As a homeschooling mama, I have been involved in teaching the alphabet to my kids since they were quite young. I realized early on that my daughter would learn best through a variety of modalities targeting multiple senses. So I set about to come up with as many fun, hands-on, and engaging ways to teach to the alphabet as I possibly could.
Starting today, I am launching a new weekly series that I am calling 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet. In this series I will be sharing loads of ideas for helping kids to learn their letters. These are ideas that I have used with my own kids, and now I am passing them on to you.
Today’s post is an activity called Spaghetti Letters.
This activity is very easy to set up. I simply boiled some spaghetti, cooled it in cold water, and then placed it into a bowl for my kids. I recommend leaving a bit of water in the spaghetti bowl so it doesn’t dry out and become sticky.
I set the bowl of spaghetti on a tray and then invited my kids to come have some fun.
My kids enjoyed the feel of the slippery spaghetti in their hands.
I encouraged them to practice making letters with the spaghetti noodles. I challenged them by naming letters for them to make, or saying a letter sound for them to make, or by saying a word and asking them to write the letter for the initial sound of the word.
When necessary, the kids used their fingers to cut the spaghetti noodles into smaller sizes.
My kids did enjoy making spaghetti letters, but their favorite part of this activity was getting to eat the noodles when we were done. 🙂
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
- 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.
Kristianne says
May 29, 2015 at 10:24 pmI love this idea! Its an idea you can eat too! I think my kids will love it. I have colored my spaghetti before. I think I might do this for this activity as well.
Winter says
June 4, 2015 at 3:17 pmSuch a fun creative way to get kids to learn! Stopping by from Thoughtful Thursday.