A-MAZE-ing Way to Learn a Letter

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This has got to be one of my favorite go-to activities to learn a letter. We do this over and over again with different letters to really get to know a specific letter.

You can find an entire week of activities to learn any letter here.

For this a-MAZE-ing letter activity, all you need is painter’s tape (affiliate link), a marker and a car (or something for your child to push through the maze).

The hardest part is setting up the maze, but once you get into a rhythm is really isn’t too tough.

Making the Maze

First, I make the correct path through the maze with the tape. I use the tape as the maze path (not the borders of the path, so there’s no need to tape two lines side by side to make a road).

I do it all as right angles, making sure to make it zig zag back and forth, and not just straight forward. Once the correct path is taped in place, I go through and write the letter we’re working on (in this case G) on all the corners, as well as the start and finish points.

 

Then I use the tape to make a bunch of  dead ends and mark the corners with the ‘wrong letters’ (anything but G). I usually end up making a long rectangle for the maze, but it can be any shape.

Have your child start at the beginning, point out the letter you’re working on. Tell it to them.

“This is the letter G. We’re going to drive your car to the next letter G and then the next letter G until we make it to the finish!”

We have done this activity in the past with the entire alphabet, too. If your child already is familiar with the letters, you can work on the ABC order.

It’s A-MAZE-ingly versatile, too!

And this activity doesn’t have to be limited to just letters. You can apply it to whatever it is you’re working on. Some ideas:

• Use this maze to learn a number. Use the same setup, just replace the letter with a number.
• Use this maze activity to work on addition. Write addition equations to all equal the same number as the correct path. Follow the addition equations that equal 10, and use 6+4, 3+7, 2+8 and so on.
• Use this maze activity with other math problems, multiplication, subtraction or division will all work.
• Use this maze activity for shape recognition. Same setup, just replace with shapes!
• Use this maze activity to work on color recognition. You can use different colored markers, colored stickers, or even little pieces of construction paper taped onto the corners.

Whatever it is that you do, make sure that it’s something you’re child is interested in. If they’re just grasping some letters, you can do this first with a letter they know and then use another piece of painter’s tape to stick a new letter over the correct path.

Also, if you’re child isn’t into cars or trucks, what else could you use? A doll could walk through the maze. The child could walk through the maze themselves. You could also roll a marble through the maze, or a pom pom.

Try to include something that your child can’t put down right now to get them interested!

What did your child learn with this maze activity?