Letter Manipulatives
Letter manipulatives are a hands-on tool for supporting letter identification in young kids. This is a great preschool activity that can be used as a pre-writing activity. Helping kids to identify letters with alphabet manipulatives supports early literacy skills.
Alphabet manipulatives like the ones we made below are fun for helping kids to match uppercase and lower case letters, too.
They can be used in handwriting tasks or as a writing prompt while working on letter formation.
Use these letter manipulatives in several ways:
- In sensory bins
- In an I Spy game
- With writing trays
- In play dough
How to Make Letter Manipulatives
This letter learning activity was a lot like our DIY color glass gems. They are so much fun for sorting, patterning, play on the DIY light box. We used a similar manner to make these glitter letters. These large glass gems
If you haven’t made your own DIY decoupage, this is one thing you need to try. We use this stuff all the time.
and cover with another thin coat of decoupage.
More Ways to Use letter manipulatives
Work on letter formation, letter identification and handwriting skills with our Fine Motor Letter Kit! Perfect for hands-on letter learning.
Colleen Beck, OTR/L has been an occupational therapist since 2000, working in school-based, hand therapy, outpatient peds, EI, and SNF. Colleen created The OT Toolbox to inspire therapists, teachers, and parents with easy and fun tools to help children thrive. Read her story about going from an OT making $3/hour (after paying for kids’ childcare) to a full-time OT resource creator for millions of readers. Want to collaborate? Send an email to contact@theottoolbox.com.
