A total of thirty-eight preschool children were randomly assigned to one of two explicit teaching treatments to teach alphabet letter sounds. One treatment was designed to enhance motivation and learning by utilizing letters with letter sound characters integrated into the letter shapes (integrated mnemonics) and short narratives about the letter sound characters. In the treated control, plain letters and alphabet books were the foundation of instruction. There were no significant treatment effects on children’s perceptions of ability or desire/interest for school tasks (cross-domain) or letters (domain-specific). Children’s motivation increased significantly from pretest to posttest on three of four motivation measures including interest/desire for letters (domain-specific), and interest/desire and ability perceptions for school tasks (cross-domain). Effect sizes were dz=0.50, dz=0.34, and dz=0.40, respectively. There were significant treatment effects in favor of integrated mnemonics on identifying letter sounds, identifying initial consonants, and blending. Treatment effect sizes were d=1.31 for letter sounds, d=0.61 for initial phoneme identification (ID), and d=0.62 for blending phonemes. Self-reports of ability and desire/interest for school tasks and letters were correlated with learning. Results are interpreted as suggesting that (a) identifying features of instruction that enhance motivation may require stronger instructional elements, increased alignment between features of instruction and measures, and improved measures, (b) small differences in the nature of letter sound instruction matter for learning with superiority for instruction including letter characters integrated into letter forms and imaginary narratives, and (c) relationships among motivation, learning, and instruction are discernible in preschool children.