Friday 31 August 2012

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Fun with Matching Upper & Lowercase Letters

 
This game is about selling matching letters popsicles
 
Age: From 3 years old

Objectives:
1. To teach letter recognition in a fun way.
2. To train fine motor skills.
 
Materials:
1. Uppercase Alpha Pops in a bowl
2. Lowercase Alpha Pops in a bowl
3. 1 cash register
4. 1 Tray
 
Directions:
1. Call out a letter by saying, “Mommy would like to buy the letter ‘a’ ice-cream."

2. Your child will find the letter in uppercase, and then the letter in lowercase, and snap them together.

3. Ask, “Could you tell me, Joshua, which is big ‘A’ and which is small ‘a’?” and wait for him to answer.

4. Joshua would then scan the ice-cream with his scanner.

5. I will then ask him, “How much is it?”

6. I pay him the money, he press the register and give me the change as well as the ice-cream.

7. Repeat for another letter until you complete all the 26 letters.
 
Additional Information:
Our toy arrived from Amazon yesterday, and we picked it up at the post office after fetching Joshua back from kindergarten. We played this today after dinner and Joshua (3Y5M25D) could now name almost all the letters, except letter ‘r’. He also tended to mix up ‘k’ and ‘x’. He could match both uppercase and lowercase for almost all the letters. This toy is recommended for 2 years old, but it suits Joshua at 3.5 years old, since English is his third language. This toy was fun and challenging enough for him, without frustrating him. The only complaint I have is that there are two letters on each popsicle, one in front and one behind. It would be neater if it has only one letter for each popsicle. Nevertheless, Joshua is having so much fun and is learning the letters, so I could live with this short-coming. In fact, we only did this activity for School Time this evening and nothing else, as he was really enjoying it. We played 3.5 rounds of the full set of letters for 1 hour 15 minutes. I had to stop him so that he could go to bed. He can’t wait to play it again tomorrow. It was Joshua's idea to include the cash register, and I think that pretend play part made it more fun.

I was a little hesitant to buy this toy since it is toy ice-cream - unhealthy food, but was attracted by its concept of matching uppercase and lowercase letter. I was afraid that Joshua would start asking me for ice-cream. However, he did not. In fact, on the way home from kindergarten today, we passed by an ice-cream store, and he said to me, "Mommy, those we cannot eat." I was surprised and asked, "who told you that? Why is it so?" He said that it was me who told him that, and that I told him that ice-cream is unhealthy and no good for the body. I didn't think that he could really take such notice of what I had said sometime ago, but he did. Then he commented that I had allowed him to eat ice-cream some weeks ago, and that I should not have done that. Oops! So I told him that he is right, it is only once in a while that we can eat ice-cream, and that we should not eat ice-cream anymore. Although Joshua sure likes ice-cream, I am glad that he seems to have enough self-control... which took me by surprise for a 3.5 year old. But I will cherish it while it lasts...

P.S. Joshua sure made poor business out of selling popsicles! He gave me the popsicles and also the money. That means that I got popsicles for free and even money for it!!

 
 
You can find it from Amazon. If not, borrowing from this toy concept, you can also make your own toy ice-cream with popsicle stick and cardboard:
 

 
  

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