Number Formation

Building Letters {And Numbers too!}

Let me start this off by saying that this book is one of my new “favorite finds” but it can easily be MADE BY YOU so don’t break out your PayPal account email just yet.

Sean Patrick has been having fun with the book How to Build an A

The pages only give a PICTURE of the letters in block form (not step-by-step) so the book just provides a visual of the letter after you have built one.

But, it does come with the pieces to make /build the letters which is why this is one of my new favorite finds.  HOWEVER you can just as easily buy foam at the dollar tree… draw the pieces (straight lines and curved lines) and cut them out to help your little one explore building letters or numbers.

building letter b

Sean Patrick had so much fun with his little bag of pieces.  He carried them around everywhere and he was always either on his way to “Numberland” or “Letterland.”   He gave me a great idea to only assist him in making numbers when we were in Numberland (the den) and only making letters when we were in Letterland (the playroom).  Kids need to be able to distinguish letters from numbers so this was a great way to compartmentalize the two.

Building letter B with book

We had a lot of fun with this… especially for my boy who loves hands-on learning.  We just play with it here and there…we are not structured in how long or how often we play with this, but here is a glimpse into this activity when we play with it:

I might take the bottom part off of his B and say “If swiper swiped this piece what letter would you have left?” (wait to see what Sean Patrick says)  “P” – “I see it too! Let’s find that letter in our book!  That silly old swiper – he doesn’t even know that he is helping us make new letters!  Your turn to be a swiper…. take one piece away and see what new letter we can find!”

The Letter Construction Activity Set is similar but kind of expensive and you can’t make it.  I have an Overhead projector (former teacher here) so I might just have to put it on my wishlist  :/  but I am debating that because I don’t think we could keep track of all the pieces if I am being honest with myself!

Letter Construction Activity Set

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Playdoh Numbers

My kids are having a blast with this SIMPLE and CHEAP number activity.  They close their eyes and pick a number (this is a magnetic number from the walmart toy aisle where the playdoh is).
Then they pinch that number of dots (which is great for teaching one-to-0ne correspondence) and roll a chunk of playdoh into a “snake” before forming it into the numeral to match the number they selected.  I actually let them do this on a laminated sorting mat in my classroom.  My sorting mat is one piece of white construction paper and another piece glued together at the end and then laminated.  That way they can place the quantity on one side and the formed number on the other.

EASY, CHEAP, DOABLE, and you probably have everything you need at home!

 

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What’s Missing?

Children can be really good at “rote” memory – they can sing their ABC’s all day, but that doesn’t always mean that they know their alphabet inside and out.

It is also very common for a little one to mistake a letter for a number or a number for a letter.   

So, I made these ABC and 123 sentence strips using di-cut letters (hand-written looks just as good) so that I can help my little ones use their ABC skills to figure out which letter OR number is missing from the alphabet/counting order.

 This is an activity that you want your little one using their problem solving skills to figure out.  So, don’t fuss if they sing their ABC’s to get to the letter in order to figure it out (that is a resource for them).  This is good practice for your little one to start recognizing letters and numbers with increasing observation.

I have made another FREEBIE for you, a printable for your little ones to practice as well.  It is a fill in the blank of upper and lower case letters and one fill in the blank of counting.  These are activity sheets with only ONE letter/number missing at a time.  But I will make two letter, and three letter missing fill in the blanks soon.  So, for now, start with the freebies below and see how well your little one can fill in those blanks! 🙂

ABC fill in the blank

123 fill in the blank

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