Make a list of common, everyday objects that children see or are familiar with, such as "cat," "pig," "dog," "man," "cap," "bat," "rat" and "ant." Come up with two or three short, phonetic words for each letter of the alphabet. For example, "ant" and "apple" can be used for the letter A.
Draw 52 3-by-3-inch squares on a piece of pink poster board. Cut the squares out of the poster board with a pair of scissors.
Use a word processing or graphics program to create 2-by-3-inch squares that contain clip art or small pictures of each item that you made a list of for the letters of the alphabet. Use the same program to create 1-by-3-inch rectangles with the words represented by the pictures on them. For example, one square would contain a 2-by-3-inch picture of a pig. The corresponding 1-by-3-inch label for that card would be “PIG.”
Print the pictures and words onto label paper. Cut the pictures and words out of the label paper and stick them onto the pink poster board. Cut the pictures and words out of the pink poster board.
Cut small circles out of hook and loop tape. Attach the loop end of two circles to the top and bottom of one side of each 3-by-3-inch pink poster board card. Attach the hook end of a circle to the back of each picture and word piece.
Place all the pieces into a small plastic box. When it is time to work on letters and reading, have the child pull the box out and begin assembling the cards. Help the child in the beginning to match up the correct images with their corresponding words. For example, a child would take a pink, 3-by-3-inch poster board card and stick the picture of the pig and the word “PIG” card pieces on top of the blank pink card. The hook and loop tape circles allow the child to easily interchange picture and word pieces onto the card base as you progress into more difficult words.