Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Numbers vs Letters

Just out of curiosity, ask your kiddo what a number is? or what a letter is?  Can they determine the difference between the two?  
If so...tell them to "Kiss Their Brain!"  If they look confused, try this!

Back in September 2011 (3 months before Jax turned 3), I noticed that Jackson kept calling all his "letters" numbers.  For example, "that is number J".  Soooooo...this is what I came up with!
I explained that "numbers were for counting" and "letters are for reading and writing". 

It's super easy to make. Two different colors of construction papers, magnetic letters and your kiddo!
 The first day, I showed him how to sort the letters, then we did it together.  
(Teacher tip: Talk out loud as you show them!  
Ex: "This is a number, the number 6.  I'm going to put it over here!  This is the letter j, a red, letter j...I'm going to put it over here!"
  They need to know what "conversation" you are having in your head...you may feel silly doing it but it's SO effective!  I promise!)

The following day during our learning time, he could do it all by himself! 

 Later, I taped these to our fridge for reinforcement and kept them up there for about a month!  

And for a lil assessment to see if he truly understood the concept between 
letters vs numbers, this is what we did!
 Old magazines, favorite marker, scissors, file folder and some glue


TaDa!!  Our Numbers vs. Letters book!
He enjoyed this project so much that he still adds to it!  I keep it in his "Books I Made" book bin in his room!  He is VERY proud of it and so am I!

This simple activity could branch out in so many different ways!  
*Uppercase vs lowercase
*Shapes
*colors (starting with Nixon soon)
*Letters in my name vs Letters NOT in my name
*Big vs Little
*Hard vs. soft
And so on....

Happy Learning!

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