Talk about a break! In October we found out we are expecting Baby #2 (which we are thrilled about) but that meant “morning sickness” AKA all day sickness in full swing…

So, here we are…mid-January (17 weeks along with Baby 2) and I am FINALLY getting back to thinking creatively about activities for our Little Learner!

Not too much has changed in terms of trucks, cars and anything with wheels being a main focus of play in our house.  If you have a little learner who is IN LOVE with any type of vehicle, try this Alphabet Car Pick Up activity or one of the variations posted below! It’s the perfect mix of alphabet play, while still giving your little one a chance to play with toys!

As I’ve posted before, engaging children in alphabet play (playing with letters) is a great way to expose kiddos to the alphabet. If your little learner hasn’t worked with letters that much, that’s alright! Start adding some alphabet stickers, magnets, foam letters or blocks into everyday play. It’s never too early to incorporate literacy.

Here’s one easy way to help your little learner “play” with the alphabet…

Materials:

• Letter stickers
• A car transport truck or a dump truck (any truck that has a space to put vehicles)
• A large piece of paper or cardboard (optional)—this is your road
• A marker (optional)

Step 1 – Get some alphabet stickers and put one sticker on top of each Matchbox/Hotwheels, or small vehicle your little one will be using.

Step 2—Make a road or roads large enough for a truck to “drive” on (optional) or scatter the cars around your floor.

Step 3 – Lay out a few alphabet vehicles on the road or around your floor.

Step 4 – Drive along the road and pick up each vehicle, having your little one call out the letter each time a vehicle is picked up.

Step 5 – OPTIONAL make a matching board of the letters that you laid out on the road so your little learner can “dump” the letters and match them to the board.

Little Ones: Make the most of alphabet play by using letter of your child’s name. Name recognition builds alphabet knowledge and familiarity. Your babe might be too young to read or know the letters, but exposure is so important. Little by little they will start to know the different letters as you talk about them and play with them.

Toddlers and Preschoolers: This age group is finally beginning to know the names and shapes of different letters. Typically, little kids learn uppercase before lowercase, so using all uppercase stickers could be very helpful for alphabet play at this age.

Just like with younger kiddos, try a NAME VARIATION… instead of using random letters in the alphabet, lay out the letters of your child’s name. You could even create a matching board at the dump with your child’s name.

Kindergarten and Beyond:  Work on matching upper and lowercase letters. Strategically place the stickers and cars so they spell out CVC words on the road. Have your child sound out and read the words as they are collected and dumped. Scramble up the letters in a sight word on the road and have your child spell, then read the sight word.

Putting a simple spin on learning is what keeps learners engaged. Adding hands-on elements such as driving a truck down a road and collecting cars with sticker letters is a wonderful way to expose and introduce letter play and word play.