Today I’m sharing how to create this super easy letter matching activity using pool noodles, which makes for a fun literacy game for your preschool or kindergarten classroom.
This is the third post in my pool noodle series; here are the first two in case you missed them:
Supplies for Pool Noodle Letter Matching Activity
- Sentence strips
- Marker
- Pool noodle
- Knife
- Scissors
How to Assemble the Pool Noodle Letter Matching Activity
First, measure and cut your pool noodle to length. In the picture above I used the letters A-M because it was more difficult to see the entire alphabet; therefore I cut it in half for photographing purposes only. Now that you have your pool noodle cut to your desired length prepare it in the same way we did the center sign stand, you can find those directions here. Next, write the uppercase letters on a sentence strip using the marker. On another sentence strip write the lowercase letters and cut them apart with your scissors. Insert the sentence strip with the uppercase letters into your pool noodle, it should fit snugly.
How to Use This Literacy Game
This particular version is a simple upper to lowercase matching game. Students take the lowercase letters and insert them into the pool noodle in front of the corresponding uppercase letter. There are many different ways you could tweak this activity to meet your needs. You could also do uppercase to uppercase letter matching depending on the time of year or your student’s ability levels. You could also use those tiny little clothespins and hot glue a little circle of craft foam to the end and write the letters on them, and then students could clip the clothespins to the correct letter. I tried the regular size clothespins and they were too large and heavy and tipped the pool noodle over.
One reader suggested this would be a great activity to practice name recognition and building and I agree. Just write the student’s names on the sentence strip instead of the alphabet and then they can use the sentence strip pieces to match to their names.
You can find more literacy activities on the literacy page HERE.
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