Tucson Gem Show – The Best Bead Show

JC Herrell - she'll be at The Best Bead Show!

This blog is about glass. So you may wonder about todays title. I’m introducing some of you to the Tucson Gem Show. It’s sheer madness. It’s not one show, it’s about 30-40 shows that take over Tucson, AZ for about 3 weeks during the end of January through February. You can buy just about anything relating to gems, rocks, minerals and jewelry. So what does this have to do with glass? Well, you have to go over to The Best Bead Show to see. This is the showcase show for glass bead makers. And where you find bead makers you find glass and tools and other goodies related to making glass beads. Oh yeah, there are other shows that have glass bead makers but those shows don’t have Arrow Springs or Frantz Art Glass or Double Helix or Glass Alchemy…it’s one stop shopping for all of your glass needs. Can’t wait to go…

I did a post earlier this year with activities and ideas for teaching the alphabet, but a lot or learning letters and recognizing them just has to do with seeing them and working with them a lot.

That means coloring, tracing, identifying things that start with different letters and more.

One way to reinforce the letters is through little activity books like these cute printable alphabet books from Life Over Cs.

These are available for free when you subscribe to her newsletter, and I’d say that’s well worth it if you have a little one (or a group of little ones!) working on the alphabet and letter recognition.

Each mini book includes a collection of things that start with that letter to color, color and read with words that start with the letter, tracing the letter, finding the letter in a grid and other coloring pages with objects that start with that letter.

These little books are super useful reinforcing the different letters and giving kids different activities related to the letters.

If you do a letter of the day or letter of the week you can use a new book for each one, and then keep the copies in your reading center or in a basket where kids can look at them again.

And of course you can add in all the other letter activities you like, go on a scavenger hunt for items that start with that letter, read alphabet books, practice writing letters in rice or with pompoms or playdough or whatever sensory activities you like.

You can grab the free printables when you enter you email address at Life Over Cs, and check out her other great alphabet resources and activities while you are over there.

Do you have favorite activities for teaching letters to kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo: Life Over Cs]

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