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Hot glue letters {101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet}

August 26, 2016 by Katie 9 Comments

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In this week’s installment of my 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet Series, I’m sharing a DIY alphabet making opportunity to create your own letters your kids and manipulate and play with.

Click here if you want more information about teaching the alphabet in a fun, hands-on, and multi-sensory way. 

DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

So before I say anything else, let’s start with two caveats:

First, It took me a few tries to find the right surface for making these hot glue letters. I tried making them on wax paper and also on cling wrap, but it was too difficult to peel the letters from the surface once they were dry. Eventually I decided to try making the hot glue letters on one of our trays. This actually worked fairly well, although it did leave the tray a little scratched up at the end.

Second, making the hot glue letters is a task for an adult. (Playing with them afterwards, however, is a task for children.) Hot glue can burn a child if it gets on their skin before it dries. Please use appropriate caution when making the hot glue letters.

101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet: Hands-on, multi-sensory activities for teaching the alphabet to children ages 2 to 7.

How to make hot glue letters

I started by warming up our hot glue gun to let the glue stick melt for a few minutes.

Then I began writing the letters of the alphabet with hot glue on a tray.

DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

The letters dried quickly – in about 10 minutes.
DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

Then I peeled them from the tray. I didn’t have too much difficulty, but I did use a flat head screwdriver to help me peel up some of the letters.

DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

The kids were fascinated by the letters. They looked pretty cool, because they were kind of a clearish-white. The kids really enjoyed just holding them and feeling their shapes.

They also put the letters together to form their names.

DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

One thing we tried was to put the hot glue letters in a tray of water.
DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

It turns out that the letters float! It was fun to simply swish the the letters around in the water. You can also invite your child to pick up letters from the water with a spoon or tongs and tell you what letter it is.

DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

The play possibilities for these hot glue letters are practically endless. What would you do with hot glue letters?

DIY Hot Glue Letters make a wonderful alphabet manipulative kids can play with. Plus, put them in a container of water and watch them float! What a fun idea for learning letters. || Gift of Curiosity

Have questions about teaching the alphabet? We’ve got answers! Click here to learn more.

More ways to teach to the alphabet

More alphabet posts from Gift of Curiosity:

  • Letter hunt sensory bin
  • Erasing letters with a Q-tip
  • Making letters with straws and play dough
  • I spy letter hunt
  • Spaghetti letters
  • Letter puzzles
  • Montessori sandpaper letters
  • Making “alphabet soup”
  • Smash the puffy letters
  • Mini letter hunt with a magnifying glass

You can find more ways to teach the alphabet on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Letter Learning Pinterest board.

Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Learning Letters on Pinterest.

Don't miss out!

9 Comments

Comments

  1. Jacquie Allison says

    August 30, 2016 at 11:35 am

    Hi I’ve never responded before but I am curious if you tried parchment paper. My cookies and muffins never stick. Just a thought and it wouldn’t mark up your tray.

    Reply
    • Katie SG says

      August 30, 2016 at 11:43 am

      I did try parchment paper, actually, and I didn’t have much success with it either. 🙁

      Reply
  2. Jen says

    August 30, 2016 at 6:01 pm

    This is a cute idea, thanks for sharing! Did you happen to try a laminated piece of paper? That way you could print the letters out and have a kind of stencil to work with for making the letters.

    Reply
    • Katie SG says

      August 31, 2016 at 8:31 am

      I didn’t try that, but it would be a great idea to try. I love the idea of laminating a printed version of the alphabet so you could “trace” the letters with the glue on top of the laminated page. It would be worth a try to see how well the letters come off the laminated page!

      Reply
  3. Suzie Homemaker says

    August 31, 2016 at 5:15 am

    I have glitter hot glue Christmas colors. sure it comes in others. that would be cool. might do the letters we r doing soon.

    Reply
  4. Tina Abert says

    September 1, 2016 at 8:11 am

    A glass sheet works great.

    Reply
    • Katie SG says

      September 1, 2016 at 1:29 pm

      Thanks for the tip!

      Reply
  5. Ashley Sipe says

    May 2, 2020 at 7:22 pm

    Hi! I know this is an old post, but thought I’d see if you’re still getting questions…! How long did these last?? Like can I make them a few days ahead or is it a “make and use” that day? Thanks!!

    Reply
    • Katie says

      May 3, 2020 at 2:12 pm

      Yes, you can absolutely make these ahead of time and they will last a long while.

      Reply

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