Foam Letter Tiles

[Guest]

Has anyone got any good ideas for activities using foam letter tiles - the interlocking sort. The children seem to just want to jump along them. We have other letter tiles that they match objects an cards to.

 

Any ideas gratefully received.

 

Thanks.

 

Robin

[Rea]

I'll be watching this with interest, some of these are on sale at £1.50 at a shop near me. I love bargins, but I've been told that it helps when they have a purpose!

[Guest]

I have recently discovered a huge bag of both letter and number tiles and I have tried the following activities:

 

With letter tiles, add a "toy" with the same initial letter, can the children hear the initail sound, match to the letter shape?

 

Same goes for number tiles 1 frog, 2 fish, 3 lilys, 4 stones etc. Can the children match the number to the objects, One to one corrsepondence etc.

 

I intend to try this in the sand tray too!!!

 

Doing fairy stories this half term, changed the doors into castle walls using the "c" foam tile printed onto paper.

 

Working with the resource if I get any more ideas will let you know.

 

Jambo

[Guest]

Are they the sort where the letter pops out? I have these and often put them in the water tray with objects that begin with the same sounds - children have to fish a letter out and then find an object to match. I have used them for printing - children find the letters in their names and then print themselves a name plaque. You could give the children a copy of the alphabet (or access to an alphabet chart) and get the children to make an alphabetical order track. Even putting them back in the correct tile is a good assessment of shape/letter knowledge.

 

Number tiles - match the same number of objects to the number on the tile. Make a number line. Use for counting on and back. We did this (not very successfully!) this week. Put a soft toy on number 9, he's going to take 3 jumps back, which number will he land on '3', '9', '0' ARGGGHHHHHH

 

Harricroft

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies. Yes they are the sort where the letter pops out but the tiles are at least a foot square, so we wouldn't get many in the water tray. Are they easy to clean after printing with them? That sounds like fun.

 

We do use other carpet type letters for initial sound matching of objects and some children do try to put them in alphabetical order. They still jump on them!

[Guest]

Our tiles are probably 6" squares, and yeas if you use poster paint it washes off really easily.

[Guest]

Sorry - just top clarify I don't put the tiles in the water tray - just the letters.

 

Harricroft

[Guest]

P.S. - if they're 30 cm square I think you can use them for Roamer activities as this is the space covered by Roamer in one movement ... I think. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. If this is the case, and you've got Roamer you can ask children to move to the number 4 and then add on 2 more and predict which number they'll land on etc. Could also possibly get them to move along to spell our cvc words (probably best to limit the number of letter tiles used). Thinking off the top of my head, but I think it would work (depending on the ability of your class).

 

Harricroft (again)

[Guest]

Thanks again for your help

 

Robin

[Guest]

Have used the number ones with the dreaded Roamer - work OK but sometimes get stuck on the numbers with a hole in! - 6, 9 etc... Children thought it was funny - dressed Roamer as a 'rocket' and counted down to 0 - blast off! Roamer isn't my area of expertise - the whole class had their fingers crossed that it would work!

[Guest]

Yeah I've used mine with the raomer too... sticking a picture on the roamer's back and the children have to direct the roamer to the initial sound on the mat of letters.

 

You can though program your roamers to go any distance each time. So you can have 30cm movement for one move or something random like 17cm for one move. Handy if you want to adapt your roamer for working with certain tiles.