Creative Family Fun

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Learning Activities for Kids

Alphabet Bead Spelling Words

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Have you seen those bags of alphabet beads in the craft store?

It’s fun to use them to make jewelry, but there are so many fun educational things you can use them for as well. Like today, we’re going to use them as a fun spelling activity.

So, grab your word list and let’s make some alphabet bead spelling words.

Alphabet Bead Spelling Words is such a fun activity to help your child master any spelling list. It's easy to set up and promotes fine motor skills too.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Once you’re done with your alphabet bead spelling, check out these other fun ways to practice spelling words.

Set Up Your Alphabet Bead Spelling Activity

This activity doesn’t need any set-up beyond grabbing a couple of supplies.

All you need in a bag of letter beads and a printed list of your child’s spelling words. That’s it. Gather everything and have it ready for homework time.

Where to Buy Alphabet Beads

Purchasing your letter beads is the most time-consuming part of this process. But, one you have them, you can do this spelling activity over and over again.

You can usually find them in any craft store or in the craft department at a store like Target and Wal-Mart.

If you don’t want to go out shopping, you can also find the on Amazon. Here are a few options to check out.

Colorful Alphabet Beads

Use Letter Beads for Spelling Practice

Once you have the supplies, simply have you child use the beads to spell each of their words.

They can just pick out the letters to form the words. Or, they can thread them onto a pipe cleaner for some additional fine motor practice.

Keep the alphabet beads in a small bag or container, like a cute pencil bag, near your homework station. That way, they’ll always be ready for after school spelling practice.

Grab some beads and start practicing spelling words with this fun Alphabet Bead Spelling Words activity. It's a fun way to learn.

Fun variations to this Alphabet Bead Spelling Words activity

For an added challenge, call out the words to your child so they have to spell by memory. This adds a fun twist to a practice spelling test.

Give your child the letters of one of their words and mix up the bead. Have them unscramble the letters to make their spelling word.

String your beads on jewelry cord to make a spelling word bracelet. They could even wear the bracelets for some instant word practice. (But make sure to leave the bracelets at home for spelling test day!)

Shop our list of spelling homework station supplies here.

Looking for fun ways to practice spelling words? Try this alphabet bead spelling idea.

You May Also Like One of These Spelling Activities

Practice Spelling Words with Sticky Notes

Spelling Word Scramble

Disappearing Spelling Words

Spelling Words Wall at Rainy Day Mum

Do You Want to Do More Activities With Your Family?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Snow Numbers Activity for Toddlers

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Do you have snow outside? Are you looking for a winter activity for toddlers or preschoolers?

Bring some snow indoors and try our Snow Numbers activity. It’s a fun way to practice number recognition and work on fine motor skills. If you don’t have any snow, you can make your own.

Practice writing and identifying numbers this winter with this fun snow numbers activity for toddlers that you can do indoors.

Materials Needed for this Snow Numbers Activity

Snow

Washable liquid watercolors

Droppers

Water

Containers and tray for watercolors

Large storage bin or baking dish

Tablecloth or towels

How to Set Up the Numbers in Snow Activity

We had lots of snow on the ground so I filled a large underbed storage container with snow. You can use any size container really. I would recommend at least the size of a 9×13 baking dish to give you enough room to play.

Set your container up in an area that’s okay to get a wet. I like to place towels down on top of my kitchen floor.

Draw numbers in the snow. Use your finger or a butter knife.

Add a few drops of washable liquid watercolor to each container of water. I chose red, yellow, and blue. We can explore coloring mixing in the snow as well.

Place a dropper in each of the watercolor and water mixtures. I like to use the jumbo eye droppers from Learning Resources. Squeezing the droppers works on fine motor skills. You could also use smaller medicine droppers, spoons, or even a spray bottle.

Ways to Play With This Snow Numbers Activity

Encourage your child to color the numbers. If the numbers are difficult to see, you can color them first. Show your child what to do with the first few numbers and then have him follow behind you.

As your child is coloring a number, talk about the numbers and colors. What number do you see? Which color are you using? What happens when you add yellow to the red?

Allow your child to add color onto the numbers, around the numbers, or anywhere in the snow.

You could even work on positional words. Can you add red water under the number 7? Let’s drop blue water on top of the number 5.

Challenge your child to add colored dots next to a number. Where is the number 4? Can you add 4 yellow dots below the number 4?

You could extend this snow numbers activity for older children as well. My kindergartener couldn’t resist playing. Practice addition by counting colored dots.

Practice writing and identifying numbers this winter with this fun snow numbers activity for toddlers that you can do indoors.

More Snow Inspired Winter Actvities

While there’s snow on the ground, try these snow science explorations.

Kids will love these snow fort building toys.

Play this snowball toss alphabet game with pretend snowballs.

Do More Activities With Your Family

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Snowball Toss Alphabet Game for Toddlers

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I’m always looking for ways to get kids moving and learning especially in winter when we’re stuck inside more.

Let’s practice letter recognition and letter sounds with a pretend snowball fight.

Toddlers and preschoolers will love this snowball toss alphabet game. And, once you’re done playing you can move on to more fun activities for toddlers.

Help your kids learn their ABC's with this fun Snowball Throw Alphabet game for toddlers and preschoolers.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Materials You’ll Need for the Snowball Toss Game

Snowballs

Card stock(or paper)

Paper cutter (or scissors)

Tape (I used masking tape.)

Marker

Paper plates (or something similar – use plastic bowls, plates, or even pieces of paper)

I found 10 indoor snowballs for $3 at the Target dollar spot. Walmart is selling 20 indoor snowballs for about $10. You can also get indoor snowballs on Amazon. You could even make your own snowballs from balled up socks or crumpled paper.

The indoor snowballs remind me of giant pom poms, but they are weirdly squishy. You know how real snow feels when you make a snowball – that squishy, crunchy feeling? The indoor snowballs replicate that feeling.

Set Up Your Snowball Throw Alphabet Game

I used a paper cutter to cut a piece of white card stock into 1-inch squares. Then, I wrote a letter on each paper square. I drew a line at the bottom of each lowercase letter and some of the uppercase letters just so it was easy to tell which direction the card went.

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game

I used uppercase and lowercase letters for our matching game. You could play the matching game with the same case to work more on introducing letters.

Select 10 letters to work with. (This helps focus on just some of the letters instead of the entire alphabet. If you have more snowballs, feel free to use more letters.)

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game

Tape one lowercase letter to each snowball.

Now you’ll need a landing zone for the snowballs. I used small paper plates. You could use containers or even pieces of paper.

Tape one uppercase letter to each landing zone.

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game

Place the uppercase letters on one side of the room. We lined the paper plates up near the wall.

Make a pile of snowballs on the other side of the room.

Practice the alphabet with this fun indoor snowball game for toddlers

Play this snowball toss alphabet game

Have your child pick up a snowball and find the letter on it. Ask him to say the name of the letter. (You can also have him say the letter sound.)

Now have your child throw the snowball across the room (towards the paper plates). I had my kids throw the snowballs at the wall.

Next, have your child pick up the snowball and find it’s matching letter on a paper plate. Say: “You have the little (lowercase) letter e. Can you find the big (uppercase) letter E?” Have her place the snowball on the correct letter.

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game

Keep throwing snowballs and matching letters until you run out.

Then, you can reset the game and play it all over again. Use the same letters or practice different ones. (We stayed on the same set for a while. We’ll switch out the letters and play again another day.)

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game

My toddler (age 2.5) and my preschooler (age 4.5) equally enjoyed this snowball toss alphabet game. They loved getting to throw the snowballs at the wall and then had fun finding the right letter.

Sometimes my toddler read the letters upside down and just made a match with whatever he thought the letter was. I had to have him slow down a bit and help him double check the letters.

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game.

I love how this game gets kids moving and working on gross motor skills (throwing, bending, running, etc.) while practicing the alphabet.

Your toddler or preschooler will have fun moving and learning their abc's with this simple gross motor Snowball Toss Alphabet Game.

More Winter Themed Activities for Toddlers

Set up a snow sensory bin for small world play.

Use snow as a canvas for some Snow Painting.

Make a fizzy snow dough sensory bin.

Try some penguin painting, an easy art project that’s perfect for toddlers.

Learn your ABCs with this fun gross motor Snowball Throw Alphabet Game for Toddlers

Find All Your Supplies Here

You may already have some of the supplies you need at home. I know I always have a roll of tape and some card stock. But, if you’re looking to buy some of the supplies, here are a few that I recommend.

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Spelling Word BINGO

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BINGO has always been fun to play and it’s incredibly versatile.

You can use it to learn all sorts of things: numbers, letters, math facts, and sight words, and even spelling words!

And, that’s how we’re going to practice spelling words today. We’re going to turn our spelling word list into a fun game of BINGO. Get ready to have some fun while we play Spelling Word BINGO.

Turn your spelling homework into a fun game when you use this printable template to make your own Spelling Word BINGO game.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Set Up Your Spelling Word BINGO Game

Before you begin, you’ll need to gather a few simple supplies.

You will need a printable BINGO template, spelling list, and small items to use as markers. I used flat glass marbles, but you could also use mini erasers, milk jug caps, rocks, pennies, or whatever else you can find.

Using your child’s spelling word list, you will need write one word in each of the squares of your BINGO board.

Tip: You can reusue your BINGO board if you laminate it! Just write your words on the laminated board with a dry-erase or washable marker. We love this laminator for home use.

Now it’s time to play. You can play this game with one or more kids. Print out a BINGO board for each kid and make sure the words you list are in a different order on each board.

Turn your spelling homework into a fun game when you use this printable template to make your own Spelling Word BINGO game.

Special note: To make things easier for you, I created a simple 4×4 printable BINGO board. You can click on the link below to download and print.

DOWNLOAD your Spelling BINGO template here.

How to play Spelling Word BINGO

One person will need to be the caller. (This is a great job for a parent!). The caller need to use the spelling list to call out words one at a time.

The player(s) put a marker over the word when you hear it. The first person to get a line across, down, or diagonal wins the game.

If you’re playing with only one child, you can challenge them to cover every word on the board.

Have fun learning while playing Spelling Word BINGO.

Make your own spelling word BINGO game for fun at-home spelling practice.

You may also like one of these spelling ideas:

LEGO Spelling Words

Writing Spelling Words with Paint in a Bag

Rainbow Writing Spelling Words

Little Spelling Boxes at Teach Me Mommy

Turn your spelling homework into a fun game when you use this printable template to make your own Spelling Word BINGO game. #spelling #education #CreativeFamilyFun

My Must-Have Resource for Spelling Word Practice Ideas

I’ve gathered all of my spelling practice ideas into a simple, printable ebook.

You can purchase a printable form of this book for $7.50 The book is designed to print and turn into a half-page size booklet. It’s perfect to keep at your homework station. Your kids can flip through and find a fun way to practice their spelling words.

The ideas will be convenient and ready to use. No need to turn on the computer every day for ideas.

Most activities require little to no prep time. And, if you make sure you have all the supplies on the Master Supply List (included in the book) on hand, you’ll be able to do any of these fun spelling word ideas any time.

Click here for my sales page where you can purchase a copy of the ebook.

Spelling practice printable ebook

Do you want to do more fun activities with your kids?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Christmas Tree Alphabet Matching Game for Toddlers

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Are you looking for a festive, Christmas themed alphabet activity for toddlers or preschoolers? You’ll love our Christmas Tree Alphabet Matching Game.

Use it to practice uppercase and lowercase letter recognition and letter sounds.

Practice your ABCs with this fun and simple Christmas tree alphabet matching game. This easy-to-make game is fun for toddlers and preschoolers.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed for Christmas Tree Letter Game

Felt (you could also use paper)
Scissors
Marker

How to Set Up the Christmas Alphabet Matching Game

Cut out 26 triangles to represent your Christmas trees. I was able to get 26 trees out of 2 pieces of green felt. Feel free to make your Christmas trees whatever color you like. If you don’t have felt, you can use paper instead. You could even have your toddler help you color or decorate the paper trees before playing the game.

Cut out stars. I only had one piece of yellow felt, so I cut out 13 stars and used both sides of each star for the game. 2 pieces of yellow felt should allow you to cut out 26 stars. I drew a star on a piece of paper, cut it out, and then traced it onto the felt.

Use a marker to write uppercase letters on your trees – one letter for each tree. You might want to have something underneath the felt as you’re writing. My permanent marker seeped through the felt onto my table.

Draw lowercase letters on each of your felt stars. Since I only had 13 stars, I drew the letters a-m on one side and n-z on the second side.

We played this game on a table. If you have a large felt board, it would great to play on there as well.

How to Play the Christmas Tree Alphabet Matching Game

Set out the Christmas trees with the capital letters. (I set up half since I only had 13 stars).

Place the stars below the trees. If you are using 13 stars, make sure the correct letters are facing up.

Have your child match the stars to the Christmas trees.

You might show him an example of where to place the stars. Stars on a Christmas tree usually go on top, so that’s where we put ours. Sometimes my 3-year-old placed the stars right in the middle of the tree. That’s totally fine, too.

The goal is to match the lowercase letter on the star with the uppercase letter on the tree.

Talk about the letters as your child plays. “What letter do you see?” “That’s a capital (big) A. Can you find a lowercase (little) A?” “What letter is on the tree?” “What letter is on the star in your hand?”

Practice your ABCs with this fun and simple Christmas tree alphabet matching game. This easy-to-make game is fun for toddlers and preschoolers.

Play a Find the Letter Game

You can use the trees to practice finding letters, too. Can you find the letter R?

Christmas alphabet matching game

Work on letter sounds as you play this game. What sound does the letter R make? Can you find the letter that makes the /b/ sound?

You can even practice beginning letter sounds. What letter does tree start with?

Use the Christmas trees and stars to spell your child’s name. Ask your child to find the letters in her name, or call out the letters for her.

More Christmas Tree Themed Activities for Kids

Christmas Tree Number Hunt

Baking Soda Painted Christmas Trees

Christmas Tree Crafts for Kids

Fun Christmas Math Activities for Kids

Do More Activities With Your Family

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.