ABC and 123: A Learning Collaborative: Polliwog Review and Giveaway

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Polliwog Review and Giveaway


Welcome! New to ABC and 123?
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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.

70 comments:

  1. I have a 3 year old learning letters and a 5 year old who occasionally writes some letters backwards. I could definitely use the upper or lower case letters. But I think I will start with upper case letters. Thanks for sharing.

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  2. WOW, Their letters and numbers look very high quality. I would prefer uppercase letters for my 2 yo and baby to use!

    I guess I didn't reallize the importance of sandpaper letter, but now I'm seeing it!

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  3. those look great!! i would love the lowercase set as my 4yo wants desperately to learn to read (watching her 6yo sister learn) but I need to find a way to get her to learn the lowercase letters first - she is a tactile kid so this would be of interest to her.

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  4. I've been meaning to make a set of sandpaper letters for us to use this fall, but the idea of actually cutting out the sandpaper has kept me from doing so yet. I would love to have all of the available letters and numbers, but I would most like a set of the lowercase letters. My son is doing pretty well with uppercase and numbers, but lowercase letters can be confusing.

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  5. I already follow your blog, BTW :)

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  6. I have an elementary aged student with Dyslexia, for which multi-sensory approaches to spelling are best, and a 2 year old just starting to learn her letters! I would love the lowercase letters since those appear most often for children when reading.

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  7. I already follow your blog.

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  8. My 3yo daughter is just starting to learn her letters, so these would be perfect for her and her younger siblings once they start learning letters. I would choose the uppercase letters.

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  9. What a great product. Our son is just learning to count (only 1-3 so far), so I think these would be great over the next months/years. I think I'd prefer uppercase, but either is great.

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  10. I teach PreK at a christian school and have seen students who needed to trace the letters/numbers to learn them. These would be a great addition to the classroom - either uppercase or lowercase. I have just recently discovered your blog and love it!!

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  11. Oh my goodness, I have always wanted a set of these!! My kids would benefit from these in many ways; letter recognition, learning the shape of the letter, etc. I would like lower case letters.

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  13. I would love the uppercase set. I've been wondering how to make the jump to being able to actually write the letters and this seems like a good tool. Thanks.

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  14. My son has ASD and is entering Kindergarten this fall. He also is very sensory seeking and I believe that these Upper Case letters would be key in his letter development. I like that they are hand constructed and are made on plywood.

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  15. I am currently doing the Montessori method with my little one and the sandpaper letters are as important part of the process. If I should have the privilege of winning the lowercase letters would be great.

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  16. I follow ( newbie)

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  17. My three year old would love this product. She is very interested in learning her ABC's and also likes to "practice" writing. I think the tracing would help her learn how to do write a little easier. I would love the lowercase letters.

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  18. oh i would love this! my son will be learning his alphabets soon(i think lol) and this would be a great way to help him learn.. I love that montessori uses teaching through their hands and feeling...

    I'd love the upper case alphabets

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  19. im a follower and a subscriber

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  20. These are so neat. I'd love the lower case letters. My daughter already knows how to make upper case and I would like her to learn lower case letters as well. I think these would be great practice for the times she gets the letters backwards.

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  21. I would love to win these. I have two learning to read and recognize letters so these would be perfect for us. I would take either one, the upper case would be my favorite.


    Thanks so much for the giveaway. I am moving my blog from homeschoolblogger to blogspot so my blog doesn't look up to date but it is a work in progress, I have your blog in my feeder on the sidebar. I'm loving your blog!

    Angela

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  22. Oh how great it would be to have sandpaper letters at school! We had some for years, and they got worn out. When I looked for more, I couldn't find them decently prices. I keep looking every year.

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  23. I could use the lowercase letters for my son who already knows most of his uppercase, but now needs to learn the lowercase ones.

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  24. I love the sand paper idea. Feeling the shape of the letters would help my 3 yr old learn the letters so much faster. The lower case ones would be awesome.

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  25. looks like this is a popular giveaway item!
    my daughter WOULD greatly benefit from a set of these sandpaper letters. She is almost done with her ABC preview month and is obsessed with her "BC's"! i would love to work with her more on letter recognition and i know that sandpaper helps by giving her a tactile experience.
    i will take either upper or lowercase- i will buy the other just so i can have a complete set!
    LOVE IT! WANT IT!!! :)

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  26. i follow your beloved site ;)

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  27. just tweeted about your giveaway!!

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  28. I work with 3 year olds that need help with their letter recognition and 4 year olds who need help with formation. These would add a lot to our classroom! I would love the lowercase set, they are amazing!!!

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  29. Well as a teacher I have to say this is a wonderful idea.

    I'm teaching my twins and I know this sandpaper letters is a I like the lowercase manuscript letters. BTW, I could form words in both languages (spanish and english).

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  30. My daughter is showing interest in how to write letters and she would love tracing these! I would choose lowercase.

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  31. My 3 year old curious little learner loves different activities and games to learn his letters and numbers. These would be a perfect fun tool for us (and in the future for my baby daughter too!) I would choose the lowercase letters. Thanks for doing this great offer!

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  32. I am a new follower and just LOVE your site!

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  33. We'd use it for tactile experiences. It's a great product!

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  34. I follow. Oops I forgot to put I'd love the lowercase letters.

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  35. Both of my children would definitely benefit from this giveaway. My 7 yr old has sensory integration disruption and benefits greatly from any sensory stimulating exercise. My 2 year old is just learning her letters and would enjoy these as well

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  36. Emily would benifit from using these to learn her letters. They would be great for letter recognition and learning the shape of the letter.

    I would love the upper case letters to start!

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  37. I have two little ones who love to practice their letter recognition with these tactile sandpaper letters. The lowercase letters would be great as we're working on building words at our house.

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  38. Our son is very much a hands-on learner and would benefit from these wonderful letters! I think the lowercase would be helpful to introduce to him first.

    heatherlbrandt (at) verizon (dot) net

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  39. We would love to win the lower case manuscript letters. Our youngest looks to be a very kinesthetic learner. This would be a great way to help teach her letters.

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  40. I would love these in uppercase! What a great learning tool!

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  41. I would love to have the Capital Letter set. My daughter is Developmentally Delayed and can use all the help for learning her letters.

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  42. I have two little learners aged 3 and 4 and we have begun letter formation and recognition with both of them--we would love the uppercase letters!

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  43. I could really use the lower case ones for my son. He's doing pretty good with his name, but this would really help. Thanks

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  44. I follow you already! (Love your blog!)

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  45. My daughter recognizes her Upper Case letters, but the Lower Case are not as easy to get. We're having a difficult time finding resources to work on them w. her, so these would be excellent! This way I could get her past "little s" and thinking an "i" looks kind of like a #1 w. a dot on top! Thanks!

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  46. I follow your great blog!

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  47. Those letters are so cool! My son is almost 21 months, so I think these letters would be good for him to start recognizing the different letters, and eventually help him to form words and read. :) I like the uppercase letters.

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  48. I LOVE the lower case letters. My 2 year old is learning letters and my 6 year old is starting to read and gets mixed up on which way her letters go, it would be great for her to "touch" the letters and trace the shapes, I think it would really help her out.

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  49. I love the lower case letters! I have a 2 1/2 year old that LOVE his "yetters" and I want to teach him while he is excited about it! I love the idea of using his sense of TOUCH in his learning! Genius idea!

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  50. I just became a FOLLOWER! Love your site!

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  51. What a fabulous idea!!! Recently, I started "Tot School" with my two year old -- I've been browsing your site for a week now, gleaning the great activities and ideas you offer.

    Polliwog's letter sets would be PERFECT for my daughter. We're working on upper case letters only right now; I love the idea of providing her with a tactile way to learn the alphabet.

    Fantastic Giveaway!

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  52. And -- I'm already a follower.

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  53. And . . . just tweeted!

    http://twitter.com/Rachel_L

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  54. My 2 year old is not picking up things as easily as my 4 year old seemed to, I think this hand on letter learning activity will really help him.

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