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Mail Play! Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

April 12, 2016 by Sarah 8 Comments

Alphabet learning is something that is near and dear to me.  Having taught Kindergarten I have worked with many little people and helped them learn the alphabet through play.  Some little ones I have worked with learn the alphabet really quickly, and for others, it takes more time.  My preschooler falls in the latter group.

It is hard for me not to push (in a helpful and well-meaning way) to have him learn his ABCs.  It’s especially hard when I chat with other Mamas and hear how their little ones know all of their letters, can read, and have written their first novel …

But I don’t.  I take a deep breath, accept him for the creative and wild little man that he is, and provide him with opportunities to learn.

This is a great way to help little ones learn their alphabet! Great name recognition activity too.

We have bean bag letters in the toy box, put painter’s tape letters on the floor, and we read a lot.  Through play, he now has a handle on the uppercase letters of the alphabet.  You can see the alphabet recognition activities we played to have fun and introduce that first step to alphabet learning.  Our next step is matching uppercase and lowercase letters.

a fun activity to practice matching uppercase and lowercase letters how we learn

I introduced the idea of matching uppercase and lowercase letters to Sammy through this simple letter matching activity.  I did it this way so he would look at each detail of the letter and begin to recognize the fact that there are two shapes for each letter – one uppercase (or big) and one lowercase (or small).   Throughout the week he was noticing lowercase letters in books and in print all around him.  It seems he has started to show an interest in alphabet learning, so I am treading lightly and cautiously as we move on … only a few small steps away from his first novel …

This is a great way to help little ones learn their alphabet! Great name recognition activity too.

Introducing matching uppercase and lowercase letters

Much like I introduce alphabet recognition by starting with my little one’s name, I introduce lowercase letters with names too.  We made this introduction into a post office game … because my Sammy loves to play mail games!

I started by writing the names of everyone in our family on envelopes the way you would normally write a name—uppercase for the first letter and lowercase for the rest.

Then I wrote each letter for each name on little squares of paper in uppercase letters.

This is a great way to help little ones learn their alphabet! Great name recognition activity too.

Since we have done a lot of playing with names, Sammy is familiar with our names and can recognize the name letters quite easily.  By writing the lowercase letters on the envelope he only had to recognize the lowercase letter and then he could sort through all the uppercase letters (which he knows much better) and match it.

To make this matching game a bit less intimidating I wrote each name in a different colour.  Mommy was written in Orange, and each uppercase letter for MOMMY was also written in orange.  This helped Sammy when he got stuck on a letter.

This is a great way to help little ones learn their alphabet! Great name recognition activity too.

Madeline made up a cute story to go with this game.  She told Sam that she was delivering letters to her family when she got spooked by a great big dog.  She dropped all of the envelopes and all of the letters inside got mixed up.  Sammy really loves stories and make-believe play, so this helped him really engage in the activity.

I am a big believer in giving kids the time they need to learn.  I am truly in no rush for Sam to learn his alphabet, learn to write, or learn to read.  I provide him with the opportunities, but if he is not interested I never push.  We read each day and we talk a lot.  Really, that is all my little one needs.

Thank you for reading friends! I hope you are having a lovely week.

 

Filed Under: Activities for Preschoolers, All Ages, Kindergarten, Learn, Letters and Numbers, Letters and Reading, Literacy, Preschool Activities, Preschoolers Tagged With: alphabet, alphabet activities for preschoolers, letters

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Comments

  1. thepreschooltoolbox says

    February 25, 2014 at 3:06 pm

    Thanks, again, for sharing via our FB wall today! This is a great way to get kids matching and learning about uppercase and lowercase letters! Great fun!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      February 26, 2014 at 8:02 pm

      Thank you so much for having me share!

      Reply
  2. Felicia says

    February 26, 2014 at 10:24 am

    This is such a fun idea! Since we have a mail box, I’m gonna incorporate this into our regular mails!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      February 26, 2014 at 7:59 pm

      Wonderful Felicia – thank you for commenting!

      Reply
  3. Susan @HomeschoolWithLove says

    February 26, 2014 at 3:36 pm

    What a clever way to practice letter matching and recognition. It incorporates a bit of pretend play too. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      February 26, 2014 at 7:59 pm

      Thank you Susan!

      Reply
  4. Ashley says

    March 5, 2014 at 7:46 am

    What a cute way to practice letters! Featured you on Mom’s Library this week!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      March 9, 2014 at 2:27 pm

      Thank you Ashley – and for the feature!

      Reply

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