I saw this great idea on a blog one day, and now I can't find it. So, if anyone has seen this before, and knows the blog address, please let me know!
The other day, Andrew and Adam made our own movable alphabet. I remember using something similar when I'd volunteer in Eliza's first grade classroom to help the children practice spelling words. Now that both Andrew and Adam have caught the reading bug (thanks Lynette for your help with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons!), I thought that letting them make their own words would be a great activity for them during the summer (and even into the school year ... I'm sure this will come in handy with spelling list practice).
I got the foam letters and containers at JoAnn; I even had the boys with me so they could get excited about the project. The next day, I printed out the grid sheets and gave the boys some glue and told them to just go at it. Adam went like gang busters, just putting whichever letter wherever on the sheet. Andrew, on the other hand, is a little bit more like me and methodically sang the alphabet song over and over to be sure he had them in the right order. Then, when he got the end and realized he only had four squares in the grid left he decided to put his name in there. On the next sheet he put "dragon." My little sparty-pants. It did take him a little bit longer though: Adam was able to fill his sheet and get a lot of it cut out before Andrew was done gluing down his letters. We probably could have used stickers, but the ones JoAnn had weren't the right size for the containers we picked out.
The other day, Andrew and Adam made our own movable alphabet. I remember using something similar when I'd volunteer in Eliza's first grade classroom to help the children practice spelling words. Now that both Andrew and Adam have caught the reading bug (thanks Lynette for your help with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons!), I thought that letting them make their own words would be a great activity for them during the summer (and even into the school year ... I'm sure this will come in handy with spelling list practice).
I got the foam letters and containers at JoAnn; I even had the boys with me so they could get excited about the project. The next day, I printed out the grid sheets and gave the boys some glue and told them to just go at it. Adam went like gang busters, just putting whichever letter wherever on the sheet. Andrew, on the other hand, is a little bit more like me and methodically sang the alphabet song over and over to be sure he had them in the right order. Then, when he got the end and realized he only had four squares in the grid left he decided to put his name in there. On the next sheet he put "dragon." My little sparty-pants. It did take him a little bit longer though: Adam was able to fill his sheet and get a lot of it cut out before Andrew was done gluing down his letters. We probably could have used stickers, but the ones JoAnn had weren't the right size for the containers we picked out.At any rate, I am excited to put this alphabet to work. The children are much more interested in using this and playing with it because they made it. I can't wait to see where this leads this!
Comments
Wish I had come across this last year. Guess it'll still come in handy this year.
Thanks for Sharing!