Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Letter Matching Board

Well, I spent a few of hours on this one, and I'm hoping that it will turn out to have been worth it.  I used heavy pastel cardstock, and "laminated" the pockets with packing tape; so I think it will last.  I also have plans for using the same board for lower case flowers and "starts with" pictures.   One thing I really like about it are the folding flaps on the sides that allow it to stand up on its own.  (the backing was part of a big corrugated cardboard box)

I traced around a cookie cutter for the outline of the flowers, and glued them on to index cards.



The pockets were a little tricky for G to use at first, but then she got the hang of it. (having laminated the pockets made them slippery, and definitely helped though) You can see her clapping for herself- I think as much for figuring out how to put things on the board as much as for matching the right letters.   

Any other ideas for ways to use the board (so that I can relax about having spent so much time on it)?  :-)

15 comments:

Michele @ The Hills are Alive said...

thats great - with a few tweaks for my train loving 4 year old boy I think I have my next "project"
Good work!

Melia said...

This is GREAT!!! Can't wait to start making one for my little girl. She just turned 3 today! Do the strips with the flower pots come off of the backing? Are they what you laminated to make the "pockets"? I am thinking that you could do tons of matching this way and I have a cd with file folder games that could be adapted to use this bigger board instead of file folders. Thanks so much for sharing! I just got a laminator and I can't wait to start using it!

Valerie @ Inner Child Fun said...

Super cute!! What a fun way to match up letters! :-)

Having Fun at Home said...

Michele, trains sound super cute! You should send a link once you get it done!
Melia, I laminated the strips with the flower pots. The flower pots don't come off, but that's a good idea- would make it more versatile.

Anonymous said...

Love this. You could do capital and lowercase matching.

I'd like to know how you did the laminating part too. What exactly did you laminate?

Anonymous said...

Do you have any pictures of the project?

Having Fun at Home said...

Hollie, I glued the flower pots onto the long white strips of cardstock (cut from a piece of poster board) and then cut pieces of packing tape as long as the cardstock. I placed the first strip at the top with half of the width of tape overhanging the edge and folded it over. It took three pieces of tape (a little overlapping) to cover the strip of cardstock.

It does sound kind of confusing when I write it out like that...I really SHOULD have taken some pictures along the way I guess. Sorry!

Having Fun at Home said...

Hollie, I glued the flower pots onto the long white strips of cardstock (cut from a piece of poster board) and then cut pieces of packing tape as long as the cardstock. I placed the first strip at the top with half of the width of tape overhanging the edge and folded it over. It took three pieces of tape (a little overlapping) to cover the strip of cardstock.

It does sound kind of confusing when I write it out like that...I really SHOULD have taken some pictures along the way I guess. Sorry!

Hollie said...

Do you have any pictures of the project?

Valerie @ Frugal Family Fun Bl said...

Super cute!! What a fun way to match up letters! :-)

Michele said...

thats great - with a few tweaks for my train loving 4 year old boy I think I have my next "project"
Good work!

Hookem02 said...

upper, lower case matching, beginning sounds with picture card on flower spot, ending sounds too

Tabby said...

I love this idea! Will probably do something similar to help the kids match the lowercase to the uppercase.

Rebecca said...

Great idea!!!

Unknown said...

Oh my God, this is so cool. I which you took some pictures or video while making it. You have an amazing idea. I will definitely try this for my kids