Ladybug Letters is a beginner's ABC puzzle activity game comprised of 26
two-sided pieces. One side is an illustration of a smiling ladybug,
and consists of two parts, a capital and small letter. The reverse side is a
picture of a colorful word beginning with that letter. One child or a small
group can play the game.
The first way to play is to scatter all the capital puzzle parts on a
surface to the left and scatter all the small letters to the right. Show the
children how to pick up a capital letter on the left, say the letter. "Big
B", for example, and then search for its mate "small b" on the right.
When a child has found a match, he/she will know it
because the pieces will fit and form a ladybug together. Letters that do
not correspond will not fit together. This activity continues until all the
ladybugs have been assembled.
The teacher can then ask for the A-ladybug, then the B-ladybug, the C one,
all the way to Z as the teacher arranges the ladybug letters in ABC order
vertically upon receiving them. This will help the children in two ways:
first, they will be able to find a letter visually when the teacher asks for
for it; second, they will be able to think in alphabetical order as the
teacher assembles the ABC ladybug letter list in a vertical progression. The
group can then sing "The Alphabet Song" together as the teacher points to
the letters.
On a final note, the teacher can ask the students to find the letter their
first name begins with.
The second way to play the game involves scattering the pieces at random
with the pictures face-up. The children can then search for the mates to the
pictures and put them together while saying them. After they have all been
assembled, the teacher can ask for the children to name what they have. They
can touch and name the ones they know and ask the teacher to help them with
the names of items they do not know. This way the children get to use the
vocabulary they know and learn new vocabulary as a part of the process.
The teacher can then ask each child which thing he/she likes best. The
teacher can go first and point to, for example, the dog, and say, "I like
dogs." Then the student to the teacher's left can repeat the same
procedure, pointing to the thing he/she likes best and saying it.
The visual objects on the back of the cards are:
- apple
- baseball
- cat
- dog
- egg
- fish
- goat
- house
- igloo
- jack-in-the-box
- kite
- lion
- monkey
- nest
- octopus
- pie
- queen
- rabbit
- socks
- turtle
- umbrella
- violin
- wagon
- xylophone
- yo-yo
- zebra
Ladybug Letters is an ideal game for beginners as it is a good introduction
to the alphabet, differentiating between capital and small letters,
alphabetizing and increasing vocabulary in a visually, tactile, interesting
way.
Helene Jarmol Uchida
Helene Jarmol Uchida is a veteran teacher with teaching, curriculum
development and teacher training experience in the U.S., Greece and Japan.
She is the director of the Fukuoka-based
Little America English Schools
and lectures at Fukuoka Kyoiku Daigaku. She holds the LATEM seminars every year
in cities throughout Japan and is also the author of 'The Challenge Book',
an interactive English book and CD especially created for Japanese elementary school students.
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