Teaching Tip for Manipulatives for Itchy’s Alphabet
People love our Hands-On-Vowels and often as me if I have a manipulative for every letter – on the ‘wish list’ but not in the budget!!! However, I have purchased some manipulatives for several letters and share them here for those of you who have not seen these in my presentations.
a and c – bring in apples and cookies (if food is allowed in the classroom) and use the apple from the Hands-On-Vowels for ‘a’
b – a toy bat and ball can be purchased at dollar stores. I found a wooden mallet used to crush ice that is a perfect size (it was hanging around a bottle of vodka in a duty free store and I pleaded with the saleslady to let me have one ‘for educational purposes’ and she did!) A soft, plush ball works well with it.
d – bring in a dog for the day or have children bring in their favorite stuffed dog
e – Eddie Elephant from the Hands-On-Vowels
f – the plume from a wedding pen is great. Tie a bow around it for the cross. – another discount store find!
h – have children build Lego houses to look like the Itchy house
i – Itchy from the Hands-On-Vowels
j, k, t, w, y, z – are all actions. Get the children up doing each of these – jump, kick, tiptoe, wave, yawn, zigzag.
l – bring in a tall lamp if you have one
m – if there are mountains around, take the children outside to look for ‘m’ in the mountains
n – there are some fairly large blunt end knitting needles available. This might work in with a lacing activity.
o – Ollie Octopus from the Hands-On-Vowels
p – pig puppet available for less than $10 at Lakeshore/Wintergreen #RR582
s – IKEA has a huge plush green snake which the children love. Most toy stores have plush snakes as well
u – upside-down umbrella from the Hands-On-Vowels
v – found a blue plastic vase in the dollar store, drew the violets on the front with felts
x – puppetpartners.com – have a wonderful set of puppets that look just like the characters in ‘x’. Order the half-body puppets – boy and grandma
I’ll keep working on goat, rainbow and queen!