Place-mats are easy and fun to make. Choosing to use the alphabet and numbers will keep your mat fresh and interesting as they provide good starting points for so many activities. It’s also a fun way of reinforcing the alphabet and number knowledge and a lovely calming activity. This activity will give you the opportunity to talk about your day and share while concentrating on an activity that we can use everyday at meal times.

Gather your materials together. Colorful magazine, scissors, glue, ruler, plain paper. Sticky backed plastic/laminator

Use a colorful magazine with strong colors. Tear out whole pages of adverts and tear into strips and again into smaller pieces. The tearing gives a softer edge than cutting but this personal preference.  Using the ruler helps to tear strips quickly as does cutting  the strips.Bag up your colors or heap into piles. This is a great production line activity for a family or group of children.

Draw your letter, shape or number on plain paper.

Choose two contrasting colors; glue and stick to the shape.

Laminate or cover with sticky backed plastic.

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NB: After cutting the magazine into so many pieces we bagged them all up in small individual snack bags. Since we’ve only done a few letters and one number I can see more letters and numbers in our future.