I’m thinking that I’ve said this before, but…….I’m a huge advocate of manipulatives. My children are very hands-on learners and the more touch involved the more engaged their brains seem to become!! The preschool years seem to benefit the most from great manipulatives. I purchased some letter tiles (hard plastic tiles that had both upper and lower case letters) and we also have a bucket of large foam magnet uppercase letters. This bucket of letters is BY FAR the kids favorite!! Even Ben (at just turned 3) is excited to “build” his name each day in school!! And by excited, I mean he asks multiple times on any given day when will it be his turn to use the letters!
The foam letters are great for tactile learning too because the letters are the actual letter shape verses a letter printed on a square of plastic. Plus they are “bendable” and the foam is “soft”. And these letters are very versatile! Ben uses them to learn to spell his name. Natalie uses them to spell her name and make an alphabet train…..putting the letters in alphabetical order…… and Jeremiah is using them to practice his vowels and spell words from his Bob books.
I had a great video of Ben “building” his name, but youtube is not working for me tonight, bummer!
House of Smooches 