When my boy first discovered a love of all things letters and writing he was at that stage of wanting to write way beyond his abilities.
He was still learning to form most letter as well as working on holding and manipulating his pencil well enough to write. But he wanted to know how to write everything and was constantly throwing random combinations of letters at me and demanding to know what it spelled!
I needed a break from figuring out how to pronounce the word ‘dmjko’ and ‘mnnntyx’, so I devised a cunning plan that encouraged his new found love of letters, spelling and writing, but needed less input from me, so we did this easy letter collage activity.
To make our letter collage I print out and cut up a few pages of letters, we used some of homemade paste, and a few sheets of coloured paper to stick them on to.
To make it even easier we’ve created these free printable letter pages which you can download here.
This printable is an A4 sized pdf file, you will need a pdf reader such as adobe acrobat to open it. If you are printing on US ‘letter sized’ paper be sure to select ‘fit’ or ‘shrink to fit’ from your printer options.
Please remember that the printables at picklebums.com are for personal use only, you may not sell, share, or link directly to these files.
We included upper and lowercase letters and the numbers one to ten. There are four pages, each one using a different font to encourage recognition of various print.
The first time I set up this activity my boy was very excited.
“Oooh lots of letters” he said when he discovered what I was doing.
“Yep… lots of letters, now you can make lots of words…. any words you like!” I told him and left him to it.
He used the letters to write his name, and the names of his siblings, and the other very important word he knew how to spell – ‘Mum’. He did a little comparing of letters in the different fonts, and made lots and lots and LOTS of random ‘words’.
We’ve done this letter collage activity lots of times over the years, and it’s really great for older kids too. It’s a great way for new readers and writers to focus on spelling words and making sentences without having to worry about the skill of handwriting which some of my kids found very hard to master.
Are you kids at that stage where they want to know all about words and writing?
I first shared this post back in 2011 (which is why some of the comments have such old dates on them). We’ve done this activity so many times in the years since that we added the printable to make it even easier and I thought it was time for an update and reshare.
Another brilliant idea Kate. My Mr 2 loves numbers so might just do it with numbers. He’s only interested in the letter B (first letter of his name!) at this point.
And cutting and pasting!? I just have to get out a pair of scissors and he’s running after me to see what I’m cutting. We had to buy him special kid scissors because he kept pinching ours….
What a great idea – secret boys business letters too. Where did you get the fonts from ? which are the best to use for incoming kinders
I just used random fonts I have installed… but the font on that top sheet in the photo is the Victorian school’s Modern Cursive script font, so it’s what is taught in schools here. You can download it here http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/handwriting.htm
I also like Century Gothic as a nice well spaces, easy to read font for small people.
Awww that is so gorgeous. What a fabulous idea.
very creative idea..
My son has also started recognising letters these days…
I love this idea. I have two that love letters and writing and glueing. So this would be a fantastic activity for them.
Thanks!
Love this idea to capitalize on his interest in words! I saw something similar on Pinterest yesterday, where they’d cut up all those words on cereal boxes etc into individual letters, so kids had a range of colours sizes and fonts, then kids could play with them on car trips. Maybe add magnets and use with a baking sheet?
Oh magnets are a great idea…. we have word magnets and a half lost set of classic letter magnets but it would be so easy to make these into magnets, and would make a cool travel set!
Millar does the same thing. He can spell quite a few words but he also likes to bring me random letter strings and ask what it spells. I’m a meanie and say “nothing, darling”.
He has also started writing in Tamil. Not really, he scribbles little characters and writes the word honey and says, “that says honey, and that (pointing to the scribbles) says honey in Tamil!”
I like the magnet idea! I now need to source magnets in India.
I’m going through all your activity archives as I’m spending the next 3 months stuck in this apartment with the kids.
I LOVE that he is writing in ‘Tamil’! You know it might be hard on you guys now, but the fact that Miller even knows what Tamil is is sooooo good for him and will stand you all in good stead in the future.
Now my tips for things to do while stuck in an apartment…
You gotta make it either an activity that you can set up and leave the rest to Miller to do on his own, or one that you might actually enjoy a little too. We do lots of art because I like it, wouldn’t do nearly as much if I didn’t.
Great ideas! Thank you!!