Tuesday, August 30, 2011

letter quilt


I hate when this happens.  I saw an idea somewhere and didn't think much of it... then I keep thinking about it and make it up.  Then, I can't find the original source... This is one of those times.  I have since signed up for pinterest, so this shouldn't happen again.  EDITED TO ADD:  I found it... look at the end of the post.


 I saw this cute letter 'quilt' made with scrap fabric on an old sheet.  Well, I did end up making it and I love it, and I wish I could give credit where credit is due.

This is one of the ideas I shared at our back to school idea teacher meetings.  I came up with 5 different ways to play with this mat.  I'm sure you could come up with a dozen more. 

 1.  Someone calls out a letter and another player goes to stand on the letter.


2.  throw bean bags at the letter mat and then say the letter that the bag landed on... or the sound of the letter, or a word that starts with the letter. 


I just love a project like this because I get to remember all my special projects while raiding the scrap box.  The X and Y are fabric I had hung on my bulletin boards my first several year teaching.  Z is scrap from a dress my great grandma made for her town bicentennial celebration in 1955. M is fire fabric I made Lou some pj pants from. 



3.  Cover one letter (we used blankie).  Another player tries to figure out what letter is covered.


They can peek if they need to.

4.  Pass out a bucket of toys to the right letter.  P for polar bear.



5.  Match lowercase to the uppercase on the letter mat.  I only have one lowercase letter done.  Making more is on my always growing list.  

Can you think of other games to use with this mat?

 Found it!   This idea came from Teach Beside Me

6 comments:

Sandy said...

That is so cute! As they get older, this would be a great tool to use for learning to spell.

Lesia said...

Great project. The dress Grandma Z made was for the Mattoon, IL Centennial in 1955, 1 year before I was born. She died in 1973.

JoAnna said...

At first, I was like, wow, it's so fun to teach little kids. And I was just going to read through what you did. But THEN I thought OMG I can totally use this idea in my French classroom. The kids never quite get the alphabet and you can only ask them to spell things so many times. But, throwing something at a letter and then coming up with a FRENCH word- fantastique! Now I'm trying to figure out what to make it out of that won't be filthy after one use. My floor is abysmal and it's not much fun to throw something on a table. I'll have to think about this. GREAT idea.

Oh, and I am forever seeing a great idea, pondering it, becoming obsessed that I MUST MAKE IT and then never finding the source. There's always one little thing I can't remember and it's always a major step in the directions. I don't get this pinterest thing.

Sara said...

I made a similar thing for my classroom and the blogged about it on Totally Tots. I used a plain colored flannel-backed tablecloth and a fat sharpie marker. Though not as cute as yours, it was quick and easy. I made several for different skills.

KCamp said...

Love this idea. So glad you're on pinterest now. I just started following your boards.

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for linking back to me, and for showing my yours! I love it!