Posts Tagged ‘Learning the Alphabet’
Letter of the week has been a popular feature on our blog for a few years now, but it’s not so popular at my kitchen table anymore. My son has known his letters for what feels like forever so to get him interested it takes something special… like a map. He loves maps, and will often ask us ” How do you get to Nebraska? How do you get to Paris? ” So we find the map and we decide if we should fly, drive or take a boat. I capitalized on that love to do this simple cutting and letter activity.
- Gather your materials you will need an old atlas or map ( you will be cutting it ), kid scissors, a marker, piece of construction paper and glue.
- Start by looking at a map .
We looked at a map of the US since my son is into learning about states right now. Choose a state or country to check out. He chose Utah, we don’t know why but he loves Utah, like a lot. - Flip to it if you are using an Atlas.
If you just have one map to use, take some time looking at it with your child, look for different points of interest . This activity is as much a lesson to familiarize kids with maps and geography as it is one for the letter m. - Tear out the page and write an M, if your child is able to have them write it. It’s easy to turn it into a block M by adding to theirs.
- Cut it out. This will take time.
- Encourage them when it gets tricky. This was the most line cutting my son has ever done, honestly I was pleasantly surprised he did it all.
He was pretty proud too. - Add glue
- “Slam Utah down” His words. Let dry.
It’s an easy project but the cutting takes patience and builds skills , the exploration of the map sparks discussion and the letter recognition comes along for the ride!
Learning at Snack Time Too
While my son flipped through the atlas I fixed him a snack. I knew which state he was looking for and was just thankful it was Utah, I didn’t have enough ham for any other state.
Alphabet Books
ABC USA
All Aboard!: A Traveling Alphabet 
It’s the process not the product right? Well it definitely was when we made these alphabet cookies. I swore I had cookie cutters but alas when I went to look for them they were MIA so we molded letters instead. The activity was a huge hit and a fun special treat. My son laughed with me when we checked on the cookies and they were unrecognizable. THey were still tasty and we still had fun with letters, so I say it was a success!
- Gather your materials. You will need some cookie dough, a cutting board, knife and pan.
- Start by portioning out the cookie size for your child. Since I was using premade dough I just sliced it.
- Start creating.
- I got my son into making letters by making some and asking him to guess what they were then he made a few of his own.
- We also made extra long ones that my son used the knife to cut to size. He loved this.
- Pop them on a tray.
- Bake – check on them and laugh hysterically – obviously less dough should have been used.
- Luckily the O ( my son’s initial) was still an O after I poked the middle a little and he enjoyed it at snack time!
Have fun with your creative time, take failures in stride and remember it’s the process not the product!
