Alphabet Activities

I have been trying to think of ways to engage children in learning letters of the alphabet through play. I wanted to create resources that would be engaging and that children could use by themselves without a teacher.

I have one girl in my class who is passionate about horses, and spends most of her day playing with the dinosaurs pretending they are horses. I wanted to support her alphabet knowledge through making a horse themed A-Z.

I found three pieces of A4 sized matboard, and taped them together using book tape (clear packaging tape would also be fine), along the long edges. The card had been painted with pink paint on one side, which didn't matter.

I wrote the letters of the alphabet, using both capital and lower case letters, on the three pieces of card using a marker pen, making sure to leave enough space for the pictures to fit on. I wanted to make it durable, so I covered the card with clear contact paper. It would still be fine without being covered, and the contact paper does create a glare under light.

The most time consuming part of this project was googling horse breeds from A-Z, and looking for photos of each breed.  I created a document for the photos, resized all the photos, printed it off and laminated them, and used a guillotine to cut out the photos.

I created a pocket at the back to put the pictures in, and put blutac on the back of the photos so they could get matched up to the initial letter.

While I had made this with one girl in mind, there were a number of children who also said they loved horses, and they all took turns looking at the horses and matching them up. (I helped them to identify the breeds until they became familiar with them). I noticed that children were not only matching letters, but also engaging in conversations about the different horses, and sharing what they knew about horses.

This A-Z can be adapted to any theme, and I am currently working on a train themed A-Z for my train enthusiasts.

I created another horse themed literacy resource, where children can match up letters to spell out words, using larger photos of the horses I had used in the A-Z. Underneath each photo I wrote the name of the horse breed.  I also printed out a sheet of letters that spelt out all the words, and laminated them and cut them up. Children then look for the matching letters to complete their word.

I have found that this is a good resource for developing early literacy skills in print, as children try to find letters that are the same, use their observation skills to discern differences, (eg. b and d); and it allows learning to occur about concepts of print such as spaces between words, as well as making sure letters are facing the right way and are not upside down! (directionality).

A very simple resource to make was the alphabet painted on stones.

To go with the stones, which were lower case, I cut sheets of acrylic felt up into rectangles, and used a toothpick and white acrylic paint to write capital letters on.

I went online and looked for an alphabet chart, laminated it and cut the pictures out. Pictures can be matched up with stones and felt letters.

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Seasonal Mobiles Tutorial

 
I don't have a little table to use at school to create seasonal displays, so I decided to make seasonal mobiles instead. These were lots of fun to make as I enjoy going through my stash of pom poms, flowers, ribbons feathers and beads. A little while ago I had had a go at making ribbon flowers and felt flowers, because I wanted to learn how to do them. But then I had ribbon and felt flowers floating around my craft room for months and I didn't know what to do with them or where to put them.  Well these mobiles solve all those problems!

 I used these bamboo embroidery hoops to create the mobiles, and wrapped ribbon around them.

 Chiffon ribbon. This ribbon is transparent, but when you overlap the ribbon and keep the wraps tight and secure, you don't notice it.

Begin by wrapping the ribbon around the hoop. Overlapping the ribbon as you wrap it keeps it secure.

I wrapped a little bit of thread around the ribbon when I had finished wrapping it, to secure it.

Begin wrapping leaves and flowers around it. I had some wire koru which I wrapped around the spring mobile.

These were fake flowers that I had pulled apart to create a variety of crafts and flower fairies, and I was left with fabric flowers with a hole in the middle. I solved this problem by running a piece of thread through the hole; threaded a bead that was larger than the size of the hole onto the thread;

and ran the thread back through the hole again, pulling the bead into the centre of the flower.

Continue adding flowers and embellishments. I used pinks, purples and yellows to create the themed spring mobile.

For the summer mobile, I wrapped a fake vine around the hoop once I had wrapped it in ribbon.

Add fake summer flowers and leaves to your mobile. 

For this autumn mobile, I began wrapping copper coloured ribbon around the hoop.

I used felt leaves, orange and red feathers, needle felted toadstools, and ribbon roses in gold and orange.

To hang the feathers, I wrapped the end of them in thread and tied it to the mobile.

I added an autumn coloured fairy to the centre of the mobile.

For this winter themed mobile, I threaded white pom poms onto white thread and hung them from the embroidery hoop.

I used other embellishments including beads; sparkly blue yarn; a pipecleaner snowflake dipped in PVA and sprinkled with glitter; a white felt decoration; white feathers; a polystyrene ball dipped in glitter.

Sorting Trays

 Sometimes the budget just doesn't cover the things you would really like to have. I have been looking at kindergarten and nursery blogs and pages that use sorting trays - and they always look amazing! Sorting helps children to compare, classify and group objects, which is mathematics. They look for differences and similarities. Being able to verbally express their reasons why they are putting particular objects together is a communication skill. Children often come up with their own criteria for classifying objects, which in my experience are often more insightful than the ones we as adults may use. I have been dreaming about sorting trays in my classroom for a few years now, and still haven't got them... time to make my own! And actually, it wasn't too difficult to make them myself!

This sorting tray was actually a school set of crayons - the box had compartments for each colour. I simply pulled the compartments out, lined the sides and sections with scrapbooking paper, and put back into place.

This box was a gift box that had toiletries in it. It was a lovely sturdy box with a pretty pattern on the outside, and it seemed a shame to throw it away! To make the compartments, I used thick card. Begin by measuring the width and depth of the sections. Use a ruler and craft knife to cut the card.

Use masking tape to tape the cardboard sections into place. I then lined the inside of each section with scraps of leather and possum fur which a friend had given me.

I made this box from scratch, using thick card called 6008 - but mat board would do too. I measured the base of my box, and used those measurements to cut the sides of the box - adding on a few extra millimetres for the joins.  I then measured and cut the inside sections of the box - one long strip, and one short strip.

I secured the sides to the base of the box using masking tape - and lots of it! The inner sections were secured to the sides with masking tape as well.

I then covered the outside of the box with scrapbooking paper and PVA glue. Then I measured and cut scrapbooking paper to line the inner sections of the box.

I have always wanted a mirror tray, so I glued a little craft mirror in one section. I put washi tape around the edges of the mirror to avoid any sharp edges, and also used the washi tape to tidy up the inside top edges of the box.

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Small world playscapes

I have been creating miniature playscapes to be used with small plastic animals that you can buy for $1-$3 a packet at The Warehouse (or other $2 shops).
They are super simple to make, using empty boxes, card scraps and paper.



I love small world play and allowing children to take control of telling stories. As a teacher of 4 year olds, I have a responsibility to help them develop the literacy skills that will stand them in good stead when they begin Primary School. Telling stories, and retelling stories, allows children to gain a good understanding of how language works, such as sentence structure, and how stories work. If they have this foundation, then they will be able to predict text, and correct words to make sense, when learning to read. It also sets them up for being successful writers, as for them to be able to write stories, they need to be able to tell stories.

 Playscapes can be as simple or as elaborate as you have the time to put into them. But it doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, some simple figurines will be enough for a child to create stories, or tell a familiar story, such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff.  But I like to set a scene and allow children to take it further. These play scapes were simply made using cardboard and paper, and one with scraps of leather. They did not take long to make, and did not cost anything to make except my time and effort, as I recycle card and paper, and keep scraps of fabrics. But the stories that resulted from them, and the hours of wonder, laughter, imagination, collaborative play, and oral language that resulted, were full of riches.

 You will need:
thick card
paper
PVA glue

I save the card from the backs of refill pads, sketch pads, memo pads, and the card that comes inside sheet sets and duvet covers.

I used A4 size card for these playscapes. Being flat means they make for easy storage.

 For the farm scape, I simply glued green paper onto a sheet of card. My green paper was not A4 size, so I used two sheets and cut them to fit.

I cut a stream out of blue paper and glued it over the join, to hide it.

Then I cut a pond out of the blue paper and glued it on.

I kept the details super simple, so children can change it and adapt it as they wish. You could provide a basket of props on the table, such as pinecones (to represent trees), pebbles, etc, so children can add their own details as desired.

For the fences, I cut out thin strips of leather, which can be positioned anywhere on the farmscape as wished.

For this playscape I used a darker green, but as my green paper was smaller than A4, I used two sheets on either side, and glued a river in the middle.

The simplicity of the playscape means it can be a jungle, a forest, a field, a farm - whatever you want it to be.

 This playscape uses brown, blue and green papers. I wanted a playscape that could be used to tell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff - but again, it can be used for anything - dinosaurs, jungle animals, reptiles, or farm animals.

 I added a strip of leather to be the bridge - but you could use a piece of bark, a stick, some stones - whatever you can find/think of.

 A playscape using yellow handmade paper, blue paper, and brown textured paper, glued onto thick cardboard.

 

 

A simple playscape using forest green textured paper.

I have a friend who works with leather, and she often gives me her scraps to use. This playscape was created with a variety of different leather scraps, placed over an A4 piece of thick card and glued on with PVA. My PVA bottle said it it suitable for use on porous materials, including leather.

I began by laying out scraps over my board and cutting them to fit. When I was happy with the arrangement, I glued on one piece at a time.

The leather playscape with African animals provides lots of interesting textures and places for camouflage.

 The leather playscape with dinosaurs.

A miniature playscape in a box. This was a sturdy box that was originally a gift box for bath products.

I began by fitting textured gold paper in the box, cutting it to size and glueing it down. I added a blue river, then blue strips of paper for the sky.
Lastly I cut clouds out of white paper and glued them on.

These playscapes are really easy to make and do not require special tools or skills. They don't take much time to do (the most time consuming part is waiting for the glue to dry!). And yet they can provide hours of play and invite children to use them in as many ways as they can imagine.

Playscapes put out on the table along with a box of acorns, leaves and bark for accessories.

A piece of bark forms the bridge; 3 goats and a pokemon to tell the story of The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

I hope you take the time to make some playscapes of your own, and marvel at the stories that the children create.

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