeschool Share site, My Body Lapbook, to download this resource. Thank you, Ami, for sharing your incredible work at HSS!!

Happy ABC Exercising and sneaking in a little bit of learning!

Want a few more alphabet activities? Check out:

  • backyard alphabet hunt
  • homemade alphabet book
  • leafy letter learning
  • ABC hunt
  • on the road ABC hunt
  • lowercase ABC hunt
  • build your own bingo: uppercase and lowercase match
  • ABC cards and clothespin match
  • alphabet letter splash
  • alphabingo (play with lowercase letters)
  • alphabet letter lids
  • leafy outdoor alphabet hunt
  • build your own board game
  • clothespin letter match
  • 10 fun ways to learn the alphabet

 

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About the Author

Hi, I’m Patricia, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, turned homeschool mom. I also have a master's in psychology, specializing in children's issues. Read More…

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Christy says

    March 16, 2010 at 12:32 pm

    Thanks for sharing. These will be a hit in my house.

    Reply
  2. kate says

    March 16, 2010 at 12:48 pm

    This looks awesome! I am really excited to print these out today and start using them. What a great way to do multiple things with the kids! Thanks for sharing this Amy!

    Reply
  3. Lil' Ms. P says

    March 16, 2010 at 1:25 pm

    Love these. I am going to share a link in we teach bodies to move group on we teach! Fabulous resource.

    Reply
  4. The R Crew says

    March 19, 2010 at 7:26 am

    This was a BIG hit with our family! Thanks for sharing all your ideas.

    Reply
  5. Misty says

    March 23, 2010 at 11:40 pm

    I printed these too from whoever made them but mine had a weird square randomly in the middle of the cards. It made it hard for the kids to focus on the letter since they are just learning to identify each letter. I will try your link and see if it works for me, thanks for posting these!

    Reply
  6. Sara says

    January 30, 2014 at 10:20 pm

    These cards are great , children should get a kick out of them! I found some adult exercise cards online that are really helpful too. Boa Extreme Fitness Cards …..but they are a little to much for my daughter.

    Reply
    • Teach Mama says

      January 31, 2014 at 6:22 am

      Sara! Thanks so much. . . how are the adult ones different from the kid ones?

      Reply
  7. Susan says

    August 27, 2015 at 9:05 am

    THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING.

    Reply
  8. Alexa Farley says

    February 7, 2019 at 6:35 pm

    I am wondering why the alpahbet exercise cards do not include Y and Z>

    Reply
  9. Maria says

    November 13, 2019 at 8:39 pm

    Alexa Farley – I am wondering the same thing – why are there no Y and Z?

    Reply
  10. Bansi Mehta says

    July 13, 2020 at 11:41 am

    THis is a fun and fab activity to do with the children. Thanks a lot. However could you share it from your end as this link doesn’t have the letters y and z

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Patricia, an elementary teacher and reading specialist, turned homeschool mom.

After our three kids graduated high school, I went back to school to become a marriage and family therapist who has specialized in children’s issues.

I love helping families find all the fun and deep learning possible for their children.

I’m so glad you’re here on Teach Mama and I look forward to helping you on your journey!

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