Melissa & Doug Alphabet Nesting and Stacking Blocks Extension Activities

We absolutely love our Alphabet Nest/Stack blocks from Melissa and Doug!
They've been a staple on our toy shelf for weeks now. (More about what I keep on our toy shelves and why in a future post.)

They're so versatile and great for a wide spectrum of developmental skills and abilities.

Here are some of the things we do with them:
1. Line them up next to each other to practice one-to-one correspondence. Many children learn to count but have difficulty matching "1" to the first object, "2" to the second, and so on. When the blocks are lined up I point to each one counting slowly from Brady's left to his right.

2. Point to and name the colors of the stars when the blocks are lined up next to each other.

3. Name the animals and items. This is great for beginning sound recognition and introducing sentence structure as each animal is doing something. (The gorilla is eating grapes is our favorite right now.)

4. Stack them (of course). When we first started with these we barely got past the third block before the temptation to knock them down was too much. Now, Brady loves to see them all stacked up, is successful with stacking them himself sometimes, and loves to help count them.

5. Nest them together (obviously.) It's really good practice for forming spatial concepts and comparing sizes to try to figure out which order the blocks nest properly in.

I hope you'll consider picking up a set of these versatile blocks. I'm sure they'll be as well-loved in your home as they are in ours.