Always on the hunt for cool ways of sneaking in a little bit of learning for my kiddos, early this summer I found these cool Clothespin Number and Letter Match-Up circles, thanks to Erica of Confessions of a Homeschooler.
And conveniently, since we’ve been clothespin happy over here for the last few weeks, these big, bright number and letter circles have been pretty fun for Owen and Cora.
Owen and Cora have played with these on occasion for the past two or three weeks as Maddy worked on her homework. I like that they’re engaging, hands-on, and challenging–and, like everything Erica does, her graphics are beautiful, colorful, and eye-catching.
- Clothespin Letter and Number Match-Up: The premise of these games is very simple–grab the ole clothespins and match them to the correct number or letter. And what I love about Clothespin Match-Up is the shape of the board and that Owen and Cora could both hold it in their hands–no problem.
The Number Match-Up is actually two games, in two parts: Numbers 1-10 and 11-20. Kiddos count the dots in each section and then pinch on the correctly numbered clothespin–it’s easy!
For Cora, I separated the clothespins numbered 1-10 so that she wasn’t overwhelmed by clothespins, but Owen liked counting, then hunting through the huge pile of clothespins for the correct number.
The Letter Match-Up is actually three games: Uppercase, Lowercase, and Alphabet Pictures. Owen and Cora have played the Uppercase game by matching lowercase clothespins to the corresponding letters, and they’ve done the opposite (matched uppercase clothespins) with the Lowercase board.
Owen matches lowercase clothespins to uppercase letters on the board.
Only Owen has played the Alphabet Pictures, but he’s a little more sound-and-letter-savvy than Cora at this point. The Alphabet Pictures can be played by matching lowercase clothespins or uppercase clothespins to the appropriated picture, and he’s played both ways.
All of these games have been great for occupying that challenging homework time for us, when I’m trying to support Maddy but also attempting to occupy Owen and Cora with activities that are exciting, engaging, and are able to be done independently.
Not only are they reinforcing those all-too important letter and number recognition skills, but they also involve counting, beginning sound isolation and corresponding letter identification, but also fine motor skills of clothespin-pinching. Hooray! And they provide us with some quiet time so I can read with Maddy, help her through her packet, or practice her math problems.
Many, many thanks to Erica for sharing her incredible resources on her overwhelmingly awesome site, and happy sneaky-during-homework-time-learning!
Want a few more alphabet activities? Check out:
- backyard alphabet hunt
- homemade alphabet book
- leafy letter learning
- ABC hunt
- on the road ABC hunt
- lowercase ABC hunt
- build your own bingo: uppercase and lowercase match
- ABC cards and clothespin match
- alphabet letter splash
- alphabingo (play with lowercase letters)
- alphabet letter lids
- leafy outdoor alphabet hunt
- build your own board game
- clothespin letter match
- 10 fun ways to learn the alphabet
Follow us on pinterest, and check out our literacy pins:
We use the number clothespin match up as well!
Great Minds think alike my friend!! I printed and laminated the same set for "C" this week and she loves them!! : )
I can’t wait to try this out! It makes me want to be a homeschooling mom! (I’m a teacher though, so you can tell where my heart is!) I also wanted to mention we make your Halloween spiders too, and loved them!
How awesome! Glad you like the idea, Suzanne–and know that I’m not a homeschooling mom myself but rather sneak in a few things when I can–most are games so my kids don’t even know they’re learning! Thanks for reading!
What a great idea! And yes, it’s a great for working on motor skills. Since we were instructed to use clothes pins to help my daughter strengthen her finger grasp for working buttons I had to click when I saw this idea. While she is past number and letter recognition I am certain I can make some changes and have her do simple addition and match the answers with the problems, or match the part of speech with the word. The things you can do with this are limitless. I am so glad you shared!
~Lori