Distinguishing Between Number, Letter, and Word

This is a literacy activity we did to see if the students could distinguish a number from a letter and a letter from a word. Surprisingly, both classes did really well with it. I mostly had the older children participate. This is super easy to prepare and great for practice with beginning reading skills. 

Puzzle Piece Names

Another one of our small groups for "All About Me." We had the children spell their names with these puzzle alphabet stickers identifying each letter as they go. We had their name strips with each child's name pre-written on it for them to look at to help them find the letters.  Some of the younger children just wanted to stick random letters everywhere, so we let them do their thing. When they are more ready for this activity, we will try again.

Then we had them count how many letters in their name. As an extension of this, you can have the children graph how many letters their names have and compare whose name has more or less. 

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Tutorial Tuesday: Pretend Play

Pretend play is such an essential part of childhood. My 2.5 year old has a grand imagination and loves pretending. Aiden enjoys making caves from blankets. Any time things go over his head (power lines, trees, bridges, etc), he sees them as tunnels waiting to be explored. Lately, he has been playing under the dining room table saying it is a tunnel. I decided to set up a little invitation for pretend play.  

 Our table has drop sides that make for a natural tunnel. I hung a blanket to the front and back creating a cave. 

 

Inside the cave, I placed several of his stuffed animals.  

 The animals were going to have a party in the cave, and they needed some supplies. I added some foam letters to a toy pan for some alphabet soup. I placed the soup on some torn pieces of orange paper that represented fire.  

 To a bowl of cheerios, I added some magnet letters and a spoon. The letters on top spell Aiden's name.  

 A stack of plates and a few plastic discs completed the setup.  

 When Aiden awoke from his nap, he saw the blankets covering the table. Curious, he looked at me. I told him he could go in the cave and see what was there. He crawled in and saw the party that awaited. He made some noises of excitement and began to play. "I'm going to eat some cheerios," he said. "My animals want some, too." He passed out the plates and gave them each some cheerios. He pulled the letters out of the cheerios and named them each. "A - I - D - E - N that spells Aiden!" He gave the animals magnet letters and foam letters to eat along with their cheerios. Not only was he practicing letter recognition, he was also working on fine motor skills by serving the animals. As he talked to the animals during his pretend play, he was working on language skills. Pretend play is a wonderful venue for practicing a number of different skills. It's all up to your imagination. Thanks for letting me share our fun with you! Would you like to see more ideas for toddlers/preschoolers from me? Here are a few of my favorites. What Can you Learn from a Cardboard Tube? 20 Ideas for Practicing Measuring Outdoor Sound Hunt Inspired by Mr. Brown Can Moo. Can You?

 

Trisha is a stay at home mom to her 2-year old son, Aiden. She writes about their adventures at Inspiration Laboratories, a blog dedicated to encouraging learning through creativity and play. Trisha is an educator with a passion for science literacy. It is never too early to start encouraging science learning (or any kind of learning for that matter). Follow along on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest.

ABC Fishing

Over the years I have been teaching preschool, this has been one of my favorite activities because the children really seem to like it and get involved. It is very simple to arrange. All you need is a dowel rod, yarn, a magnet, letter cutouts and paper clips. Attach the paper clips to the letter cut-outs (which I laminate). Then fix the rest of the items into a fishing pole with the magnet as the "worm."

I use the top of this sensory table as the pond, but you can just lay them on the floor or whatever container you can find that's large enough.

The children will take turns "fishing" for letters and when they catch one, tell what letter it is and what sound it makes.

Some other variations of this would be to use numbers instead or shapes, words, animal pictures, etc. It can pretty much be anything the children are working on. Also, you could have them try to catch a particular letter such as the first letter of their name.

Some extensions are graphing which letters were caught and how many times, arranging them in order in the pocket chart after they are caught, or asking questions about what words begin with that letter and even having them write the word.

I hope you have as much fun with this activity as we do!