15 Fun Letter G Activities & Crafts for Kids

Many letter G activity lists open with a giraffe. That’s a problem for a kid just learning letter sounds, because “giraffe” doesn’t start with the sound most phonics programmes teach first for G.

G has two sounds:

• Hard g /g/, as in goat, garden, grapes, gum. It’s made at the back of the mouth, with the voice on. Compare it with /d/, which uses the tip of the tongue instead, as explained in these letter D activities.
• Soft g /j/, as in giraffe, gem, giant, gym. It sounds exactly like a J.

Beginners learn the hard g first. The soft g usually comes later, when kids are reading longer words. As a rough guide, G tends to be soft before e, i or y. There are plenty of exceptions though, like girl, give and get, so it isn’t a rule to drill at this age.

So the activities below use hard-g words, and the giraffe makes an appearance at the end, as a “surprise sound” for kids who are ready.

Quick pick

Crafts

1. Paper garden. Cut flowers, leaves and grass from coloured paper and stick them onto a large sheet. As your kid works, point out the hard g at the start of garden, grass and green. The garden can go on the wall and stay up for the week.

2. Goat puppet. A paper bag becomes a goat with paper horns, a little beard of white wool and two button eyes. Once it’s made, the goat is the one telling the story. Kids who are shy about speaking often chatter freely through a puppet.

3. Gumball machine. Draw a round glass jar on a stand and let your kid fill it with round stickers or small circles of coloured paper. Peeling and placing small stickers is good practice for the pincer grip they’ll use to hold a pencil.

4. Grape stamping. Cut grapes in half, dip the flat side in paint and press. The prints come out as neat little circles, which kids can arrange into bunches. An adult should do the cutting.

5. Grass head. Fill an old sock or a paper cup with soil, sprinkle grass seeds on top, water it and draw a face on the side. In about a week, the “hair” starts to grow, and your kid can water it every day and give it a trim.

Games and everyday play

6. Green day. Wear something green, eat something green at lunch (peas, a green chutney, cucumber) and count how many green things you spot on a walk. Count out loud together: one green car, two green leaves, three green doors.

7. Rubber-band guitar. Stretch rubber bands of different thicknesses around an open shoebox or a plastic tub and pluck them. Thick bands sound low, thin bands sound high. Your kid will discover this on their own if you give them a moment.

8. Gumball counting. Roll a die and put that many “gumballs” (paper circles or buttons) in a paper gumball machine. First to fill their machine wins.

9. Sound gate. Make a “gate” with your arms and call out a word. Words with the hard /g/ sound at the front, like go, gift or gate, open the gate, and your kid runs through. Any other word keeps it shut. Throw in jam and jet now and then, because the /j/ sound is easy to mix up with soft g later. Short listening games like this one are used a lot in the early phonics levels of Bambinos’ Unbox English.

Shaping the letter

10. Glitter G. Write a big G with glue and let your kid shake glitter over it, then tip the extra off. Once it’s dry, they can trace the bumpy letter with a finger. Expect glitter on the floor for days.

11. Green pea G. Lay a G in green peas or moong dal on a plate. Starting at the top of the curve, place the peas along the shape in the same direction you’d write it.

A note on the lowercase g: many books print it with a double loop (g), but kids are taught to write the simpler single-loop shape: a circle with a tail that drops below the line and hooks to the left. If your kid asks why the book’s g looks strange, that’s the reason. Both are the same letter.

Painting

12. G collage. Look through old magazines for pictures of hard-g things: a guitar, a goat, grapes, a gift box. Cut them out and stick them inside a big outline of the letter G.

13. Galaxy painting. Brush dark blue and purple paint across black paper, then flick white paint off an old toothbrush to make stars. Kids love the splatter part. Afterwards, look at the word galaxy together, which starts with a hard g.

14. Goose eggs. Paint smooth stones or papier-mâché eggs white and decorate them. Set them in a “nest” of shredded paper. If you have time, look up a picture of a real goose together. Many kids have never seen one.

For kids who are ready: the soft g

15. Giraffe handprint. Paint your kid’s hand yellow and press it onto paper with the fingers pointing up. The thumb becomes the head, and you can add a long neck, brown spots and ears with a marker. Then say “giraffe” together slowly and ask, “Does that start like goat, or like jam?” Hearing that G can sound like J is a real discovery for a kid who has spent a week on the hard g. It’s the first step towards reading words like giant and magic.

Bambinos’ live phonics classes introduce tricky letters like G in the same way: the common sound first, the surprise sound later, with plenty of play in between. Families can sign up for a free trial on the Bambinos website.