10 Fun ABC Manipulatives to Use in Your Classroom
How do you make phonics engaging in your classroom? A great resource for any primary teacher to have is a stash of ABC manipulatives.
My students are crazy for the ABC manipulatives we use in our classroom. Every time we learn a new sight word or phonics skill, the kids eagerly anticipate which bag of ABC’s they will get to use. It didn’t take much money to build my stash – either I bought them at the Dollar Store, found them at yard sales (for cents!), or discovered them around my house (I have three grown kids so there are plenty of games, toys, etc. hiding in the corners of my house).
Here are some that I use:
- Boggle Cubes – I can’t tell you how many times I have seen Boggle games at yard sales, usually for $1 or $2. At one sale, I counted 5.
- Baby Blocks –I found these at a yard sale but you can pick them up at any Walmart or Target.
- Foam Cubes – you can find these at the Dollar Spot in Target or your craft store. Code them yourself by writing a letter on each side – differentiate with upper- and lower-case letters.
- Scrabble tiles – who doesn’t have a Scrabble set buried in a cabinet somewhere? These tiles also come with a few blank ones so you can leave them as-is or program them with frequently used letters like “e” or “r”.
- Foam Letters – I found these at the Dollar Store. Buy more than one package so there’s enough of the frequently used letters.
- Snap Cubes: My math department has tons of these in the closet. Write letters on them using a Sharpie.
- Magnet Letters – Another Dollar Store find. Again buy more than one for frequently used letters. I found cheap metal cookie sheets at Walmart to use with themagnets. A big hit with the kiddies.
- Bulletin Board Letters – the Dollar Store sells a bunch in all sizes, colors, and patterns. You only have to buy one pack because one package includes several copies of each letter (plus punctuation!). The kids love the 4-inch size because they can spread them out on the carpet.
- Alphabet beads – Check your local craft supply store and use the coupons you have saved.
- Popsicle Sticks – Pick up sticks from your local craft store and write letters on the ends or in the middle. For added fun, buy colored popsicle sticks. Kids will love making “rainbow” words .
