Posts Tagged ‘upper and lower case letters’

Children enjoy matching upper and lower case letters with this fun activity

This is a great time of year to pick up the makings of an inexpensive, colourful learning aid – at your neighbourhood dollar store. Easter merchandise is starting to appear and we want the multi-coloured two-part Easter eggs. Normally these are filled with candies but we are going to do something altogether different. We are going to use a permanent ink pen to print an upper case letter on one half of an egg and and the corresponding lower case letter on the other half. Children really enjoy searching through the ‘broken’ eggs. matching upper and lower case letters, ultimately assembling twenty-six whole eggs. I like the activity because using five or six colors makes finding a match fairly easy and also makes the activity somewhat self-checking.

For older children, compound words, rhyming words or antonyms could be used.

For more ways to help children learn the alphabet, check out our fee alphabet printables and our page about alphabet recognition.

A word of caution: This activity is not intended for children younger than age 3. Also, to ensure the activity is safe, please use eggs that are large enough to eliminate a risk of choking. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has determined: ‘Any ball with a diameter of 1.75 inches (44.4mm) or less that is intended for use by children younger than 3 years of age is banned.’ This is an excellent guideline – please check the size of the eggs before purchasing them.

Some of our Most Popular Alphabet Recognition Posts

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Ways you can help children with b d confusion

I made a presentation last night to a preschool parent group. One of the topics of discussion was how we can help children avoid reading a “b” as a “d” and vice versa. At the presentation, I was not addressing serious learning challenges like Developmental Dyslexia ( a condition / learning disability which causes difficulty with reading and writing). We were discussing ways to assist children with letter recognition and b d confusion. We talked about a few ways to help children correctly identify “d” and “b”.

Method #1: Bat, Ball, Dog, Tail

One mom mentioned that in their household they used the following:

“This is the bat, and this is the ball, together they make a “b”. (Visualize: l + o = b, where “l” is a bat and “o” is a ball)

“This is the dog, and this is the tail, together they make a “d”. (Visualize c+ l = d, where “c” is a dog and “l” is its tail).

Method #2: Printing a ‘d’

The technique involves examining how we print the letter “d”. It looks much like a “c” with a “l” added to it. Using this method, we discuss the fact that c + l = d and “d” is after “c” in the alphabet.

Method #3: ‘b’ sees ‘d’

Relying on alphabetical order (and a little play on words)

Method #4: Bulldozing a b works!

If your child knows that bulldozer begins with ‘b,’ he can use a toy bulldozer to push a letter ‘b.’ Letter ‘d’ is not nearly as cooperative because of its shape.

Method #5: bed

My favourite memory device is to make a “bed” with the child’s fingers. Imagine making two small circles with the thumbs and forefingers, and pointing the remaining fingers upward. Push the two circles together to make a “bed” (minus the “e”). The left hand makes the “b” and the right hand makes the “d.” It looks like this: “bd.” “b” is at the beginning of “bed,” “d” is at the end of bed.

Note, these methods will not work with very young children. With Method 3 especially, the child needs to know how to spell ‘bed’ in order for this device to be effective. From my perspective, with very young children, we should not worry about the occasional reversal. We can simply say, ‘That is a b. It makes the /b/ sound.’ With children who are starting to read, I find Method #3 to be very effective and easy to remember. I have seen children as old as seven do a quick check (underneath a desktop or tabletop) and then read a word with confidence.

Some of our Most Popular Alphabet Recognition Posts

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We invite you to follow Storytime Standouts’ Alphabet Recognition Board on Pinterest

Follow Storytime Standouts’s board Alphabet Activities including b d confusion on Pinterest.

b and d (bed) poster from Activity Village

If you know memory devices for b c confusion, I’d love to hear from you. Please jump in with a comment.

It isn’t long before children grow tired of using flash cards as a way to support learning. In my experience, creating games that use dice, markers and spinners is much more fun for everyone. Games also add an element of “chance” – Mom, Dad, younger brother and older sister all have an opportunity to win or lose.

Today’s Consonant Game download is a very simple board game that can be used a number of ways. Roll a die, move the right number of spaces and say the letter name. For an older child, roll a die, move the right number of spaces and say the letter sound or say (or spell) a word that begins (or ends) with the letter. The Consonant Game Board is a fun activity that can be used by several children at different ages and different reading levels.

Enjoy!

  Consonant Game Board

Use a die and markers, move along the "star" path from one star to another. When you land on a star, say the letter name or say the letter sound or say a word that starts with the letter.

Note: For activities to help your child learn the alphabet. be sure to check out our Alphabet Recognition page and for printable alphabets and the Alphabet Song, check out our free Alphabet Printables page.

This week our six posts will each provide activities for helping a young child to learn the alphabet, including matching uppercase and lowercase letters.

Today we are providing two free alphabet printables in PDF format. Each PDF has a grid and twenty-five letters (X is missing). One grid has uppercase letters (capital letters), the other has lowercase letters (small letters).

Print each of the PDFs onto colored cardstock. If you wish, decorate one PDF with colourful stickers. We used Stickopotamus Tropical Fish to decorate ours.

If desired, laminate both. We always use our Scotch Laminating Dispenser to laminate learning games and provide durability.




Cut one or both of the PDFs along the gridlines to create a matching game.

Matching Upper Case and Lower Case Letters of the Alphabet

  Match Upper and Lower Case Letters Part One

Use with Part Two to create a matching activity

  Match Upper and Lower Case Letters Part Two

Our early childhood literacy printables, including our alphabet matching printables are in PDF format, if you don’t already use Adobe Reader, you will need to use it to access the downloads.

Some of our Most Popular Alphabet Recognition Posts

Hover over the photo for a description of the activity. Click on the photo to read the full post

We invite you to follow Storytime Standouts’ Alphabet Craft Board on Pinterest

Follow Storytime Standouts’s board Alphabet Crafts on Pinterest.