One rainy day in early Summer, I spent an evening decorating plain wooden clothes pegs, intending to use them for a multitude of crafts, and wrote about it here. With a box of brightly coloured, perky pegs leftover, I was looking for ideas for how to use them and stumbled across this brilliant idea for creating a spelling game. As Harry is starting to recognise numbers, letters and enticing words (usually those relating to food or toys…), it seemed the perfect time to make him his own set of letters and words ready to practice his budding skills.
I decorated wooden pegs with scraps of gift wrap and washi tape, using double-sided tape to secure the gift wrap in place. I had a box of these wooden letters tucked away in my craft cupboard, but you could write the letters directly onto the pegs, or use rub on transfers instead. All you need to end up with is a set of pegs with different letters on. You can make an alphabet, but I found it was easier to start with the words themselves and work back to see what letters I’d need and how many of them – ‘m’s and ‘d’s come up a lot, whereas some other letters are hardly used at all.
I designed and printed out a couple of sheets with words I knew would be instantly recognisable to Harry and fun to spell. Because my wooden letters are all in capitals and I want Harry to recognise lower case too, I wrote the words out underneath so he can see how letters change in different settings.
I cut these up and laminated them by slipping several in a laminating sheet with space around them to cut between the words
Put them together with the pegs and hey-presto, you have a spelling game! I found a storage box to keep these in, and my intention is to keep adding longer and more interesting words as Harry’s skills improve. This is a great game to make because it can be as simple as using a pen to write letters on pegs, through to this more elaborate and decorative set – a lovely thing to make for a grandchild, perhaps, or for an older sibling to help you make for a younger one – not least because everyone can use a spelling refresher once in a while!
You are one clever, creative mummy. Love this. Andie
Thanks Andie!
These are beautiful! Such a great way to teach letter recognition. Plus, pegs are really good for developing and strengthening finger muscles in young children. Xx
This is a great teaching tool and super creative! I am pinning this for later use! Thanks!
You are so clever with your ideas. I have a grandson that doesn’t seem to be interested in learning to spell but I think this may be the thing that will grab his interest. Thank you so much for sharing.
Ahh, good luck; Harry’s the same – easily distracted by things that are less ‘hard’, so hopefully this will add some fun into the mix for them both! have a great weekend
What a fantastic idea!! I’ll have to remember this one for when our little one is old enough.
So cute! This could be a great thing for at least a few years while learning to talk, spell, read!
Brilliant!!!! Absolutely love it! and thanks for the blog like.
This is genus. Are you a primary school teacher?? Or maybe you were one in a former life…such a great idea. My son is three and not at all interested in learning about letters (which is fine – he is only three!) but I think he’d love something more interactive and physical, just like this. He can recognise his own name and things like “Peppa”…funny that! Gillian x
great way to help kids associate the upper and lower case letters, thanks for sharing!
Where did you find the Washi tape? I have searched high and low to no avail looking for this tape. Hopefully you can help a mother out!
Hi Glynda, the ‘numbers’ washi tape I used here was by Cavallini, available from Amazon in the US or various suppliers in the UK (I’ve found one below). Most of the pegs though are actually covered in scraps of gift wrap, cut into strips and stuck to the pegs using double-sided tape. It’s very simple to do and actually a bit more durable than the washi tape, which tends to peel off under young fingers unless you give it an extra dab of glue.
Cavallini Numbers Decorative Paper Tape, 5 Assorted Rolls
http://www.thepaperparlour.co.uk/acatalog/Cavallini_Numbers_PaperTape.html
You’re such an AMAZING mom Kate!! I’m always impressed by you.