We’re already on Day 4 of Organizing Your Home to Promote Literacy! If you’re just joining, you can click on the image above or HERE to see Days 1 through 3.Today, we’ll have FUN with organizing & reusing toys for literacy purposes in 3 simple ways.
Add Letters/Words to Toys
What kid doesn’t like to play with toys? And what better way to integrate some literacy, than to take a toy they LOVE and transform it into literacy learning!
My 6 year old loves to build with LEGOS. So I borrowed a few LEGOS from his HUGE bin and transformed them into spelling LEGOS. He was thrilled to work on his spelling words.
This time of year is a great time to buy those summer items on clearance! You can buy beach balls super cheap. Blow it up and write letters, words, or story elements on it. {The story elements on my beach ball include: 1-Name a character. 2-Who is the author? 3-What is the setting? 4-What is the problem? & 5-What is the solution?} Throw the ball back and forth and play literacy games with it. And speaking of buying summer toys on clearance, try writing letters on pool noodles and stringing them to spell words!
Want more ideas? Check out these GOODIES!
- Does your child enjoy making paper airplanes? I know ALuv does. We made sight word learning fun with paper airplanes not too long ago.
- Use the toys you have to teach letters and letter sounds- so simple!
- Adding color words to playing with pom-poms
- Mix in some painting fun
- Learning with Letters– incorporating a muffin tin
- Malia has such a way of making learning fun. Check out these two posts in particular: Alphabet and Sight Word Scramble & The Great Reading Race.
- One of my new favorites for using toys for literacy learning is Stay at Home Educator. She is FULL of ideas for transforming those toys into a chance to learn.
Fine Motor Fun
*Playdough-Fine motor can be so fun when toys are integrated into the equation. Kids won’t even know they’re getting prepped to write! Playdough is such a GREAT way to do this. You can also use cookie cutters for making letters or spelling words. I collect fabulous fine motor ideas on my Fine Motor Pinterest board.
*Who doesn’t like to pop bubble wrap? Even though you probably won’t find it on the toy aisle in Target, any child will tell you that bubble wrap spells f-u-n! Not only is popping the bubbles great for fine motor, you can also try adding sight words or letters for some extra literacy fun.
*Teaching Trays- My kids really enjoy the activities from Carisa’s teaching trays for preschoolers, an adaption from Montessori. When MBug was too young to play with all the smaller manipulatives, I found toddler toys she could play with, most of which incorporated those fine motor muscles.
*Outside Play! Do you have a child who loves the outdoors and could stay outside ALL day long? Buy a bug collector set and provide him with a set of tweezers to help him pick up the bugs. He’ll never know that you’re squeezing in some fine motor practice! A sandbox is also another place for fine motor practice, pouring the sand into different containers, making tunnels, and driving cards and dump trucks through it all.
Reuse Something Old
Do you have a toy that your child has outgrown or doesn’t play with anymore? Give it new life! For example, you can transform a toddler toy into a literacy tool for teaching phonics. Or use an old bubble wand as a pointer. Maybe Twister’s been sitting in the closet for far too long. Try giving a little twist: a sight word twist, that is!
If you are interested in learning more about organizing your toys, then you will want to check out Jules’ 5 Days of Organizing Toys into Centers!
Need more help getting organized? Click on the image above to find more tips on all kinds of topics.If you enjoy these activities and printables, I would encourage you to follow along in one or more of these ways so you don’t miss a thing!
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~Becky
[…] still do so in the summertime. While we’re playing with toys, sometimes I’ll add text to the play. And toys always have to be cleaned up. Why not ask your preschooler to pick up all the toys […]