Letter Matching Game

ABC rocksI recently discovered a simple and fun preschool letter matching game.The more I thought about the game and about the different ways you could play it, the more I liked it. It’s great for quiet play time, letter recognition practice and sensory play.

The original game calls for an adult to write letters on rocks with a marker, then write the same letters (either all capital or all lowercase) on the inside of a muffin liner, then place the liner in a cupcake pan. You let a child (who is old enough to not chew the rocks) match the letters and place the rocks in the tin.

When I thought about actually making this game, I realized my muffin tin only has 24 spots, and the English alphabet has 26 letters. So instead, I would use some tape to attach the liners with all the letters to a cookie sheet or large piece of cardboard.

When your child matches the letters, they are practicing letter identification. Research shows that learning about letters frequently leads children to be more interested in the letters’ sounds and the spelling of words. What better way to encourage little ones to enjoy reading then to make learning to read fun with a hands-on activity?

If you create this game for your young readers, be aware of a few things:

  • Identifying capital letters is easier than lowercase. If your little one is just starting to learn their letters, use capital letters.
  • If you have an advanced letter recognizer, you can write lowercase letters on the rocks and uppercase on the muffin liners (or vice-versa).
  • You can change up the game by using numbers or colors if you so desire! The key is to keep it fun.

Want to check out some children’s books that teach the alphabet? Try these. 

Photo credit: Diamondites via Flickr (license). Modified.