Alphabet Beans Letter Matching Game
This letter matching game helps my beginning reader mind his ‘p's and ‘q's…and his ‘d's and ‘b's. The sensory experience of reaching into a bag of beans brings a tactile aspect to it that's fun too.
My six year old has been having a hard time telling the difference between a few letters, both between uppercase and lowercase and backwards and forwards. I created this little game out of a pile of dried lima beans to help him learn to differentiate between letters that are easy to mix up.
All I did to make these was to write the letters in permanent marker on the beans. We had this cloth bag available which seemed like a natural fit.
You can play with these many ways:
- Have your child draw out a letter one at a time and create sorting groups.
- Dump all the beans on a counter and sort them that way.
- Draw out a letter and hold it up for your child to identify.
- Enjoy playing with the letters- “Look at that! ‘d' can flip around and become ‘p'….”
Maybe it's time to read jack and the magic bean stalk…
I'm looking for more fun ways to help my kids learn to read; I recently ordered Games for Reading: Playful Ways to Help Your Child Read
to get ideas for reading practice in general.
Do you have suggestions for learning the difference between similar looking letters?
Alissa Zorn is an author, and founder of the website Overthought This. She's a coach and cartoonist passionate about helping people overcome perfectionism and shame to build authentic, joyful lives. Alissa is certified through the International Coach Federation and got her Trauma-Informed Coaching certification from Moving the Human Spirit. She wrote Bounceback Parenting: A Field Guide for Creating Connection, Not Perfection, and is always following curiosity to find her next creative endeavor.