To add a festive St. Patrick's Day spin to our light table play I created some DIY transparent letter manipulatives for literacy that we called gold coins! We also found some holiday themed ways to explore math, too!
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I'll explain the alphabet "gold coins" because if you have a light table you will want to make these! I used the same material as when I created our DIY light table numbers: transparent pony beads!
We used a toaster over (outside so there were no fumes in the house) at 400 degrees. Unlike the numbers, for the gold coins I put the beads in so they were not touching each other. I would say it took about 3 or 4 minutes to melt them to the coin shape. Once they were cool I used a permanent marker to write a letter on each one.
I'll explain the alphabet "gold coins" because if you have a light table you will want to make these! I used the same material as when I created our DIY light table numbers: transparent pony beads!
We used a toaster over (outside so there were no fumes in the house) at 400 degrees. Unlike the numbers, for the gold coins I put the beads in so they were not touching each other. I would say it took about 3 or 4 minutes to melt them to the coin shape. Once they were cool I used a permanent marker to write a letter on each one.
My preschooler E used the coins to spell our names and then her sight words on the light table! I love the way the light shines through them so we'll be making some other colors, too!
We got out our Light Table Pattern Blocks to create shamrocks! I challenged E to make one with three leaves then a good luck clover with four leaves!
We used our St. Patrick's Day loose parts to create and continue patterns. It was great fine motor work for E to line up the pieces in just the right places.
Open ended light table play is so soothing and pretty! E built more shamrocks with our round green beads, too!
For more St. Patrick's Day ideas, check out our St. Patrick's Day Pinterest board:
These are all great tools to make kids learn math.Teachers are constantly getting more creative and more visually-oriented rather than theoretically-clingy when it comes to teaching math, which is a universal subject that should be loved by all. - Layce of Mymathdone.com
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