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Saturday, December 14, 2013

One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes

One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
I picked up this awesome wooden puzzle at our local consignment store last week. (Similar.) I totally intended it to be for our two-year-old, who is learning her letters thanks to this video:


She absolutely loves dumping the letters all over the floor (our red A is currently missing), but she'll sit down and put the letters in the right places if either her daddy or I sit with her. (She'll ask, "Where is the B?" in this cute little voice--then grin and slide it into its spot.) 
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
So a couple of days ago, when I was picking up all the letters for the hundredth time, I started brainstorming all the other ways we could use this $3 puzzle. Ready?
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes

One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
1. Sort the letters into colors. This was a little TOO tricky for Kate at the moment (SO close!), so I asked our five-year-old to come help.
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes

One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
2. While I had Addie's attention, we used the letters to build short three-letter words. Addie's been reading for over a year, but her writing/spelling skills need a little work. This will be a fun game to play five minutes a time during the next few months.
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes 
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
3. I happened to notice that the letters have a repeating color pattern, so as we put them in order, I asked Addie to predict what color the next letter would be. Math skills with an alphabet puzzle!
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
She was having so much fun, she started dancing. :)
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
4. Unlike our other ABC puzzle from the dollar section at Target, this puzzle includes a picture for each letter (airplane, butterfly, carrot, etc.)--perfect for building vocabulary with Kate (and sneaking in a little signing, too!).
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
5. Puzzles are excellent for building fine-motor skills and eye-hand coordination! It also requires problem solving skills when letters don't fit exactly right (the Z is not symmetrical, for example, so there's only one correct way to put it in).
One Activity, Many Ways: Wooden ABC Puzzle | San Antonio Baby Sign Language Classes
Yes, this puzzle was a great find! I'm sure we'll get hours and hours of learning fun out of it. :)

Does your family have an alphabet puzzle? Can you think of any other extension activities we could use it for?
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2 comments:

  1. We have (Melissa and Doug) magnetic wooden letters (Upper and Lowercase) in repeating color pattern, along with Animal and Truck magnets too. Aiden noticed the colors and started grouping the letters and other magnets by color. Brynn likes grabbing letters and yelling what they are...and a lot of times she is correct. - Faith

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  2. Such great suggestions! So fun to see the girls excited about learning! L, M

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