Poking and sewing letters {101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet}

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.