I am always on the lookout to squeeze some learning games into our day. Lately, my two children have been craving pancakes. They love to help make them, too. So, when I got the idea to make letter pancakes, I knew it was right up their alley. They loved playing with their food this particular morning!
What You Need:
- Pancake mix (from scratch or box…it doesn’t matter)
- 1 or 2 squeeze bottles
- Funnel
- Greased frying pan or griddle
- Plates
- Eager helpers/learners
Directions:
Step 2: Prepare pancake mix and fill the above squeeze bottles with the finished mix. This can be a fun adventure to watch, too.
Step 3: Now let the fun begin! Slowly squeeze the bottle of pancake mix onto a preheated greased griddle or frying pan. Keep the heat low as the pancakes will cook fast.
My children wanted to be involved in every aspect, so I let them have a try at making and frying their own letters and/or words. They, of course, loved it!
But most of the time our griddle looked like this below. I went through most of the alphabet, as much as possible, and created two of each letter (one for each child).
Step 4: Once cooked, let them cool and separate one of each letter on each child’s plate.
Step 5: Now the time for “the game”. This is just one suggestion on what you can do…I said a word out loud and had my first grader figure out how to spell it and my preschooler had to find the sound the word started with. Then I would ask my first grader what other words he could make by switching one letter/sound. The preschooler understands rhyming, so she added her two cents, too, and would switch her letter pancake to change the beginning sound when needed.
Eventually, it led to my 1st grader teaching/helping his little sister figure out how to spell each word by him sounding out each letter of the word for her until she found the right letter.
Step 6: Eat and enjoy. This had to be their second favorite part to actually cooking these letter pancakes, as you can see below. They devoured them!
Playing with our food has never been more educational! My favorite part was when my older child stopped and patiently helped his little sister learn. I think she is gaining a love for letters and words because of him. Again, gotta love that!
