My class kept coming back to the jellyfish alphabet match during Letter J week, but the dramatic-play setups were just as popular. These letter J activities for preschool came straight from our classroom, so you can choose the ideas that fit your children and the materials you already have.
9 Letter J Activities at a Glance
- Jellyfish alphabet match
- Jurassic Park sensory bin
- Jungle sensory bin
- Jungle loose-parts invitation
- Jewel thief movement game
- Letter J sensory bag
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Judge dramatic play
- Juice shop dramatic play
Planning more hands-on alphabet experiences? Read The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Letter of the Week for practical, play-based ideas.
Sensory Bin
Jellyfish alphabet match
I used this jellyfish alphabet match to give children a playful way to find and pair uppercase and lowercase letters. You can browse my hands-on alphabet resources here.
Jurassic Park
Boy do my kids love dinosaurs! I could set this up everyday and they would never get tired!
- Dark colored beans
- Dinosaurs
- Dino eggs
- Logs
- Leaves/vines
- etc.
Jungle
Welcome to the jungle! This is probably the ONLY time we use these monkeys in the class 😂.
- Brown colored rice
- Leaves/vines
- Stones/rocks
- Logs
- Shovels/tools
- Monkeys
- Etc.
Science
Jungle
Every time I post this activity i just HAVE to state it for the record….I LOVE THESE PAGES!!! They are so much fun and I love seeing how creative the kids are with out any guidance. They are intended for open ended play and incorporate STEAM/STEM skills, decision making, and more. Check out the A-Z set here.
The set comes with 6 different jungle scenes for variety. Laminate your pages for reuse. You can provide each child with a different basket of loose parts, but I just use the same parts with different pages. When choosing your parts, I encourage you to be creative and pick different sizes, shapes, and textures. You will be amazed what a kid can do with a handful of buttons!
I display the pages and provide a basket of loose parts. I let the kids take it from there! They choose their page and what to do with it.
Jewel thief
We love a good game of musical chairs…only we never use chairs 😂. The kids are pretty fond of a game I created, I like to think I created it anyway, called musical cards. I know, I’m probably not the only one who has thought of this genius idea. We are always finding new ways to play.
I placed one ring in a jewelry box and closed it. The kids raised their hands high and I played a song. When the song stopped, they placed their hand on a box. Whoever had the ring inside was the jewel thief and was out! Continue this until there is only one person left.
Peek-a-boo page
These are so fun and you can tailor them to any age group! This time I had the younger kids come to the science center so I made the bags easy to see through. I added food coloring and water to a bag with some glitter. Sealed it tight, and placed it on top of the laminated page. The kids touched the bag and moved the glitter around to find and mark off each image.
You can find this activity here.
Jigsaw puzzle
Sometimes, a teachers gotta take the easy route. Ya know what I mean? 😎.
Dramatic Play
Judge
Juice Shop
More Hands-On Alphabet Resources
Keep the learning playful with my Alphabet Scavenger Hunt, Open-Ended A–Z Play Dough Mats, or more alphabet resources in my TpT shop.
Pair Letter J week with Jealous Janitor, the matching read-aloud from my ABC Discovery series. You can also explore the complete A–Z book collection.
For more classroom ideas, visit The Ultimate Guide to Teaching Letter of the Week.
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