Children usually learn letters in their own names first. This is a great place for you to start talking about letters. In this fun activity, your child will love feeding the letters of his name to the Letter Monster.
- small plastic cup
- marker
- plain paper
- empty oatmeal container
- glue
- googly eyes
- scissors
- yarn, buttons, etc.
Step 1: Place a small plastic cup on a sheet of plain paper. Trace around the cup to make a circle. Make enough circles to spell your child’s name and then cut out the circles. Write one letter of your child’s name on each circle.
Step 2: Create the “Letter Monster.” You can use a larger plastic cup and decorate it as a monster, or you can be more creative and cut a “mouth” out of an oatmeal container. Cover the container in construction paper and add googly eyes, or draw eyes, nose, eyebrows, etc. Add yarn for hair.
Step 3: Invite your child to choose a letter to feed to the “Letter Monster.” Say the name of the letter together. You might say:
Choose a letter to feed to the ‘Letter Monster.’ You chose the letter B. Say it with me: B.
Step 4: Make the sound of the letter each time you feed the letter monster. You might say:
Letter B makes the /b/ /b/ /b/ sound. Letter Monster likes the letter B. He says /b/ /b/ /b/. That letter B tastes so good.
Step 5: Repeat with different letters.
To make it easier, introduce just two letters at a time to play the game. Write the first two letters of your child’s name on circles, using only the uppercase letter. Make two copies of each letter.
Add some challenge by asking your child to find a letter that you name. Choose two letters of your child’s name. Ask your child to find a specific letter to feed to the “Letter Monster.” You might say:
This is a letter B and this is a letter N. Find the letter B. Feed the Letter Monster the letter B. Letter Monster says /b/ /b/ /b/. That letter B tastes so good.
If your child chooses the incorrect letter, that’s ok. You can simply say the name of the letter that he chose and let him feed it to the monster and try again. Remember, the goal is to have successful, positive experiences and lots of fun exposure to letters.
