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Zoom and Sort the ABCs

March 31, 2017 by Sarah 8 Comments

I realized that I hadn’t written a blog post about painter’s tape activities recently.  When I looked through my blog posts, I noticed that most of my posts involving my beloved green tape took place last winter.  Rather fitting when I think about it.

With the chilly, chilly weather our time spent inside increases, and my desire to get my little ones moving (with a purpose) grows.  Since they don’t stop moving, purpose is good.

These little ones of mine, like most, really, need to keep their little bodies moving.  From the moment they wake to the moment they rest they seem to be in constant motion.

So I know that for them to be engaged in any sort of learning activity, they must be moving.  Generally in the summer this is accomplished in many ways: with playdough, card games, buttons, you name it.  But in the winter, they like to REALLY move.

And enter to save the day (yet again) my roll of painters tape.  Oh, and the trusty sidekick coffee.

playing with cars and racing to sort the letters is a fun way to practice the abc's!

I made a great big racetrack (sort of) maze(ish thing) using the same method I did for our “a-maze-ing letters learning game” just on a much (much) bigger scale.

In the middle, at Sammy’s request I put some parking spots.  Due to poor planning (or … as it should turn out … accidental brilliance) I made some parking spots small and some big.

The boys played with this racetrack for a long time.  Initially there was some crashing and blocking, but with some swift rules established (and enforced – more than once) the racetrack was a success.

playfully learning the alphabet with toy cars and painters tape.

Big diggers and dozers were being pushed and pulled and little muscles were getting used and tired out.

I was pretty happy with this activity just like this, truthfully.  But then Sam suggested we practice the alphabet after lunch.

We are playing our way through learning the alphabet, and right now we are working on lower case letter recognition.

I grabbed some little cars and popped some stickers on top (post-it notes would work too).  I then labelled them with different upper case or lower case letters.

I wrote the entire alphabet, upper and lower case, on a chalkboard so Sam could refer to it as needed.

We then placed all the cars around the track.  Sam’s job was to sort.  The cars with the lowercase letters were to go in the little parking spots and the cars with the uppercase letters were to go in the big parking lot spots (those parking spots that were carefully created to be made both small and large …)

painters tape road 3

We just used about 15 cars or so, as I thought more would be overwhelming.  I had thought we would do the activity again after using different letters, but this game morphed into something else near the end and Sam contentedly learned and played in his own way.

I’ve learned that when my little ones decide to take an activity in a different direction it is almost always best to let them.  They are little and creative and full of ideas.  The learning that takes place when they are in charge of their learning is amazing.

While we were playing this game Sam would find a car with his ‘tow truck’ (though it was a dump truck), pick it up, decide on the letter and determine if it was an upper or lowercase version.  If he had trouble with this he would bring it over to the chalkboard to decide.  After, he would deliver it to the proper parking spot.

Sam decided it would be easier to erase the letter once he found it.  So he did.

painters tape road easel

He also did some problem solving when he discovered certain letters that looked the same in both the uppercase and lowercase form.  For the letter ‘c’, after some careful consideration (of which I cautiously bit my tongue and simply observed), he decided it could be either the capital or the lowercase letter, so he placed it in between the two parking lots.

Later, when he found the second car with the letter ‘c’ on it he compared them and decided one was bigger, so placed that one in the big parking lot spot.

Learning like this is so meaningful.  When children are presented with a problem to solve and manage to work through it independently, that learning is far more likely to stick.

This activity was so simple to set up, and can be used to learn almost anything. From names to sight words to numbers!

Oh, good old painters tape.

Please consider following along with our over 250 000 Pinterest followers so we can share more creative learning activities with you and your little ones!  Thank you.

 

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Filed Under: Kindergarten, Learn, Letters and Numbers, Letters and Reading Tagged With: how we learn the alphabet, letter recognition

« I’m Taking My Kids Around the World…
A Different Kind of Name Puzzle »

Comments

  1. Becky says

    January 20, 2015 at 5:01 pm

    I love these ideas! We are working through our alphabet, and I am looking for any fresh ideas to use
    , thank you!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      January 20, 2015 at 10:48 pm

      Thank you Becky! Glad they might help you and your little ones play with the ABCs!

      Reply
  2. channon says

    January 20, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    Great idea. My boys love it when I put down the tape, and I haven’t done it in a while. Fun post 🙂

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      January 21, 2015 at 8:05 am

      Yay Channon! Can’t beat a roll of painters tape! Thank you for taking the time to comment

      Reply
  3. Sheila @ Brain Power Boy says

    January 21, 2015 at 2:03 pm

    Wonderful! I love how the ideas for the activity changed based on their input. Sharing

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      January 21, 2015 at 2:31 pm

      Thank you for sharing Sheila! So glad you liked the activity.

      Reply
  4. A. says

    January 10, 2019 at 5:43 am

    hi,

    My son is 6.5 years old and he is in kindergarten. i am based in Pakistan. He will be in grade 1 and this September, but he is unable to recognise letters…and keeps on forgetting it. He starts crying every time he opens the book. In school, children younger his age are making three letter words. I am worried for him. Can you please suggest where to start from. Even if i practice with him…he will forget the sound instantly. Need desperate help.

    regards

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      January 22, 2019 at 8:30 pm

      Hi Amina, Thank you for reaching out. I am sorry to hear that your son is struggling. It is never easy as a parent to see our little ones struggling! I would like to reassure you that all children learn and develop at different rates. Some children are ready to read by 4, where others are not ready until they are 7, 8 or even later. There are many ‘normal’ ages to learn to read. The most important thing to look for is progress. If you are concerned that your son is not progressing with his skills then I would encourage you to chat with your doctor or a specialist to get their opinion. I do have an eBook that I created as a Reading Specialist to help give children a solid foundation in literacy and pre-reading. This book walks you through all of the phonological awareness skills children need before reading, as well as how to introduce letters, sounds, and even how to teach reading. You can find it right here: http://www.HowWeeLearn.com/my-book Please feel free to email me at HowWeeLearn@gmail.com for more information. Thank you for reaching out. You are a wonderful Mom!

      Reply

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