This is definitely not the fall that I imagined in January! COVID-19 has certainly thrown a wrench in many of our plans, one of which was sending our children to Preschool and Pre-K this year. We could have sent them, but with school being online (for the foreseeable future where we live), we opted to homeschool. Before my littles were born, I taught Kindergarten, so secretly I was thrilled about the challenge of schooling my children at home! However, I know that not everyone is a teacher and that schooling at home can be extremely difficult for parents and children alike. So, today, I wanted to share with you some quick, easy, and educational activities to keep your littles engaged and learning throughout the day.
*This post contains an honest review in exchange for the Picture Alphabet Block Set created by Smiling Tree Toys. This post also contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn on qualifying orders at no additional cost to you.
Once again, I have teamed up with the amazing Smiling Tree Toys company and have been gifted this beautiful Picture Alphabet Block Set to check out. Let me tell you…It. Is. Amazing. The quality and detail that goes into these blocks is just unbelievable! I am truly in love with this fantastic small business and everything that they produce!
Using their block set, I was able to come up with some engaging activities for your kiddos to play and learn with! These activities would be best suited for the 3-7 year age range. Think Preschool to First or even beginning Second grade. Check out all of the fun below:
- Build the Alphabet
- Letter Sensory Trays
- Name Building
- Letter and Picture Match Sensory Bin
- Beginning Sounds Pictures
- Word Family Roll and Build
- Roll and Add
Build the Alphabet
A great place to start is with the alphabet! Even if your little is too young to know the entire alphabet, they can easily practice building it with these picture alphabet blocks!
Simply lay out all of the blocks, letter side up (use the capital letters for beginners and lowercase letters for those needing a challenge) and let your cuties build the alphabet!
If your kiddos need a bit more support, write out the alphabet on a piece of paper or pull out alphabet cards (if you have them). Then, they can refer to the alphabet as they build it with the blocks!
Letter Sensory Trays
My kids love sensory bins. It doesn’t matter what our base is, or even what is inside. They just love exploring and letting their imaginations run wild! If you are looking to learn more about sensory bins, or are searching for some new ideas, check out this post!
These sensory trays are like mini sensory bins. Could you do a larger sensory bin for each letter? Of course! I chose to keep it on the small side so it would be perfect for an independent center.
When building these sensory trays, use what you have! There is really no reason to go out and buy new toys/items for each letter. Chances are, you have more than you realize in your kid’s toys!
Grab your picture alphabet blocks and then search around for objects beginning with each letter. Some great places to start are the animal bin, play kitchen, and puzzles. You are bound to find multiple letters in those locations!
If you are still stumped on what to include, check out these ideas below:
- Aa – ant, alligator, airplane, apple, anteater, ambulance, astronaut, acorn
- Bb – bear, bird, bat, balloon, blue, brown, black, beans, bunny, bowl, boat, boy, bus, banana, butterfly
- Cc – cat, car, camel, circle, cactus, coral, crab, cup, carrot, cucumber, chick, cow, caterpillar, crocodile
- Dd – dog, doughnut, door, duck, dolphin, dinosaur, deer, diamond
- Ee – elephant, egg, eye, emu, envelope, engine, eagle, Earth
- Ff – frog, fish, fox, fire truck, fence, flower, flamingo
- Gg – goat, giraffe, girl, gold, gorilla, green, grasshopper
- Hh – horse, hen, hat, ham, hammer, house, hippopotamus, helicopter
- Ii – ice cream, igloo, iguana, ice, insect
- Jj – jellyfish, jaguar, jam, jacket, Jeep, jet, jump rope
- Kk – kangaroo, kite, key, kitten, king, koala, kiwi
- Ll – lion, lizard, llama, lemur, lynx, lemon, lime, lobster, lamb, ladybug
- Mm – monkey, money, meerkat, mail, milk, mushroom, motorcycle
- Nn – newt, narwhal, necklace, nail, net, nest, numbers
- Oo – Octopus, oval, ocean, orange, ostrich, otter, orangutan
- Pp – parrot, penguin, pineapple, paint, pirate, purple, pink, police car, peacock, paper, pig. polar bear
- Qq – quail, quarter, queen, quilt, quince, question mark
- Rr – rabbit, red, rhinoceros, rainbow, radish, rectangle, rocket, ribbon, robot, reindeer
- Ss – shark, snake, sun, sand, shells, starfish, star, strawberry, sheep, spider, seal
- Tt – tiger, toucan, triangle, tricycle, tambourine, toast, train, truck, turkey, tree
- Uu – urchin, umbrella, unicycle, unicorn, underwear
- Vv – vulture, violin, van, vegetables, volcano
- Ww – whale, white, wild dog, walrus, wagon, wheel, watermelon, worm
- Xx – xylophone, x-ray
- Yy – yak, yellow, yarn, yogurt, yo-yo
- Zz – zebra, zoo, zipper, zucchini
Now that you have your objects, grab a small tray (I used a wooden tray, but you can use whatever you have!) and choose a sensory base. I like to use plain rice for these letter bins, because I want the blocks and objects to be the star. However, feel free to use dried beans, dried noodles, oats, crushed cereal, sand, rocks or almost anything else as a base. And then add the beautiful picture alphabet block you are focusing on and objects to go along with it. Now, let your little enjoy some hands-on letter learning!
Name Building
As a Kindergarten teacher, a skill that I very much value is a child’s ability to identify and write his/her own name. It might not seem like something you need to teach your child before entering school, but take it from a teacher; it makes a world of difference!
From day one, my students were writing their names on every paper that was handed to them. When you have a classroom of 20+ kiddos, it’s the only way to tell the difference between pages! I spent a lot of time walking around to the students who were unable to write their name yet and writing it in highlighter for them to trace over.
Of course, I didn’t mind doing that, it was part of my job! However, it saves a lot of time if your kiddo can already write their name!
So, if you are at home with a little who has yet to go to Kindergarten (or even if you have a Kindergartner at home), this is a great activity to start focusing on!
If your littles know how to spell their names, simply set out the blocks and ask them to build it! This was the story with my 4 year old. He has known how to spell and write his name for a while now, so I simply asked him to build it for me. It was still great practice for him in identifying the correct letter blocks and putting them in the right order.
My 3 year old is just beginning the name spelling process. He can repeat the spelling of his name, but he still needs some help remembering what the letters look like. So, for him I simply wrote his name on a piece of paper and asked him to match the blocks. This was a great matching activity for him as well as a challenge in building his name.
And if your little already knows how to spell his/her name, this would be a great opportunity to focus on the middle or last name. Those are important too!
Letter and Picture Match Sensory Bin
What I love about this activity is that it can be adapted to work for kiddos on multiple levels. All you need is:
- A sensory bin (click here to see how to set one up!) with a base – I used plain uncooked white rice here
- Your beautiful set of picture alphabet blocks
- Some sort of alphabet mat. I snagged the one pictured from the Target Dollar Section last year and we use it constantly! If you don’t have a mat, puzzle or poster with the alphabet on it, you can simply write the alphabet out on a large paper roll.
Now, it’s time to play! Have a beginner? Place all of your picture alphabet blocks with the capital letters facing up in your sensory bin. Your sweetie can practice matching the capital letter to the capital letter on your alphabet mat or paper roll.
Wanting to challenge them a bit? Turn the blocks to show the lowercase letters. Lowercase letters are just, by nature, more challenging to learn. Asking your little to match the lowercase letter on the block to the capital letter on your alphabet mat will make it a bit harder!
Want to give your kiddo a real challenge? Place the blocks with the picture side up. This is excellent for developing letter sound awareness. My 4 year old really enjoyed doing it this way. He had to 1. look at the picture 2. say the picture out loud ‘ex. house’ 3. determine the beginning sound of the word ‘ex. huh’ 4. identify the letter that makes that sound 5. and finally, match the picture to that correct letter.
That is quite a process for an early learner! But, it is exactly what he will have to do to begin reading and be successful in Kindergarten next year, so I will encourage it as much as possible!
Beginning Sound Pictures
Here, we begin to combine reading and writing. Once your little has mastered identifying each letter, it is time to delve into sounds! For this activity you will need:
- Your wonderful picture alphabet blocks
- Dry erase board (or paper)
- Dry erase marker (or pencil)
I asked my 4 year old to pick out 8 different blocks. He is extremely interested in animals, so the majority of the blocks he picked had animals on them. No surprise there!
Once I had the 8 blocks, I spaced them out on our dry erase board. Again, you can always use paper if you do not have a dry erase board. Starting with the first picture, I asked him to tell me what it was and what sound it began with. We have done a lot of beginning sound practice, so this was a good review for him.
Once he gave me the correct sound and letter to go with it, I asked him to write it on the dry erase board. This was the challenging part of the activity for him. Writing is something that we have explored, but are still in the beginning stages of. So, I had to model a few letters for him and help him with correct formation of others.
This activity is a great way to test your kiddo’s knowledge of letter sounds and his/her ability to write the letters down. I would recommend this one for a child in Kindergarten or First Grade. If you choose to have your younger child try it out, you may want to skip the writing portion or use a highlighter to form the letters so your little can trace over it. Regardless of how you approach it, this is a great at-home learning activity!
Word Family Roll and Build
Recently, we have really enjoyed adding these large dice into our educational play. They are easy for little hands to handle, and I’m not worried about anyone getting hurt if one goes flying! Here is what you need for word family fun:
- Picture Alphabet Blocks
- 2 Large Picture Dice
- Paper
- A marker
- Scissors
- Optional: dry erase board and dry erase marker
Set Up
Decide on the word families that you want to focus on – you will need to choose 6 – (keep reading to determine what word families are, in case you are unfamiliar). If your little is a beginner, I would recommend some of the following:
- -at
- -am
- -an
- -ed
- -it
- -ig
- -in
- -ot
- -on
Now that you have your word families, decide what beginning letters you would like to include. You will need 6 different letters. Try to choose letters that can work for multiple word families. For example, the letter Pp can make some of the following word family words: pat, pam, pan, pit, pig, pin, and pot. It works for many families! And, honestly, it is definitely OK if your beginning letter and word family make up a ‘silly word’ as I called them. Like P and –on making pon. Even if it’s a silly word, your little is still practicing blending and reading!
Write your 6 chosen word families and 6 chosen letters on paper and cut them to fit into your picture dice. Next, lay out all of your Picture Alphabet Blocks letter side up (you choose capital or lowercase) and invite your kiddo to jump in and play!
Let’s Play!
Have your little reader roll the dice and place them beside one another (single letter at the beginning). Ask him/her to say the sound of each die separately and then blend them together. For example buh – at – -> bat! It is a skill that takes a lot of time to master. I spent basically the entire year teaching it and reteaching it to my Kindergarten class. But, it is the foundation of reading! So, if you can introduce your little to it now, they will have a running start going into reading.
What is a word family anyway?
This game is the perfect way to move from letter and sound identification to reading. And it is all thanks to word families! Word families are something that I am rather fond of after teaching Kindergarten. I have created mounds of resources centered around them.
In case you are curious, word families are groups (families) of words that have the same ending. For example, the ‘-at’ word family includes words like bat, cat, hat, mat, sat, rat, etc. The fabulous thing about word families, is that it is an easy way for children to learn a large group of words quickly! Once they know what ‘-at’ says and they know the basics of blending, they can quickly switch the front letter to create new words!
Combining the dice with the picture alphabet blocks added a whole new element to learning! Not only did my son have to roll the dice to create a word family word, he then had to actually build the word using the picture alphabet blocks!
Roll and Add
Even though these blocks contain letters, you can actually get some math practice in with them as well! Here is what you need:
- Picture Alphabet Blocks
- 2 Large Picture Dice
- Paper
- A marker
- Scissors
- Optional: a dry erase board and dry erase marker
Taking your paper and marker, write the numbers 1 – 6 twice and cut each one out to fit in the picture dice. So you should have 2 dice that both contain the numbers 1-6. Now, lay out your picture alphabet blocks and invite your kiddo to join you!
This game is similar to another that we have played with the Smiling Moon Balancer from Smiling Tree Toys. You can check that game out Here! But I decided to step it up a notch with some addition in this version. Adding is one of those basic skills that your little will, most likely, be introduced to at the end of Kindergarten. But, it’s never too early to start exposing them to it!
How to Play
Now that you are all set up, it’s time to start adding! Have your little roll the dice and build a tower to match each number. For example, if you roll a 2 and a 4, build a tower of 2 and a tower of 4. Once both towers are built, ask your little to combine the towers and count how many blocks he/she has all together. Looking back at my example, the answer would be 6. By using the blocks as a visual, you are allowing your kiddo to develop a concrete connection to addition as opposed to staring at 2 numbers on a piece of paper and trying to figure out how to combine them.
Let’s face it, we are all better learners when we can be a part of the learning process! In this case, that means that your little is physically manipulating the ‘numbers’ (blocks) and beginning to understand that a number is not just a number…it has more meaning!
If you want to challenge your kiddo even further, give him/her a dry erase board and dry erase marker. Ask that cutie to write out the problem as it is being solved.
Endless Possibilities
This Picture Alphabet Block Set from Smiling Tree Toys did NOT disappoint. There are soooo many different ways to play with it! I’ve shared 7 with you today and, yet, there are still many more ways that I didn’t mention. It is just one of those open-ended toys with boundless possibilities!
What I love the most about this beautiful set is simply the quality. You can tell that so much time and love goes into every single block. We have had many picture alphabet blocks in the past and this is by far my absolute favorite. Each block is incredibly detailed and beautifully made. I would highly recommend heading to their site and checking out all of their fantastic, educational products today!
Want to see what else we have done with their fabulous toys? Check out this post and head on over to this activity for 2 of our favorites. Make sure you also check out a reader (and kiddo) favorite that involves beautiful blocks and dinosaurs!
