Transform your kitchen into letter-learning fun!
One of the best ways to teach your child about letters is to provide different opportunities and materials for he/she to interact with. Children can learn a lot with natural activities that arise from their daily life versus using worksheets and books. Since we eat and spend a lot of time in the kitchen, why not use food as a interactive way for your child to learn about letters?
Making a food alphabet is a great activity to support learning letters and even writing. Here is a helpful Alphabet chart and Checklist that you can print and have nearby for your child to use as a reference.
Materials Needed
- White paper to make the letters on
- Some type of food (dried beans, grapes, crackers, carrots, blueberries or any other food)
- A printout of the Alphabet chart and Checklist that you can print and have nearby for your child to use as a reference.
- For younger children, it can be helpful to use this printout of alphabet outlines, where they have a printed letterform to work on top of.
- Optional: A large white piece of paper or board to work on, this helps with taking great pictures if you want to submit your alphabet to the Food Font project!
Get started making food letters!
To get started, you can try using veggie sticks, potato sticks and/or pretzel pieces to make letters. Your child can use the pieces as is or bite them into shape. Make sure you have your alphabet chart around for reference.
You also can use other foods, like carrots, dried beans, grapes, crackers, or other food around the kitchen.
Participate in Food Font
If you want to participate in Food Font and submit your alphabet, you can take a picture of each letter. Find a place that is not in direct sunlight to make the letters, so your pictures do not have shadows from a bright source. Some good locations are in the shade, near a window, or a room with lots of lighting.opt extension
Set your camera to the high quality JPEG setting. Take a picture of each letter from a bird’s eye view (directly above the letter.)
When done, submit the images to the Food Font project. We will edit the images, and they can become part of the Food Font alphabet gallery!
