I am so excited to have Sam from Thrive 360 Living guest posting on Housing A Forest today!  I met Sam not that long ago, and immediately feel in love with her blog.  I love finding new blogs, and this is one that you will want to go check out.  It is packed full of engaging activities for kids.  I especially love all the literacy activities that Sam does with her little guy.  They are beautiful!

Here are the materials needed:

*26 large clear glass stones, rounded on one side and flat on the other – I bought mine at Michael’s

*Mod Podge

*Foam brush

*Scrapbook paper

*Black marker

*Playing board – I got my wood slice from Michael’s, but any board, cardboard or even paper would do.

Three easy steps for making the alphabet gems:

1. Cut the scrapbook paper to fit the back of each gem.

2. Draw uppercase letters on each piece of paper.

3. Using your foam brush, apply Mod Podge to the letter-side of the paper and then attach the paper to the flat side of the gem. Add another layer of Mod Podge over the back of the paper to make sure it is sealed.

For the game board, use a marker to write out the lowercase letters.

After nap time is when my creations are typically put to the test. It was such a nice day that I decided to set-up our gem letter-matching game outside. I explained to Jake that the object was to match the uppercase letter with the lowercase letter on the playing board. After showing him two examples, he caught on. However, he was frustrated that the letters didn’t look exactly the same. Since we often refer to smaller items as “baby” items, I told him that the letters on the board were baby letters and the bigger letters were mama letters, and the mamas needed to find their babies. He seemed to enjoy that concept. We still have a ways to go, but I can tell this will be an activity we’ll be using often.

Here are other ways to use your alphabet gems:

-Make them into magnets – perfect for hanging artwork.

-Use them for color sorting.

-Teach simple spelling.

-Put them in a bag or box and give them as a gift.

-Hide them for a treasure hunt.

-Put them in a dish and display them because they just look pretty.

It has been such a pleasure to share this activity with you today. If you’d like to follow along with me and see more projects, you can connect on my blog, Facebook page, and Pinterest.