Big Letters and Small Letters Matching

When making games for my daughter (or any child), it's really fun to use different textures and the senses.  In this game I used bottle caps from water bottles and a plastic container.  Shake that up and it's just plain fun for a 2-year-old before you even get started with the "learning."  I must preface that this activity is for any child 2 to 5 who is learning upper and lower case letters.  My daughter is really interested in letters, but not al 2-year-olds are ready for this one, yet.   But you never know.  I didn't think she was ready or would be able to do the whole thing and she surprised me.  I advise not pushing, just do what they are interested in.

Materials
26 water bottle caps
Plastic container (or bag)
ABC stickers upper and lower case
File Folder or sturdy cardboard
Marker

1. I made 26 circles on a Open Office (MS Word works, too).
2.  I placed a lower case letter sticker in each circle in order.  You could write the letters, too.  I used stickers because there are different fonts that children will see once they start reading.   It also was more colorful.
3.  I attached the paper with the circles and letters on a file folder. I used box tape to secure it.
4. I placed a upper case letter sticker on each bottle cap.

4. On the inner part of the bottle cap I wrote a self-correcting lower case letter. This will help children learning to correct themselves while playing alone.  Be sure to put a line under letters, such as b, p, q, d, n, u, etc.  That way there is no confusion.

To play: allow child to pick a bottle cap and match letters.

Variations of play: 

• Hand letters to child if you want to asses learning. 
• Have child find letters in order and then match. 
• Find vowels first, then match others.  
• Find letters in name first, then match others.
• Say sounds as they match
• Sing ABCs

Skills focused on:

• Learning that letters have upper and lower case letters.
• Distinguishing between letters that look similiar, b,d, p, q, m, w
• Self-correcting skills
• Following directions
• Letter sounds
• Letter recognition
• Problem solving
• Learning Alphabetical order