Inside: This post is a deep dive into how to differentiate using my alphabet crafts bundle.
Want to remember this for later? Click to save the image below on your Alphabet board on Pinterest.
Why Use Letter Crafts?
Using letter crafts is a fun and hands-on way to teach letter identification and sounds while building fine motor skills. Kids learn best through play and crafts help them remember letter keywords easily as they work on each craft.
With letter crafts, we are aiming to build a child’s
- fine motor skills
- alphabet skills like letter identification and sounds
- Focus
- patience
- Critical thinking and organizational skill
- Self-expression
- Confidence etc
Tools Your Child Will Need and Use for These Alphabet Crafts
- Colors
- Scissors
- Glue
- Daubers
- Hole Punch
- Tracing pencil
What’s Included in my Differentiated Alphabet Crafts Bundle
- Letter Identification
- Visual Discrimination
- Letter Sound
- Alphabet Vocabulary
- Upper/ Lowercase
- Alphabet Order/ Whole Alphabet
- Letter Formation: Path of Motion, Spatial Placement & Independent Writing
A Peek Inside the Alphabet Crafts Bundle
Scroll below for a peek at all the alphabet letter crafts include. Then continue to read the post.
How to Differentiate with the Alphabet Crafts Bundle
Whether you have kids with vastly varied abilities in your classroom or at home, differentiated activities can save you tons of time without leaving any student behind.
This is why I add as much differentiation as possible when I design activities for teachers in the classroom.
Each letter craft pack has three crafts:
- Uppercase craft
- Lowercase craft
- Crown hat craft
- Additional practice: Fine Motor Alphabet Practice Sheet
Collectively there are 14 versions of these three crafts. You can differentiate by
- using colored or black-and-white versions. The coloring adds one extra step to completing the craft.
- choosing from fewer or more pieces versions of the crafts to color/cut/assemble/glue.
ONE PAGE CRAFTS Include:
- Easy, fewer pieces to assemble and pieces are placed closely together.
- Teacher cuts. Most pre-K, K, and some grade 1 students may not be able to cut.
- Students assemble and glue pieces together.
- Colored version: only assemble and glue together. (2 steps for child.)
- B/W version: color, assemble & glue together. (3 steps for child.)
TWO-PAGE CRAFTS:
Two-page craft pages are intended to be intermediate/ difficult. Spaced pieces allow students to cut the pieces themselves.
Two page alphabet crafts include two versions:
- few pieces and
- more pieces to cut/assemble/glue.
The teacher can
- cut more pieces and students only color/glue.
- let students color/cut/assemble/glue fewer pieces.
- let students color/cut/assemble/glue more pieces.
Tips to Save Paper/ Printer Ink/ Prep Work/ Your Sanity When Crafting
The one-page craft pieces are not intended to be cut by the child. But if you want this, then here’s a workaround.
To save your sheets, in this version, I have tried to fit in all the pieces on one page. Because of this, all the pieces are closely placed together and it may not be very easy for your beginner learner to cut each piece out without running the scissors onto the other shapes.
If you would like to engage the child in the cutting process while ALSO saving sheets, then here is what I do, I roughly cut the one-page craft pieces into separate parts so it is easy for the child to cut one piece without damaging the others. See picture above….
How to Use Your Alphabet Crafts: Tutorial
- Print your preferred version of craft pages. You can choose from color or black & white, one-page or two-page crafts, fewer pieces or more pieces versions.
- If you chose black and white, then let the child color the pieces first.
- Cut out the pieces
- Assemble and glue them together into a notebook or on a craft stick. If you are making craft sticks, then you will use sturdier paper.
Fun Ideas to Try with Your Alphabet Crafts
You can use these alphabet crafts for:
- wall decor
- making alphabet interactive notebooks or craft books
- making craft stick puppets
- gluing on paper crowns
These crafts are great for:
- Literacy time
- Art time
- Fine motor centers
- Send home activities
- Review activities