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Tuesday, September 22, 2009

the alphabet box

Sometimes I think to myself,
How cool is The Alphabet Box?

26 drawers
{one for each letter}
filled with teeny tiny treasures...

the possibilities are endless!


Here are 2 ways we use The Alphabet Box:

The child chooses a letter drawer
and lays out its contents on a felt.
{The card at the top is also in the drawer
-it's the same as the alphabet story, only tiny.}


A small movable alphabet letter is in the drawer, too.
By moving the letter down the column of objects,
the child "tells the whole story"...
/b/bell, /b/bag, /b/baby, /b/banana


For this second activity,
the child chooses 2 letter drawers.
She places the movable alphabet letters
and the alphabet story cards
at the top of the felt.

She mixes up the objects from both drawers...



....and then sorts them into
the correct columns.
By "telling the whole story,"
she is able to check her work.



**I've never made an alphabet box from scratch - the one in the photo was already in my classroom. I'm always on the lookout for tiny objects to add to it, though. Craft stores, garage sales, and thrift stores are good places to get started. Also, Jo over at A bit of this and a bit of that hosts an awesome phonemic object exchange once a year. As for the box, Hubs just informed me, Oh, those? Pretty much every hardware store has them. (duh) ;)

8 comments:

  1. we have one of these - we have a coupleof empty boxes at the moment though (we use pictures for them). The hard letters are Q, X and for some reason J!

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  2. Squeee this is so coooool!!

    the x phonic is so damn tricky! yes x ray and xylophone start with x but not x x damn it! I used to walk around saying boX with a crazy emphasise on the x, Egg will probably try to have me sectioned ;)

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  3. So fun!! I just ran out and bought a box at Walmart this morning and am now raiding the kid's toys and my craft supplies to fill the cubbies with little objects. Super fun and BOTH of my girls will love it. My 6.5 year old can practice writing her words by sounding out each object and my 2.5 year old can practice matching the objects with the alphabet letter as we're learning the alphabet. I'm going to teach her the alphabet story too!! I'll post when I have it up and running.

    PS do you have a copy of the color mixing chart (color wheel project) or do you just hand copy it whenever you need a new one? I would love a copy or photos of them!!

    Fondly,
    MaryLea (pink and green mama)
    pink.green.98@verizon.net

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  4. Some of the letters are so tricky to find! I'll have to try using pictures in the sparser drawers.

    Most years, we cut up the class group photo and put everyone's faces in the alphabet box according to first name. It's kind of a riot!

    Oh, what's the deal with x anyway? I always emphasize it as an ending sound, too, but it's just not the same! Our most popular x item is a tiny felt map with an "x marks the spot."

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  5. Just made one and linked you in my post.
    http://theadventuresofbear.blogspot.com/2009/09/alphabet-boxes.html

    thanks for the great idea.

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  6. A friend sent me the link to this - she knew I'd love it! :>) I'm going to have to start collecting NOW to find enough stuff for the little one's next birthday (or Christmas NEXT year), though! I linked to this on my weekly roundup - thanks!

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  8. Yay you are back!!!! Well, I have head that those alphabet boxes are actually pretty hard to come accross... more of a garage sale score... so if you ever see one grab it! At least that is word on the street, I havent been in a hardware store lately.... just love you Anne!

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