Letter Fun (Matching Upper and Lowercase Letters)

(28 Months)

I love it when I can find and/or create an activity that does accomplishes more than one learning skill at a time.  My inspiration for this activity came partly from a link I saw on Pinterest from ADayCare.com.  It was for number order, but I'm using it for matching lower to uppercase letters.

This project couldn't be simpler (or inexpensive) to make.  Spray paint an adult-sized shoebox (I only had black spray paint on hand).  While that's drying, I printed lowercase letters on wooden craft sticks.  Once the box is completely dry, using an exacto knife make evenly spaced slits into the top of the cardboard box (making sure your craft stick fits easily inside the slit).  Lastly, place scrapbook letter stickers above each corresponding slit.  That's it.  Bonus- the pieces fit neatly inside the box.

It was incredible watching Little Miss begin working right away (I didn't even get a chance to invite them over and model how to insert the sticks, she just started right in).  Then, Wild One started in.  In the second picture, Little Miss noticed a small hole in the shoebox that I didn't even pay attention to when I was spray painting the box.  She started pushing the sticks as fast as she could through the hole instead of the corresponding slots (hmmmm- so you might want to be a little choosy with your shoebox).  I had to force myself not to laugh out loud when I saw her doing this, and with a determined look on her face as she was working on it.  So funny!

A corresponding upcycle project is to print lowercase letters on milk container caps or small river rocks.  Then having the kidabunk place the cap on top of the capital letter.  Woo hoo- two projects in one!