Thursday, July 22, 2010

A Really Great Idea!

One of the great things about summer is I have a lot of extra time to surf The Net looking for great ideas from other teachers. Some I bookmark for future consideration, but every once in awhile I hit on something that I need to act on right away.

Disclaimer: I can't take credit for this Really Great Idea, I discovered it on Filth Wizardry. But it's too good not to pass on!

I had a bucket of Duplo blocks which my now nine-year-old grew out of a long time ago. I had them in my classroom but discovered that the kindergarten kids were much more interested in regular sized Lego blocks.
I had been considering donating them to a home day care or preschool but then came upon this Really Great Idea. 

First I dumped the blocks into the sink and sanitized them using 1 Tbs of bleach per 1 gallon of water and let them soak for awhile, I rinsed them and spread them on a towel to air dry.


The drying part is pretty important before moving on to the next step.












I purchased Avery Removable Multi-Use Labels. Number 5418 works best, the labels are 1/2" x 3/4" and fit perfectly on the square Duplo bricks.

I used Sharpies to write lowercase letters on each label. I used a red Sharpie for vowels and blue for the consonants. Then applied each label to a Duplo block.















Letters should be placed horizontally so the Duplo "bumps" are facing to the left. The label on the Duplo block above is NOT placed correctly, but I only discovered that as I was typing this!

When the blocks are joined together, children can build words using the Duplos.

















Then I labeled large Duplo blocks with Sight Words.


I love finding ideas like this...a new purpose for some old toys!

19 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow! That is a fabulous idea! :)

Lisa said...

That's pretty fantastic. We have a huge tote of those that my kids aren't playing with anymore.I'll be digging them out of the garage.

htebazile said...

Its a fantastic idea, I plan on making a set for my kids soon!

This idea was originally posted on filth wizardry : )

Lisa said...

Thank you! I edited the post to give her credit! Thanks for stopping by1

Carol said...

This is fantastic. I'm sharing this on FB. Someone is bound to use this in their classroom. It could also be adapted for math.

Carol

Mr. Halpern said...

AWESOME! I've got a huge tub of Duplos I'm not using (they really do prefer the Legos) and this is an awesome idea!

Anonymous said...

I love it!!! I may just have to see If I can get some of those for my SPED class this year. I may try to find some on freecycle.org.

Early Childcare Resources said...

Keep writing and inspiring!
~Early Childcare Resources
http://ecrp.1om.ca/

Jean said...

This is a wonderful idea! thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

Love this. I could keep a bin of these in my school library.

Chrissy said...

Brilliant! I am so happy to have found your blog!

Brimful Curiosities said...

What a fun way to build words.

tiff said...

I love this idea...I just put an all call out in my school district for duplo blocks, so that I can do the same thing in my kindergarten classroom. Thanks for sharing!

Shannon said...

This is such a great idea! And I love the suggestion by Carol that you could do the same thing for math. :)

The Activity Mom said...

This is awesome! I can't wait to try this and also to share and link the idea! =) Thanks!

Lessons from the Boys said...

That is really neat! My son would love that!

Alexandra said...

Super!

Anonymous said...

What a good idea. Please add my e-mail address to get your blog. Thank you. Susan steveac@bellsouth.net

Lauren Blackmon said...

I loved your post so much that I reposted the idea on my blog and made a work page to go with it. I gave you credit and posted your link too. I love your blog. What great ideas!!!! Thanks for sharing.
-Lauren
www.weeklyhive.blogspot.com
Check out my recent post about you!