🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop
- 🎨 Aesthetic Sense & Design — Making decisions about color, placement, and composition develops aesthetic intelligence — the ability to create visually pleasing arrangements — that connects to art, design, and the appreciation of beauty across all domains.
- 📐 Spatial Reasoning — Deciding where things go, how they fit together, and how to use available space develops spatial reasoning — the mental visualization and spatial planning that geometry, architecture, and physical design require.
- 🎯 Planning & Visualization — Imagining how a decorated space will look before starting and executing that vision develops planning and visualization skills — the mental projection that design thinking, project management, and creative problem solving require.
- 🌿 Environmental Stewardship — Using natural or recycled materials in decorating builds awareness that beautiful things don't require purchases — and that the natural world offers abundant creative materials that connecting to it reveals.
Is you preschooler learning his/her ABC’s? Why not add some fun and color to your preschooler’s bedroom, by making your own custom alphabet border. You can spruce up your preschooler’s bedroom, and help them learn their letters at the same time. This border is a fun and inexpensive way to give your preschooler’s bedroom a new look, without a lot of work.
What You Will Need
Acrylic Paints- in four or five colors that match your preschoolers existing bedding & wall color.
Favorite Story Books
Transfer Paper
Alphabet Stencils, or Photocopied Alphabet Letter
Paint Brush
Chalk Line
Tape Measure
Calculator
Step One: Measure the Walls
By measuring the walls, you will know how large your alphabet letters and images should be. If you have a large room, you will have more space between your letters (so you will use larger letters and images). If you have a smaller room, then you will need smaller letters and images.
Measure each wall width in inches, and divide the total by 26. The number you get will represent the number of inches in between each letter. For example, my son’s room has two walls that are 96 inches wide, and two walls that are 12 inches wide, for a total of 432 inches. 432/ 26= 16.62 inches. So, the alphabet letters in my sons room are 16 ½ inches apart. If you come up with a partial number (like I did) just round down to the next half inch. Remember, this is just a guide to help you space your letters evenly. It doesn’t have to be exact.
Using a chalk line, create a line around the room, at the height you would like the border. Using your final number above (mine was 16 ½ inches) mark the line in increments of that number. This is where each alphabet letter will go.
Step Two: Add the Letters
If using an alphabet stencil, add the letters, using your acrylic paints and stencil brush. If you want to create a more customized look, print off font from your computer, in the appropriate size (smaller for small rooms, larger for larger rooms). Then trace each letter onto the wall, using tracing paper. Times New Roman font will give you a classic, schoolbook look. Remember, you want your preschooler to be able to read the letters, so I recommend staying away from cursive or curly fonts.
Step Three: Add the Images
Select images to accompany each letter (A is for apple, B is for ball, ect...). Choose images that don’t have a lot of tiny details. Jan Brett illustrations, though beautiful, would not work here. Instead, think of simple easy to recognize pictures. Scan each image, and shrink or enlarge it to the proper size for your border. Using tracing paper, add the image next to right of each letter. Next, paint each image.
Chalkboard Alphabet Border
As an alternative the alphabet border, you can make a hands-on border using chalkboard paint. Mark a wide border on the wall, at eye level for your preschooler. Tape off the top and bottom and paint the border with two to three coats of chalkboard paint. Then follow steps one and two. Instead of adding images, let your preschooler can draw their own pictures in chalk, as they learn the alphabet!
Use these open-ended prompts to extend the learning during or after the activity:
There are no right or wrong answers to any of these questions. The goal is to keep the conversation going, model curious thinking, and give your child practice putting their experience into words.
