Shrink Plastic Backpack Charms

My daughter goes back to school this week, and while I’m a little sad about it I know she’s going to have a lot of fun seeing her friends and learning new things again. Whether your summer is almost over or you’ve still got a ways to go, there’s probably still time to decorate your kiddo’s backpacks with some shrink plastic backpack charms.

Artsy Fartsy Mama has a tutorial for doing this using a plastic takeout box as the plastic, but if you have shrink plastic sheets in your house of course you can use those, too.

Kids can draw their own designs (or I love this idea for using coloring pages to make charms from Jennifer Perkins), color them in and shrink them down in no time at all. Remember to seal them with Mod Podge or another sealant to make sure the colors stay where you want them when they’re done.

Check out the post on Artsy Fartsy Mama for all the details.

[Photo: Artsy Fartsy Mama.]

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]

Have you read?

Leave a Reply