My children love playing with the Lakeshore Learning Alphabet tubs. There is one tub for each letter of the alphabet. Each tub has uppercase and lowercase letters and six objects that begin with that letter. Children can sort the objects or play different games to learn their letters and sounds. Sometimes my three-year-old daughter makes up stories with the different objects in the tubs, other times she loves exploring the letters and sounds. There are so many ways to play and learn. You do not need to purchase the Lakeshore Learning Alphabet tubs to do the activities below. You can use toys and objects around your house.
Storytelling
Creating stories and imaginary play are great ways to develop story structure, creativity, and storytelling skills. I am going to talk about creating stories with your child. As children make up stories, encourage them to start with selecting characters. The characters can be silly. Sometimes children may choose a lion, but other times Mr. Lettuce and Mrs. Lightbulb might go on an adventure. Encourage your child to tell you where the characters are going and what they are going to do there. Next, ask your child to invent a problem and a solution to wrap up the story. At first, children will need some support making up the story. You can model making up stories, tell the story together, or frame the story like the example below. The child fills in the bold words.
One day Mr. Lettuce and Mrs. Lightbulb locked the door and went to the lake to play with the lion when suddenly, a ladybug started to eat Mr. Lettuce. Oh no! Mr. Lettuce said, “No, don’t eat me! Go eat the log.” Then they all became friends and swam in the lake.
Syllables
To practice breaking words up into syllables, you pull out objects that have a different number of syllables. Such as the sun, window, and butterfly. Then clap, count the syllables, and sort. This fundamental skill will help students spell and read words with more than one syllable.
Rhyming
My children love songs, especially songs that rhyme. We like to pull out the objects that rhyme, match them up, and make up silly verses to the song, “Down by the Bay.” If your child is just learning to rhyme, select two objects that rhyme and one that does not. Then have them find the two objects that rhyme. You can use other objects around your house and build up to selecting from more and more objects. If they are still having trouble finding the objects that rhyme, read books that contain a lot of rhyming words. Then model rhyming by saying, “big, pig, the rhyme is ig.” Eventually, you will start saying, “red, bed, the rhyme is __” and let them fill in the rhyme.
Segmenting
For my youngest students, I pull out objects with two or three sounds, like ax, pig, or mug. We stretch the words to hear the sounds to build spelling skills and sound-symbol knowledge. When children are ready, they can write the letters they hear (in sand) or build the words with letters. At first, children may only hear the first or last letter. This skill takes a lot of practice, so celebrate each step.
Blending
Blending the sounds together can be tricky for children, yet vital practice for learning to read. Using objects with two or three sounds, I select a few and lay them out. I stretch the sounds and the children work to blend the letters together and locate the correct object. You can also play this game when you are out and about. It is like a modified, “I Spy” game.
These hands-on materials are fantastic for building phonological and phonemic awareness, along with the alphabet and sound knowledge. I like to use these tubs with lowercase sandpaper letters to increase retention through tactile stimulation.
Follow the interest and level of your child, keep it playful, provide as much support as needed to keep your child having fun, and redirect to pure-play if your child gets frustrated. My children often bring the tubs to me and ask me to play.