b,d,p,q Identification Game and Assessment

(39 Months)

I never really paid attention to all of the different ways we write and type our letters (fonts), until I started pointing out the subtle differences to my kids.  You have got to be kidding me!  Talk about quick and simple, all you need is a sheet of paper, marker, dot stickers (or character sticker) and that's it.    The object is to place the assigned colored dot on the respective letter.  Yay sticker fun!

Then to make learning their letters and numbers even more challenging, there are the symbols that could be a letter or a number.  A straight vertical line could be a one, an I or a lowercase L.  How did that happen?  Especially when faced with the question, "but, why do they all look the same when they are all different?"   Ummm, hmmmm, ummmmm.

We've played a couple of letter matching games in the past (see here for a great fine motor skill game that focuses on upper and lower case matching), but I haven't tackled b, d, p and q isolated in a group.   I decided to create a fun game and assessment to see if we really know these letters, or are they guessing really well.  My inspiration came from Rockabye Butterfly, she did a fun following directions game using this format with numbers.

As soon as Little Miss and Wild One saw the stickers they were ready to get started- it's amazing how kids love stickers.   I tried to do a quick presentation on the different letters, but they were too eager to get started.  Normally, I'd have them hold off but I really wanted to see who knew what.

A few minutes into playing, Little Miss decided that she wanted to make designs with the stickers instead of placing each sticker where it belonged.  That's odd for her, she's the one who usually wants to sit and do her "work" for long periods of time.  Oh well, I didn't feel like paying the bills today and put that off.  Some people would argue that she needs to sit and finish a project, maybe when she's a bit older I might agree.  At age three, she's done when she's done.  Look at that sad face, how can I say no to letting her do an art project instead of practicing her letters?