Buzzing with Beads and Buttons

This activity is intended to support children's ability in letter recognition by identifying the first letter of one syllable words.The children picked from a plate filled with cards and used various sized buttons to spell the first letter and colourful alphabet beads to spell the entire word. To initially engage the children, a scavenger hunt was implemented where children had to search for alphabet cards hidden around the room. Then the children would fill in the missing gaps in the alphabet with their cards.

The objectives that were outlined in this activity from Early Learning for Every Child Today and Ontario's Kindergarten Program were:

KP 11.8: Demonstrate knowledge of most letters of the alphabet in different contexts

ELECT 3.11 Letter Recognition: identifying the letter that begins their names and its sound, picking out other words that begin with the same letter or sound as their names, beginning to identify a few consonant letter-sound correspondences in words in familiar rhymes.

Here are some photographs of the implementation of this activity:

Set up for the introduction of the activity: Scavenger hunt of looking for the missing letters around the classroom and then putting the letters in the right spot!

Activity Set Up & Materials: I provided an example of how to participate in the activity but also walked the children through step-by-step instructions on using the buttons first, then the beads.

During activity: Junior kindergarten children spelt the first letter using buttons, and then used the small alphabet beads to spell the entire word.