I saw this on Pinterest from the blog creativejewishmom.com.  I thought it was a great idea for kids to learn how to put together words and sentences using large lima beans.

I bought two bead boxes at Michael’s for $6.99 then went shopping next door to TJ Maxx and they had the same boxes for $2.99 each. Needless to say I returned the ones to Michael’s and got a refund! You can use boxes for fishing flies also…anything with compartments.  The blogger “creative Jewish mom” suggests coating the lima beans after you put the letters on them with an acrylic coating so that the letters don’t wear off.  I used a regular  black Sharpie pen and put a capital letter on one side and lower case on the other side.  You can switch it up and maybe put a different color for capital letters and another color for lower case.  Another idea is to make the vowels one color and the consonants a different color.   I also made some with a question mark, exclamation point and period.  With older kids you can use them like a scrabble game.  A fun game that is economical and educational.

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Alphabeans in their compartments

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Let the learning begin!

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