In this week’s installment of my 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet Series, I’m sharing an activity that develops fine motor skills and letter knowledge at the same time. I call this activity poking and sewing letters.
If you’ve got a child who likes pin punching activities or sewing activities or – better yet – both, poking and sewing letters would be a great activity to try.
Poking and sewing letters is really two different activities combined into one. The first step involves poking holes in a letter. The second stop involves sewing the letter using the holes the child just poked.
Poking holes in a letter
For pin punching activities, we use a wood handled pin puncher from Montessori Services paired with a high quality, thick felt mat, also from Montessori Services. I placed the pin puncher and mat on a tray along with a letter written on cardstock.
We have done poking (aka, pin punching activities) before. So when I invited my daughter to poke holes in the letter she knew just what to do.
Sewing a letter
After she finished poking holes in her letter, I invited her to “sew” the letter using some yarn and a child-safe plastic needle.
She poked a LOT of holes in her letter, so I suggested she sew larger segments that skipped many of her holes.
Oh the concentration she put into this activity!
When she was done, she had a nicely sewn ‘X.’ I helped her knot the yarn so she could cut it off.
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
- Smash the puffy letters
- Mini letter hunt with a magnifying glass
- Letter hopscotch
- Crystallized letters
- Yarn wrapped letters
- Letter tic-tac-toe
You can find more ways to teach the alphabet on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Letter Learning Pinterest board.
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