Literacy Spot #48: Letter Stamps (and Christmas Decorations!)

Most children love to stamp and letter stamps are a great addition to your writing area once your children are interested in exploring and playing with letters.

Of course, you aren’t just limited to stamping on paper. Stamping on playdough, salt dough or air dry clay is lots of fun too. I like the challenge of air dry clay for children as it takes stronger muscles for their hands and fingers to work, and this is important to developing those fine motor skills necessary for writing later on.

Immy had a great time searching out the letters she knows and stamping them onto our Christmas decorations. Now we just need to wait for them to dry, add a ribbon and hang them on our tree 🙂

What is Childhood 101′s Literacy Spot? It is a weekly reminder of the importance of young children learning playfully as each week I share one idea for playing around with literacy, taken from my many years working as an early childhood teacher. Visit the previous Literacy Spot posts for more fun ideas for playing with literacy.

Christie Burnett is an early childhood teacher, presenter, writer and the editor of Childhood 101. More importantly, she is a Mum who believes wholeheartedly in the value of children learning through play, the importance of quality early education, and the togetherness of family.

Read more of Christie's adventures at https://childhood101.com.

Read the comments or scroll down to add your own:

Kerry Morris says
December 5, 2011 at 7:03 PM

Where did you find the letter stamps?
- Christie Burnett says
  December 5, 2011 at 10:27 PM
  
  These were from eBay, Kerry. They are quite small which made them perfect for our ornaments. I have seen others in large craft stores.
Natalie says
December 5, 2011 at 10:00 PM

Even the box of stamps is beautiful! The ornaments are wonderful; gorgeous and simple. I am adding this to my pinterest board to make in the future.
- Christie Burnett says
  December 5, 2011 at 10:28 PM
  
  Thank you for sharing, Natalie.
Lea says
December 5, 2011 at 10:16 PM

What dough did you stamp on in the pictures and how do I make it? Thanks:)
- Christie Burnett says
  December 5, 2011 at 10:27 PM
  
  Hi Lea, We used a porcelain air dry clay (Crayola brand) for our ornaments. Softening the clay in our hands, rolling it out and punching the shapes with cookie cutters. Then we used the letter stamps to imprint the letters and added a hole for the string :)
SquiggleMum says
December 6, 2011 at 9:04 AM

Oh my. I am in love with those letter stamps!!
Scott says
December 7, 2011 at 6:32 AM

My favorite part - the ornaments look like they were done by a child. I love things that are obviously a child's work.
Chris says
December 7, 2011 at 10:54 AM

We LOVED the idea and I loved how it incorporated some literacy too. We made some salt dough and used a star cookie cutter and my letter stamps to write 'peace.' We're focusing on peace Christmas brings and it was a perfect ornament for our tree. We're planning on painting it gold later. Thanks for your great ideas!

Literacy Spot #48: Letter Stamps (and Christmas Decorations!)

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