My district has several required centers for pre-k classrooms and most are the centers everyone knows and loves. Art, dramatic play, library, blocks, writing, math, science, technology. We also have a something called the ABC Center. Is that basically what it sounds like? (you may find yourself asking). Well, yes! It's a center designed to encourage exploration of the letters by focusing on just them. Sure, children are (or should be!) learning about the alphabet throughout the classroom and all during the day. This is just an additional way to ensure that children have great meaningful experiences with letters every day.
So what goes in an ABC center? My first suggestion is something that is ubiquitous in early childhood classrooms: alphabet puzzles. Many look at that puzzle and see a few weeks of use followed by a covering of dust that grows each month, but this item can actually give you a lot of bang for your buck.
For example, you can start by putting the letters in a container and have them pull the letters one at a time from it to place in the puzzle. When they are finished, they put all the pieces back in the container. I like to start with an empty wipes container because they can't see what letter they're pulling out so it's very exciting and fun. Plus they're free! I guarantee you somebody you know can give you a baby wipe container.
Change up the container with your themes, with seasons, with holidays. Put them in a pumpkin in the fall, a basket in the spring, a dump truck when you're studying transportation, a big shoe when you're studying nursery rhymes. Find anything they'll fit in and go for it! It's an easy way to use that puzzle for all it's worth and since you are spending time talking about letters every day you will see those children start to say the names of the letters, think of words that begin with those letters, make connections with those letters, try to spell words with those letters.
Shari Sloane has some great ideas for alphabet puzzles, including one I'm excited to try out next year. She gets an
alphabet die, one of the 30 sided ones with every single letter. Children roll the die and find that letter to put in the puzzle until it's full. My alphabet die is from an old version of the game Scattergories that was going in the trash at an old job. Always check the trash!
Put the letters into a feely box, bag, or empty tissue box and show children how to reach in and try to guess the letters based on how they feel before pulling them out to put on the puzzle. This is a great way to get children to observe the attributes of letters, which is crucial for letter recognition and formation. If I feel a straight edge, can it be an "o?" Why or why not?
Get a container and mix an object or picture for each letter with the letter pieces. Children first put all the letters in the puzzle then match the objects or pictures and simply place them on top of the letters. It's not fancy, but guess what- your kids haven't seen a Lakeshore catalog; they don't care. It's fun, it's easy, and it's cheap!
Make some
word cards to use with that puzzle. You can make them to match what you're learning or to teach high frequency words. Just remember not to choose words with any repeated letters!
Use a set of alphabet flash cards with pictures for each letter with your puzzle. Children pull a letter from the puzzle and match it to the card.
To incorporate writing, have children pull a letter from a container, write it in their journals or other paper, then place it in the puzzle. This is something I'd do after the class has had several months of exposure to the puzzle and to writing letters. I want them to have plenty of purely tactile experience with letters to set them up for writing. That said, when children are comfortable with writing letters this is a great way to get some fun practice.
If you want to get
really snazzy, get a lowercase puzzle and an uppercase
puzzle and mix up all the pieces in a container. Now students have to
identify each letter as upper or lowercase before sorting it into the
correct puzzle.
Would you have believed there are so many ways to use a humble alphabet puzzle? I love items that can be used in multiple ways and levels and for that reason, alphabet puzzles score high in my book. The fact that any of these activities works for English or Spanish literacy is just icing on the alphabet cake!
Here are links to some of my favorite alphabet puzzles. (Apparently Lakeshore has discontinued the
two I use most often, so maybe they are creating something new and even better.)
Foam puzzles like
these are usually easy to find at dollar stores or bins at Target.
Melissa and Doug have great puzzles in English and Spanish and I have found all of these at Mardel:
-Spanish:
http://www.melissaanddoug.com/Spanish-alphabet-peg-puzzles-educational-toys
-Spanish talking puzzle:
http://www.melissaanddoug.com/spanish-alphabet-sound-puzzle-wooden
-English:
http://www.melissaanddoug.com/see-inside-alphabet-learning-puzzle
-English talking puzzle:
http://www.melissaanddoug.com/alphabet-sound-learning-puzzle
