Easy Clothespin Dolls and Felt Learning Activities

Sometimes simplicity is a great thing when it comes to kids activities. Simple often means that things are open ended, that you can use materials in different ways, and that kids can come up with their own ways to play and learn.

These simple winter clothespin dolls are quick to make but there are lots of ways you can use them (and the felt you buy to make their little scarves). You can use them for color matching, make several of each color and count them, use them in math problems, add them to sensory bins, even draw little faces on them and use them to explore emotions.

Not bad for an inexpensive project you and the kids can make in just a few minutes! Head to Barley & Birch to get the how-to and see more ideas for how to use them.

[Photo: Barley & Birch.]

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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