Introducing Letter and Number Symbols
Teaching letters and numbers can be fun for our little preschoolers. Try to teach the letter and the number concepts separately, so they won’t be confused. Here are two fun activities to teach letter and number symbols:
Egg Carton Match. Get an empty egg carton. Use a marker and write a number at the bottom of each egg-cup, starting from one and going up to twelve. Then, cut twelve small squares from index cards and write a number on each square, starting from one and going up to twelve. Call out a number and have your child put the correct number square in the correct egg-cup. As your child becomes more confident with matching his numbers, you can make new egg carton hunts with other numbers or letters.
Spaghetti Letters. Find the standard model for letter formation (ask a local pre-school to give you their handout if you can’t find one). Point out to your child that the letters are made up of straight lines, slanted lines, and curvy lines. Pick a letter for the day. Write the upper case and the lower case letters on a large piece of construction paper or cardstock. Then, talk to your child about the lines in the letter, first upper case and then lower case. How many lines are in this letter? Which lines are straight? Curvy? Slanted? Long? Short? Count the number of lines. Using cooked spaghetti, let your child cut the spaghetti into the correct number of lines it will take to form the letter. Then, starting from the top let your child form the letter with his spaghetti pieces. You can do this with number formation too.