leafy letter learning

At a super-crazy sale at our craft store last week, I picked up a few packs of leaves--at literally a quarter a piece.

I remembered reading about this cute idea a while ago on one of my favorite, favorite blogs, and I couldn't help myself.

I'm a sucker for alphabet games and letter learning.

Especially on glittery, beautiful, fall leaves?!

Too fun.

• Letter Leaves: I stuck with letters--uppercase and lowercase--because I thought that both Cora and Owen could use them in different ways. But I have some extra leaves so I'll put numbers on them in the next few days.
  

I called Owen over to me one afternoon, and I had 'Owen' spelled out in front of me on the leaves.

He said, Hey. My name's on those leaves.

I said, Oh my gosh, it is. How funny? And look, all of other letters are on those leaves. Can you help me match up these uppercase letters with their lowercase letter friends?

Um, maybe. I think I'll help you for a second.

leafy letters

So we matched up some letters--not all of them. Maybe about half, and then he was finished for a while.

our matched letters--uppercase and lowercase

I put a few leaves in front of Cora--letters C, O, R, A.

I said, Cora, your name begins with a 'C'. 'C' is your special letter. 'Cat' starts with 'c', and 'crayons' starts with 'c' and 'candy' starts with 'c'. Here are the letters of your name, C-O-R-A.

I repeated it, then I mixed up the letters of her name and said, Oh, no. Your letters got all mixed up. Let's fix them.

We put them back in order, mixed them up again, and put them in order again. And then she said, Let's do the ABC Song. (Yes! I'll do the ABC Song!)

So we worked together to put the uppercase letters in alphabetical order so we could sing the song and point to each letter as we sang.

Even Owen joined in on the letter-arranging.

And that's all the sneaky learning for today.

When we were finished, I put the leaves into a small basket and left it on the table. Occasionally Maddy, Owen, or Cora have them out on the floor as words, names, clothes, or flying carpets for their Polly Pockets or cars. I really can't complain, at least they're playing with their letters, right?


More letters of the alphabet fun:

• magnetic letter learning
• eating letters
  
• jell-0 mix letters
• tic-tac-toe letter fun
  
• building letters
• on the road letter hunting
  
• teeny-tiny alphabet books
  

Thanks to Pink and Green Mama for the leafy-letter inspiration, and thanks to others who inspired her!