Matching uppercase and lowercase letters with sticky notes {101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet}

I learned something interesting while doing this activity with my daughter. Although she already recognized both uppercase and lowercase forms of all the letters, she didn’t know which version was uppercase and which version was lowercase. Oops!

Even though I was surprised, I suppose this gap in her knowledge shouldn’t have come as much of a shock because all of her writing is still done in a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters. At least now I know some things we need to keep working on.

In this week’s installment of my 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet Series, I am sharing a very simple activity that helps kids match uppercase and lowercase letters using sticky notes.

For this activity, you need the following supplies:

• Sticky notes in two different colors
• Markers

I wrote uppercase letters on the blue sticky notes and lowercase letters on the yellow sticky notes. For every uppercase letter I wrote I made sure to also write the corresponding lowercase letter.

After I had written the letters on the sticky notes, I stuck the blue sticky notes with uppercase letters on the wall.

Then I handed the yellow sticky notes with lowercase letters to my daughter. I asked her to match the uppercase and lowercase letters by placing the lowercase letter on the wall next to its uppercase letter pair.

She matched the letters with ease. (It was only during our discussion afterwards that I realized she didn’t fully understand how or why we use both uppercase and lowercase letters.)

After she finished, she stood back to admire her work.

And, totally on her own, she decided to say the sounds that each letter makes for some additional practice.

(Although she learned the letter sounds in preschool and kindergarten, she is adding to her knowledge of letter sounds as we go through our All About Spelling curriculum. All About Spelling teaches a much more comprehensive list of alphabet sounds compared to what my kids learned when they were younger.)

More ways to teach to the alphabet

More alphabet posts from Gift of Curiosity:

• Crystallized letters
• 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
• Letter creatures
• 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.