It’s national lowercase day (who knew, right?), and we’re taking note here at Pioneer Valley Books with some help from our Lowercase Magnetic Letters. They’re terrific tools for one-on-one and group learning, but our staff loves these letters too.
Check out how our Project Editor Beth and her son Seeley, 6, use them at home.
As a new kindergartner, Seeley spends part of every day learning his letters. He’s pretty good with his uppercase ones, but lowercase? Those are less familiar. I’m trying to continue Seeley’s learning after the school day is done, and since he thrives in hands-on learning situations, I knew our magnetic letters would be just right for him. The colorful, sturdy magnets drew his attention as soon as they exited my messenger bag, and he happily plunked himself down on the carpet to test them out.
It can be tough to get Seeley to focus on learning after a long day, so I created a few quick activities that fit into spare afternoon and evening moments. Here are his favorites:
1. Matching Letters
Picking through our jumbled letter container, Seeley located each lowercase letter and placed it in the matching spot on one of our Printed Magnetic Letter Trays.
When big sister/third grader Evie wanted to join the fun, the kids took turns picking out a single letter, naming it, and then asking their partner to find the same letter in the pile. 2. Matching Words
For his class’s Letter of the Week work, Seeley creates a book of words that begin with the designated letter. To reinforce his familiarity with those terms, I wrote each one on our Magnetic Dry-Erase Easel and had Seeley copy the word underneath in magnetic letters.
3. Spelling Names
Like most kids, Seeley loves seeing his name in print. Since he already knows how to spell it, he excitedly made his moniker with the magnets (plus an added uppercase one) and showed it off to everyone. With Evie’s help, he also worked on making her name, my husband’s, and ones for our cats. “Mom, you can make your own!” Seeley insisted. I’ll get right on that, kid.
You can check out all of these terrific alphabet and reading tools (plus more) on the Pioneer Valley Books website. And if you have any other learning ideas for me and Seeley, let us know!
