Kids Reading: Martha Blah Blah and Alphabet Soup Game

Martha Blah Blah by Susan Meddaugh was the book that my little man picked out when he got to pick a free book at one of the thrift stores that we got a coupon for from the summer reading program.  I was super excited to get to read it but it got put to the bottom of the pile a few times because there were so many books from the library that kept coming home.  I finally pulled it out after reading Games with Books by Peggy Kaye and she mentioned that it was one of her favorites. 

In this book, Martha stops being able to talk because the letters are taken out of the alphabet soup.  She learns this by visiting Alf Abbott who was fired from making the letter A along with 12 other letter makers.  Martha goes to the office and talks to Granny Flo but because Martha is a dog, Granny Flo doesn't see her and thinks that it is Granny Elsie talking.  If you have seen the television show, the book is just a little different then the television show but still holds the same charm and the final result that all of the letters are added back into the soup so Martha can talk again.

After you read the book, pull out the supplies to play a game!!  In the book by Peggy Kaye,

Games With Books: Twenty-eight of the Best Children's books and How to Use Them to Help Your Child Learn-From Preschool to Third Grade, she suggests a few activities after reading the Martha Blah Blah book.  She used a bowl but I used a play pot from our play kitchen.  I picked out 6 letters (which my son insisted were upside down...probably leftover from the fishing game)

I grabbed one of the spoons from the play kitchen to stir the letter soup but it frequently turned the letters over and was quickly left on the table instead of in the pot.

The game is started with trying to remember the 6 letters in the pot.  We pulled them all out and said the letters and put them back in repeating the letters.  My son wanted to do them in the same order which made it easier to remember for me so that seemed good but I am sure that every kid will have their own way of doing it and remembering the letters.

We stirred the soup and then my son closed his eyes and I pulled out one of the letters and hid it.  He wasn't able to guess the first letter (which I think was because he was so excited to play the game that he was closing his eyes a lot before it was time).  Then, we did all the other letters and he got them all.  After he got one correct, I put that one back into the pot.  The hardest part for me was to make sure that I pulled different letters for each of the six rounds.  We only had the first letter that didn't get picked and my son wanted to play again.  I explained that he needed to have super concentration to do it again with different letters because the other ones would still be in his head and we should take a break before playing the next game.  He has been talking about it all day!!!

I hope that you can pull some things from around your house to make this neat alphabet soup game!  I promise that it was a big hit and I hope that your little ones are as interested as mine was!  A great book and a wonderful follow up game to help letters and memory.  Let me know if you try it and how it works with your kids!!

Shared on Kit Lit Blog Hop #23