[Edited to add: I cannot upload these puzzles, as I do not have the right to distribute Microsoft Office clipart. They are fairly easy to make; give it a try! My apologies for not being able to help more!]
A few weeks back, I started doing outreach storytime to some local daycares. These are the daycares that walk over to the library during the nice weather seasons (April though October), and I really wanted to continue doing storytimes for them even during our off-weather-season.
Since I’m doing the storytimes in different rooms (three different rooms), have only crayons or glue as supplies available, am doing different age groups instead of an all-ages storytime, and I don’t have my flannelboard easel or shelf or seats or a thousand other things — I decided to do an alphabet series only for my outreach kids. (That way I can be more flexible and change things up easier than sticking to a more rigid theme!)
Like I did with my colors series, I wanted to repeat a flannelboard activity from week to week. I settled on making letter puzzles with the kids.
These are really easy flannelboards to put together, as they are just laminated and sticky-back felt is put on the back. Also, I love that they reinforce the different things we might have talked about in storytime as well as the shape of the letter.
I probably won’t be posting any more of these (at least for Flannel Friday!), but I will perhaps post a compilation when I have all the letters done.
—
Katie is hosting this week’s Flannel Friday — you can find the round-up at her blog! Melissa is the founder of Flannel Friday! Anne has the archive and schedule of who is hosting Flannel Friday.
And you can also follow the Flannel Friday Pinterest account. And Flannel Friday has its own Facebook page! If you participate in Flannel Friday, Melissa has a button if you want to link up to us here.
storytime katie 
cute: you can make word pictures with these — like Read and post them all over your department! Nice idea!
That’s a great idea — I will have to look into that!
Cute! Nice use of clip art. Have the kids enjoyed it?
They really have! And I’ve done up to Letter C with them and they still get so excited to see the letter come together on the flannelboard.
Very cool! I love going to see the daycare classrooms. It really gives you a different perspective on how their centers work and what their philosophies are. Also, it’s good for me because we’re expecting baby #1 and I can do day care “research” to find the right fit. 🙂
Definitely — an added bonus!
So creative! I LOVE this idea! I hope the teachers pick up on your creativity and do something to reinforce this idea in their classroom. I sure miss teaching preschool!!
If you don’t mind me asking ~ how big is each letter?
Btw, those daycares are very lucky to have you! I hope they appreciate what you are doing for them. 🙂 I always loved to have other adults visit my classroom to share books with my kids. It reinforces to them how special books and reading are.
Coincidentally this week, I actually wound up tying into all of the classrooms’ lesson plans! (Through circles, caterpillars, and colors, haha.)
Each letter is done on an 11×17 page of paper. It fills out my travel flannelboard nicely. (My board is this one: http://www.amazon.com/None-Flannelboard-Stand-24-18/dp/B0019ZM7UQ/ )
I know I am appreciated — the staff members definitely remind me each week how much they value what I’m doing!
What a terrific idea!
Thanks!
i like this– great way to incorporate that letter knowledge and a fun game, too.
Thank you! The kids really like the game aspect.
Really great idea!
Thanks, Shawn!
Hey Katie – this is really cool! What is your “patter” as you put up the clip art and begin to form the shape? Just curious if what I’m imagining is what you are actually doing!
I try to put the puzzle together like you would write the letter. So for “A,” I went from the top all the way down one side, started back at the top for the other side and put the bridge pieces in last. So far, “C” has been the easiest, haha.
its beautiful !! i think its also good if cardboard will be use,as kids can play with it over and over again..
Thanks! I used paper backed with cardstock so it’s a little sturdier than it appears.
Katie – your letters are pure genius! I will run with this idea…seems like all my story time groups are currently “into” the alphabet. Maybe because we are all singing ABC Rock from Greg & Steve We all live together Vol 1 We use our shakers and sing into them like we are a rock star. Lots of jumping! These letters will be a perfect addition and a good project to slowly work on. You are also the person i need to thank for posting Applesauce with the bandaids – you were my inspiration for my first flannel friday post. I have worked with Piper, my black lab, very real puppet for 8 years! When I saw Applesauce covered in bandaids…well, I knew we had to do it. THANK YOU!
You’re welcome! It sounds like your kids are having a blast learning their ABCs — I hope the letter puzzles only add more fun in. And I will definitely stop by to see Piper all decked out in band-aids too!
Love how you adapted storytime and flannelboarding to this situation. I have to say, I talk about you *all the time* on my blog because you are just full of great stuff!! Thanks so much for sharing!
My pleasure for sharing — I’m just glad that people are finding me useful!
Would you be willing to share for us to download it and print them out, instead of having to re-invent them ourselves? I am just starting the alphabet with my daughter, and would love to incorporate these each week as we do a letter a week.
Thanks!!!
My only hesitation in sharing is that I used Microsoft Office clip-art which I don’t have a license to distribute. Also, I created them in a Publisher file which isn’t part of the basic Office Suite.
Nice job incorporating a letter and objects that start with that sound. I did a whole year of letters last year. This would’ve been fun!!!
This is AWESOME! So simple which makes me love it even more 🙂 Might I ask what font did you use to create the letters?
I used Arial! I figured the simplest font would be the best!
These look awesome!
Would be great for my kinders
These are great! I know you can’t upload the art, but would you be able to upload the blank letter puzzles? I’d love your blank letters to show how you cut them into letter puzzles. Then everyone can add their own pictures.
Love these, they are awesome!
Thank you!
Thanks for the idea, Katie. I have been struggling trying to decide storytime themes for this year, but the alphabet is genius. Simple and flexible, hooray!!
It’s been a life-saver for me! Enjoy!
What a nice developmentally appropriate way to introduce letter of the week!
Thank you! It really works wonderfully in storytime and the kids all clap when the letter is fully formed. It’s a great activity!
Hello! My name is Natalia and I am a speech therapist. Working with children with language disorders and learning disabilities and have loved your proposal (letter puzzles). You had a great idea, and I would do the puzzle in “Spanish version”. I have a blog where you can find things related to speech therapy and early childhood education. I invite you to visit: logopediacreativa.blogspot.com. Take what you need! Best regards, Natalia
Your blog is wonderful, and please feel free to do the puzzle in Spanish — it would be great to use it in speech therapy. Thanks for your comment, Natalia!
How to i obtain this wonderful puzzle resource? Its brilliant for my transition students and has lots of extension activity potential.
As I explain at the top of the post, I do not have the rights to upload the puzzles because I used Microsoft Clip Art. I hope that you can make your own to use with your students!
Hi… I love this idea. I am a pres-service teacher for early years and would love to use this in my classroom. Would there be any idea that you could send the template for me. I have been looking everywhere to find an alphabet font like yours but i cannot find it. Or if you know the name of the font, I’d love that also. Great work I love this idea.
Thank you!
I used Publisher to make the letters, with Arial Black as my font. The letter were enlarged using Word Art. I hope that helps you!
Thank you very much Katie. That is a lot of help.
You’re welcome! Good luck!
Sorry… also was this done on A3 or A4 paper?
All puzzles were printed out using 11 by 17 paper.
How do I Print the letters from the flannel. Thank you .
The letters are actually laminated paper and I stuck some sticky-back felt on the back to use them on the flannelboard. I used Publisher to make the paper letters.
I am a speech-language pathologist and I think this will be a fun idea for some speech homework.
Is there a way to get the pattern for the blank letters on PDF? I do not have publisher.
I don’t have a program that creates PDFs, unfortunately. Sorry!
I know this comment is late, but just now found your post on Pinterest. You have mentioned how you used Publisher, but don’t have a program for PDFs. All you have to do is change the “save as type” to PDF. This function exists for most all Microsoft Office works (Publisher, Word, Excel for sure.)
There are free downloads for pdf printers (you send your document to the the pdf printer and then it saves it as a pdf document). Some computers have cutePDF writer already loaded (I accidentally found this printer under devices-printers).
Me gustaria saber que creatibidad hay para los ninos autismo
Gracias!
Hello Kaite! I am a preschool teacher and am utterly in love with these!! i’m having a bit of a tough time figuring out how to make the actual pieces to the puzzles! I have a few ideas of how to do it and i feel like i’m making it more complicated then it can be. I figured out how you got the shapes of your letters but can you help with how to go about making the pieces?? Thank you!! and you have some amazing things that i hope to incorporate into my classroom!
I used the Word Art function to make the letters. It’s really easy. Afterwards, I added the clip art into the letter and hand-cut the divisions between the pictures.
Good luck!
Hi
I was wondering if you would be willing to email a copy of these?
If not how did you create the puzzle piece shapes?
I made the letter in Publisher and added the clip art in. Once the clip art was added, I printed and hand-cut the divisions between pieces.
These are adorable!! What a great idea!! Just to let you know- if you were posting as a freebie I don’t think you would be in any trouble by microsoft. I know there are lots of clipart chore charts out there using Microsoft images so just thought I would throw that out there 🙂 I still think these are just too cute!!! Thank so much for sharing it!
I’d rather err on the side of caution since I made them at work, using my work’s Office Suite license. Thanks anyways!
Are you able to email these neat puzzles to people? I love the idea!
I’m unable to email them due to copyright restriction! Try your hand at making your own.
hello i am mariana from malaysia..now i am study for early childhood education..i want to ask u,.what age is suitable for this game?..
I was wondering what size font you used to make the letters?
I just stretched the Word Art to fit the size of the page, so unfortunately I don’t have a size font. I also did print these out on 11″ x 17″ paper, so they are quite large.
Thank you
Thank you!
Love the letter puzzles!!!! You should put on the website teachers pay teachers bc I would love to purchase the alphabet!!!!
I am trying to make some of these, but I am not able to move the picture to create the letter “A”. please give some hints as to how I can move the pics. Thanks
Gostaria que me mandassem o alfabeto todo.obrigado
I cannot, because of copyright issues.
How did you make them I understand you can’t upload because of the images but what did you use to print the letter was it a certain font?
I used the default font in Publisher, which at the time was Arial.