Seven letter Y activities to keep kids entertained all day long! Everything from a yarn maze to some yellow foods and more!
This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase via these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.
Fun Letter Y Activities
When my son was younger, I’d host a preschool day for him and three of his friends. We took turns going through the alphabet. Somehow I always got the hardest letters.
Not sure why I couldn’t get a and just do some of these apple party ideas? But my last letter was Y, and I had to get real creative!
These letter Y activities were ones that we did for our letter Y day, and my son still talks about how fun they are!
Now that he’s home from school and I’m his current teacher, I’m thinking we might end up doing some of these all over again!
If You Feed a Yak a Yogurt
I looked for fun preschool age letter Y activities all over the internet and didn’t have any luck, so I made my own.
One of our favorite book series is the “If you give a…” book series like If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, etc. so I did my own take on one of those books.
Our adventure was called “If you feed a yak a yogurt,” and I’ve included a printable version of the adventure we went on that you can download at the bottom of this post!
I filled my script with a bunch of Y words and Y activities for the kids to introduce them to the letter Y.
I printed out each page of our “story” on little activity cards and did the activities with the kids one a time, while reading the story.
Once the kids were done with the first activity, I read the next card and we moved onto the next activity.
The kids loved it and were engaged throughout the morning always eager to find out what happened to the yak next.
Just like you’ll have to do – keep reading this post to see what happened to the yak!
Letter Y Activities for Preschoolers
This feed the yak a yogurt story is full of fun letter Y activities for preschoolers but these would also work great for older kids! I’m planning to do these with my 7-year-old this week.
Even if you don’t want to use the story cards, you could totally do these letter Y activities on their own anyway!
1 – Eat Yogurt and Fruit Snack
The first portion of the story was all about the yak eating some yogurt, so we started our morning with a little yogurt and yellow fruit (banana, pineapples, mangos, all work great!). You could also do homemade fruit snacks that are yellow.
Whether you do yogurt or yogurt pouches is up to you – my kiddo just like pouches a lot back then!
And of course a little water to wash it down.
Here’s the corresponding part of the story.
If you feed a yak some yogurt, he will probably ask for some fruit to go with it.
When the yogurt is gone, he will probably ask for a cup of water to wash it down.
2 – A Yucky Activity
Up next we did a “yucky” activity, which really wasn’t that yucky at all. We made ooey gooey goop by combining cornstarch, water, and powdered food coloring.
The kids loved playing in the yucky material – this would also work great with making something like slime or anything else that’s sticky and slimy.
And here’s the corresponding portion of the story.
The cup of water will remind him of a yucky activity he did yesterday at school.
He will want to do it again. When he’s doing the yucky activity,
he will spill water on the floor and ask for a towel to clean it up.
3 – Yoga
After we cleaned up our yucky activity, I grabbed some yoga mats and we did some kid yoga. You could also try any of these International yoga day activities.
Yoga with kids is a tricky thing. We used this YouTube video and the kids enjoyed it but they are all boys so they didn’t last the full 15 minutes, even with the story about Squish the Fish.
Yoga not only starts with a Y, but it’s a fun way to relax and get back in control after the messy goop activity.
And of course – the corresponding yak story lines!
The towel will remind him of a yoga mat and he’ll ask you to get him one.
And to do yoga.
Doing yoga will make him want to go out in the yard for more space.
4 – Yellow Hunt
After our yoga, we headed out to the yard to do a yellow hunt.
Before the kids came over, I hid a bunch of yellow items in the backyard and for the yellow hunt I just let them go and find everything they could. The kids loved it and loved being able to run around in the yard even more.
When he gets to the yard he will see yellow leaves
And want to go on a yellow hunt.
While on the yellow hunt, he’ll find a yellow yo-yo with a tangled string.
He’ll forget about the hunt and untangle the string.
5 – Yarn Maze
The next of our letter Y activities was the boys’ favorite by far – a yarn maze!
Kind of like we did with these certification Olympics, I strung a bunch of yarn around our backyard kind of like an obstacle course. The boys had to follow the yarn from beginning to end and go through all of the obstacles to get to the other side.
You could also do something where you setup a yarn maze that’s more like a laser maze, where kids have to go from one side to the other without touching the yarn.
Untangling the yo-yo string will remind him of a maze he went to with you last year.
He’ll ask you for yarn to make his own maze.
The maze will make him tired and he will give a big yawn.
6 – Yummy Snack + Read Y Books
After the string maze (and a lot of excited boys), we headed back inside to eat some sugar cookies (on yellow plates) and read a bunch of books that started with Y.
And books that were the color yellow!
But if you need yellow snack ideas, here are some great ones!
- Cheese sticks
- Buttered popcorn
- Fruit – bananas, pineapples, mango
- Goldfish
- Tortilla chips (with salsa)
- Pringles
- Fruit snacks
- Veggie straws (the yellow ones at least)
- Plantain chips
And here are some of our favorite Y books to read. If you don’t have any of these, just walk to whatever room in your house you have all the kid’s books and starts looking for books. I guarantee there are some Y ones!
7 – Decorate Letter Ys
If the kids finish their snacks and you haven’t gotten through the books yet (and they still want to read), this Y popsicle stick activity is a fun easy craft that can keep their hands busy while they listen.
Glue three popsicle sticks together in the shape of a Y and let them put yellow stickers on them (or other yellow decorations like glitter, markers, etc.).
And to bring everything full circle, here’s the ending of the yak’s story.
He’ll ask to go back inside for a yummy snack and story.
After his yummy snack he’ll go into the kitchen to wash his hands.
He’ll see sliced fruit on the counter and he’ll probably ask for some.
And chances are, if you give him some, he’ll probably want some yogurt to go with it.
Download the Free Printables
If you’re ready to download the free printables to use this idea, simply click the button below or click here.
More Fun Activities for Kids
- Indoor activities for kids
- Minute to win it games
- Alphabet scavenger hunt
- 30+ scavenger hunt ideas
- Virtual scavenger hunt
- Outdoor games
Don’t forget to pin these letter Y activities for later!
Georgette Walton says
Dear Britni,
I want to thank you for all your wonderful ideas. I’m a great-grandma (Mommaw) to four preschool boys. I download and print your ideas and give to my grandchildren for their children.
Thank you, again
.
BritniV says
awww thank you so much!
Katie says
This is so awesome! Thank you for your ideas!
BritniV says
you are so welcome!
Rachael Fernandez says
Thanks for sharing your letter Y day with us. You have reminded me that teaching our kids at home can be fun with a little creativity. I have read an alphabet book about a yak from the library with my DD
Chelsea @ Life With My Littles says
Britni, this is so clever and adorable and creative! I am definitely going to use this cute story and these fun activities when I teach my son about the letter y!