Alphabetical Order Teaching Resources

Teach alphabetical order this school year with printable worksheets, engaging reading center activities and games and digital and printable resources to help students understand ABC order!

This collection of TEKS and Common Core curriculum-aligned teaching resources has been created by a teacher for teachers like you.

Best of all? Each game, worksheet and activity is carefully reviewed by a member of our expert teaching team to ensure it's classroom-ready — so we can make your lesson planning easier. Explore the whole alphabetizing collection for fresh ideas for your classroom!

New to teaching alphabetical order, or just looking for new ways to engage your students? Read on for a primer from our teacher team, including an alphabetical order definition to share with your students and some fun activity ideas for your class.

What Is Alphabetical Order? A Kid-Friendly Definition

As teachers, we know that alphabetical order — sometimes called ABC order — is a way of arranging words or phrases based on the sequence of letters in the alphabet. But how do we explain what it means to alphabetize to our students?

Here's a definition that puts ordering letters in terms that a kid in kindergarten might understand by relating it to their toys.

Alphabetical order is like putting your toys away in a straight line from A to Z, just like the ABCs. It means arranging things — like the names of all of the students in your class — in order from the first letter to the last letter of the alphabet.

For example, if we wanted to create a list of different fruits in alphabetical order, "apple" comes before "banana" because "a" comes before "b" in the alphabet.

In alphabetical order, words can be arranged from A to Z or in reverse alphabetical order, from Z to A.

Why Is Alphabetical Order Important?

We start teaching our students to order things from A to Z in the early years of elementary school when children are learning the alphabet. It is usually introduced in kindergarten or first grade as students learn the names and order of the letters of the alphabet. From there, students are gradually introduced to alphabetical order and how to use it in various contexts.

The reason for this is simple — it's an essential skill for reading and writing. It's also a fundamental concept our students will need to develop advanced literacy skills, such as dictionary use and vocabulary acquisition.

Still, the real importance of alphabetical order lies in its ability to provide a systematic and efficient way of organizing information. When things are listed in A to Z order, information is easily retrieved from lists, tables, charts and other reference materials.

Why Is the Alphabet in That Order?

Has a student asked you why the 26 letters of the alphabet are ordered the way they are? It's a great question!

The order of what is often called the "modern Latin alphabet" traces back thousands of years as the English language developed. Our English alphabet, ordered from A to Z, is based on the ancient Latin alphabet.

The Latin version had just 22 letters, and it didn't have vowels. Those were added by the Greeks and later the Romans to form the alphabetical order we know and use today!

How Do You Teach Alphabetical Order?

This collection of teaching resources is full of printables and ideas for teaching alphabetical order, from playing games to fun sorting activities, but we didn't stop there.

Here are some favorite ideas for teaching this concept — straight from our teaching team!

1. Alphabetical Order Song — The alphabet song has been used for generations, and this mnemonic will never go out of style! Using catchy songs is a great way to help students retain information.
2. Alphabet "War" — Switch out playing cards with flashcards featuring different letters for a game of alphabet war. In this version of the popular game, students who throw out a card with a letter closer to the start of the alphabet are the "winners" of each round. You can make this game more challenging by supplying flashcards that feature only a picture, challenging students to remember the name and letter it starts with.
3. Use Zippered Freezer Bags — Print out one of our ABC order worksheets and slip them inside gallon-sized freezer bags with a zipper slider at the top. Then use a marker to write the letters of the alphabet across the top of the bag. Students can slide the zipper to each letter to find it in the alphabet as they fill out their worksheet. Bonus: This will allow you to reuse your printed sheet!