I need crafty ideas to teach 4 year old letters and numbers. My little girl is very lively and I need to get her to learn numbers and letters. She is interested but cant keep still. I was thinking maybe games like hop scotch or ones with lots of movement color or lights. Any ideas please?
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As a pre-school teacher I was always counting something. If you child puts on a button down shirt, count the buttons as you do/undo them.
The grocery store is a great place to do letters and numbers. Have your DD count out cans of peas, tell her to give you 3 cans of peas and have her count out loud, then spell the word P-E-A-S or ask her what the first letter or last letter is. This also teaches sequencing.
Count pennies, buttons (loose), flowers, legos, make your own flash cards. A piece of poster board is .50 from the Dollar Tree. Make a matching game or just throw between 5-10 letters on the ground and have her step on the letter A, now step to the letter B, you can do the same with numbers and have her walk from 1 to 10 around the room.
Also google learning letters and numbers and see how many responses you get. you'll be amazed.
The main thing is to keep it fun, If she is getting frustrated step back for a bit and do something else.
Good luck and enjoy your time together.
Anita
Maybe you could let her jump on a small exercise trampoline while she calls out her letters and numbers etc. (Or if you don't mind, you could let her jump on the bed while she does it!) When I taught my son, I had him do jumping jacks while he called , letters etc. out
Kids are good at songs. Teach her the alphabet song. Also, get the refrigerator magnets letters and numbers and put them on the refrigerator where she can reach them. Try to count as many things are you can that you use every day.
If you normally have dessert after dinner, you could use jellybeans and say "How many do you want, three or seven?" and count them into her hand. If you just say 'how many?' you will get an answer like "Eleventy hundred."
When my children were very young, we used to count steps. We counted every step that we went up and down, we counted how many footsteps it took to get to a certain place. When giving directions to my children, I would try to be specific, like saying, "Please bring me one (or two or whatever number you want to work on) yellow wooden triangle block. It is sitting next to the arm of the couch." This helped them to learn to follow directions, identify colors, and shapes too, as well as learning to associate actual amounts with the corresponding number. When counting by ones gets old, have her count by twos and fives and tens.
With or without orchestral music playing in the background, dance and "paint" numbers and letters in the air with your hands, nose, bottom, etc.
Write letters and numbers on her back and see if she can identify them. Have her write them on your back.
These may be a bit developmentally advanced for a 4-year-old, so if it doesn't work, try it again when she's older.
Cantate
As a preschool teacher and stay home mom I use lots of tricks tactile ones are the best get a baking tray and use anything you can spread shaving cream, pudding, etc and draw out letters maybe even you with a tray draw it out and ask her to do it on her tray , I also use a letter basket in the classroom that helps have the child find a few things that start with the sound of each letter do one letter at a time though different day / different letter...i sing the letter factory song A says aaa A says aaa every letter makes a sound the A says aaa.. i do that with the letter we use that day we focus on one letter a week...i also tape pictures of cut out letters or numbers and have them find them in obvious places... for letters and numbers i use muffin trays i have them everywhere for holding craft stuff to games etc heres what you do take a muffin pan and i found old bingo chips (colored) this does matter though ...
Try teaching her in the tub while she's a captive audience. We bought foam letters made for the tub and we would hold them up individually and make up silly songs like "Jumping J." My daughter learned them all at 18 months, just by doing this during baths. Now we still use the letters in the tub---we make "alphabet soup" and she makes words. Plus there are numbers, too!
My son has ADHD, and for him, it was best to "feel" the numbers as in the jelly bean example.
We use lots of legos and blocks. The kindergarten teachers in our school system use what they call "manipulatives". This combined with a physical activity - like lining them up the stairs - helped him to focus on the task.
Playing with magnetic letters or foam letters are a great way to teach kids about their names and sounds. We got some foam letters from Amazon, and the kids love to play with it, making up random words, learning the letter sounds.
You can also use printable worksheets that involves coloring and other activities to teach the letters and numbers. Here's a nice guide that includes worksheets for teaching all 26 alphabet letters www.readingbyphonics.com/
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