Polliwog Review and Giveaway

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This giveaway is now closed, thank you to everyone who entered!

This week I have the priviledge of introducing you to the learning products offered by
Polliwog. You're going to love the quality of the products in this shop and the many learning opportunities available.

Michele, the preschool teacher, behind Polliwog started making affordable sandpaper letters and numbers in 2003 to save money on her own classroom supplies. She has now shared her quality workmanship with you, other parents and teachers!

Why sand paper?
Sand Paper letters and numbers are a Montessori inspired activity. The idea is that the tactile interaction with these symbols helps children as they learn to recognize and form numbers and letters. It works because a child's large motor develops first. By tracing the sandpaper texture with their fingers, children are exercising their large motor skills and learning the symbols. Sand paper letters also foster visual memory skills.

Check out these reviews from other Polliwog satisfied customers:
"These are so professional and high quality. Thank you for providing a handmade option for my Montessori efforts!"
"These are 100% better than you can find anywhere else. Not plywood, I haven't found better letters anywhere."

The sandpaper collections are available in numbers 0-9, uppercase alphabet, and lowercase alphabet.

Here are some of the activities we tried with our number set:

We started by tracing each of the numbers several times with our pointer fingers. As you will notice in the pictures. each number has a cut out dot that signifies the starting point for tracing (sorry by #1 is upside down in the picture).

While my 3 year old continued to practice tracing and naming each number, my 5 year old was busy putting together 2-digit numbers, as I instructed, and tracing them.


We played a couple different games with the sand paper numbers. The first game was a guessing game. With a blindfold covering his eyes, my son traced each number I presented to him and tried to figure out what number he was feeling. He really liked this challenge.

We also tried a game called "Knock, Knock, Numbers." With all the numbers turned upside down we took turns knocking on the numbers. The "it" person would knock and say, "Knock! Knock!" The rest of us would say, "Who's there?" The player would then turn over the number and would name the number. Ex. "It's 5"

Simple, but effective for practicing number identification!

I modeled even and odd numbers for the kids by sorting the numbers into 2 piles.

We played "What's # is Missing" by laying out a series of numbers and asking the kids to name and find the number that was missing in the group. Ex. 3, 5, 6, 7. Missing 4.



Of course we had to try a little number rubbing too. With the numbers under white printer paper we used different colors to rub the numbers. My son was really having fun making and trying to read 3- and 4- digit numbers with this technique.

While we had the crayons out we also tried a bit of one-to-one correspondence practice. I layed out all the numbers and had the kids count out how many crayons went next to each number.
This activity would work with any manipulatives.

Okay, so what can you do with the ABC sand paper sets? Here are a few alphabet suggestions for you.

~Trace and practice forming each letter
~Color rubbing
~Sort vowels/consonants
~Match the uppercase letter to its' lowercase partner.
~"What letter is Missing" sequencing game
~"Knock, Knock Letters"
~Blindfolded Letter ID
~"I Spy!" - Lay out all of you letters. Give your child a clue and have them look for the correct letter. Ex. I spy the letter that starts the word FROG.
~Corn Meal Practice - While looking at the sand paper letter practice copying it into a tray full of corn meal.
~White Board Writing - Place the stack of ABCs in a pile upside down next to a white board. Have your child turn over letters and copy them on to the white board one at a time.

As you can see Polliwog's Sand Paper letters as a fantastic resource for many different learning center activities!

Buy it!
Shop Polliwog to order your own set of quality Birch and sandpaper numbers & letters.

Win it!
Polliwog is giving one of ABC & 123's readers an alphabet set of sandpaper letters!!

Required Entry:
Hop over to Polliwog's Learning Products and take a look at the letters and numbers that are available. When you return to comment, tell us why your child/student would benefit from winning this giveaway. Would you like uppercase or lowercase letters?

Additional Entries:
~Follow our blog. Please remind us if you already do
~Tweet about this giveaway
~Make a purchase from the Polliwog store during the giveaway period.

The giveaway will be open until next Monday, at 10:00 EST. We will choose a winner using random.org and post the winner on Tuesday. Good Luck!

Disclaimer: We received our product from Polliwog free of charge for the purpose of writing a review for their shop and hosting this giveaway on our blog. However, it is important to note that our opinions are genuine and no effort was made by the company to influence our authentic review.

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