Thursday, September 25, 2014

LETTER PEOPLE AND THEIR FRIEND LESLEY



I met Lesley Fields and her mother Judy at a workshop years ago. It’s amazing how our paths have continued to cross through the years. Lesley now works at Abrams Learning Trends with those adorable Letter People.  At Summer Camp Lesley heard me talk about melting plastic cups and using them for letters, shapes, numbers, etc. 

To make these plastic discs you preheat the oven to 350. Turn the cups upside down on a cookie sheet and just stand there and watch them melt. It doesn't take long, so don't walk away! 

Lesley took that idea and has come up with a brilliant learning tool. I’ll let her tell you about it….

                   
As many of you know, anytime you attend a Dr. Jean seminar you come away with not only a zillion new ideas but also excitement to get creative for your classroom. I rushed home and immediately melted all the cups I could find in my house and at the office. It was like reliving my childhood with Shrinky Dinks! 
  
Once they had cooled off, I discovered that not only were they a cool texture and fun to handle they could also be mini-dry erase boards. I remember how hard it was for my little kindergartners to manipulate lap boards and space was always an issue. I would have loved to use these kinder-sized dry erase discs.

When my brother-in-law discovered they could be mini-Frisbees I knew these discs had major possibilities and my mind went wild with more ideas. I hope you and your students enjoy them too!

Flippin’ for Letters and Numbers
Use a permanent marker, pictures, and/or stickers to create a matching game with letters and sounds or numbers and quantities. Simply decide what the 2 things (letters and sounds, numbers and quantities, capital and lower case, etc.) you want your students to match and then write or stick each thing on each side of a disc. Your students could:

· Identify a letter on one side and flip the disc to find its capital or lower case counterpart.

· Identify a number on one side and flip the disc to find its quantity.

· Name a picture and flip the disc to find the letter that makes its initial sound.

And, that's not all, folks!  Lesley has more ideas for tomorrow!  Plus, you can visit this blog for lots of other great ideas:
https://www.abramslearningtrends.com/blog