6 ways to play with an Alphabet Puzzle

Here are 6 ways to play with a wooden alphabet puzzle that isn't just simply doing the puzzle! 

Need a puzzle? We have some HERE - or if you're looking for ALPHABET toys, you can find some HERE.

This is the puzzle we used for all these activities - our Lower Case Puzzle and here is an Upper Case Puzzle. 

1 - Sorting 

Use the pieces and sort them by colour. Making groups of colours teaches kids about classification - differences and similarities. 

You can take this further for different ages - talk about the letters that have straight lines or curved lines. When tracing the pieces with your finger do you need to lift your finger to write it? There are many ways to talk about differences between the letters. 

Want another colour sorting activity?

 2 - In a Sensory Bin

In case you didn't know, we are BIG fans of sensory bins (want to know how to set one up? Check this out!) 

We put our pieces in our Rainbow Rice tub today. We grabbed some tongs, scoops and had a blast finding the pieces under all the colourful rice. 

3 - Word Building 

Use the letters to talk about word components. Build words like dog or cat with the pieces. This is particularly great for talking about word groups - its quick to switch the C in cat for an H to make hat! Children can easily see how sounds go together to make new words. 

4 - Flash cards

Put all the pieces in a bowl and hold one up for your child and ask them to tell you the letter. Once they've mastered this, move beyond that to getting them to tell you the sound of the letter. You can then go even further by building words and getting children to sound it out! 

 5 - Build the letters

Use anything you like to build the letters in the puzzle. We have used ribbons, leaves, rocks, toy cars, building blocks - anything at all. Today we used pasta pieces (which were a bit tricky because they rolled around). Anything your child is interested in can be used! 

6 - Pen Control 

Use a pen or pencil to trace around each letter. You can then get the child to fill in the middle of the letters - either as a simple colouring activity, or as hand writing practice by getting them to write the letters inside the outlines. 

What are your favourite ways to play with your puzzles at home, in your school or at your centre? 

Need a puzzle? We have some HERE - or if you're looking for ALPHABET toys, you can find some HERE.

This is the puzzle we used for all these activities - our Lower Case Puzzle and here is an Upper Case Puzzle.