Pencil Themed Clothespins for Back to School Literacy Fun

This school year kick off the fun with spelling words and sight words with a little twist. Create these adorable pencil themed clothespins for back to school literacy games for your beginning reader.

They are so easy even the kids can paint them! 

Here’s how to make and play!

 Pencil Themed Clothespins

This time of year is always a fun time to spark your child’s love of learning and school.  Playing games inspired by back to school supplies help you kick of the school year with a focus on taking good care of all those products you just spent your money on.

Here’s how you can make simply but fun pencil themed clothespins with your child.  You can even make them personalized pencils for a special school work art display to highlight their special work this year.

One way to prep your child for reading success it to start off the year working on the Dolch Sight Word List.

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Materials Needed for Pencil Themed Clothespins and Literacy Game

• Mini Wooden Clothespins 
• Shimmering Silver Acrylic Paint
• Acrylic Paint Canary Yellow
• Acrylic Paint Pink Parfait
• Paint Brush
• Scrapbook Paper 
• Scissors 
• Sharpie Permanent Marker Black
• Handwriting Paper
• wax paper or paper plate

Instructions for Pencil Themed Clothespins

1. Use the yellow paint to create the pencil by painting on both sides of the chunky clothespin covering 3/4 of the wood.  Be sure to also paint the sides too. Get your kids involved in this craft, it’s really easy and a fun memory to do together.

2. Then using the pink paint, it’s time to add the pencil eraser to the end of the pencil.  I made the end where you pinch the eraser portion so I could also paint the inside portion too.  Be sure to paint the edges on this task too pink.

3.  The last step is to use your silver paint to create the metal portion of your pencil.  The Shimmering Silver Acrylic Paint adds a special sparkle to the whole pencil craft which I highly recommend.  You can use it later in the year to create holiday crafts too, instead of using glitter.

4. OPTIONAL: You can paint a little black potion of the end for a pencil point, we left it off to make them easier to make.  Plus, if you really want your pencil painting to last you could also add an Acrylic Paint Sealer

Pencil Themed Sight Word Game

This can is a fun hands on way to work on those high frequency words for Kindergarten & First Grade! To create the pencil themed literacy game for sight words take your Scrapbook Paper  and cut out with Scissors  24 squares.  They can be the size of around 2 inches by 2inches for easy handling, you go make smaller if you’d prefer. Add a few more is you’re planning to do spelling words for those double letters in words like the word “that.”

Write one letter per square with your Permanent Marker Black.  You can do it with your child watching you write the letters and discuss letter formations for younger kids OR I would have my child do it and have an alphabet chart on the table close by so that they can work on proper letter formations with you watching their handwriting skills.

Once you write all of the letters, it’s time to play!  You can start off with letter writing practice by choosing a letter card and putting it onto the Pencil Clothespin as a stand. 

Next you can move to practicing forming word families like choosing the word family -at and then selecting a few letter card that would go with it like s, c, m, p, f, r.  Then challenge your child to see if they can read those words.

This activity would be ideal for spelling word practice too!  Have your child gather the letter cards and place them onto the Pencil Clothespins and then write out on their Primary Handwriting Paper for spelling word practice in a hands on way.

You can have them practice writing down each word that they made with the pencil themed sight word game!

Literacy Game with Pencil Clothespins

• Work on Spelling Word Lists
• Word families
• Alphabetical Order
• Matching Upper Case to Lower Case Letters

Did you know that sight words make up around 75% of the words used in beginning children’s print materials. Sight words can give your child a better start in learning to read.

If your child is able to quickly recognize sight words then as a beginning reader they will be able to spend more time concentrating on the meaning and comprehension of the words as they read them instead of having to decode every single word.

Learning Materials for Back to School Writing

•  My First Pencils Large Round
• #2 Pencils Box of 96
• Primary Handwriting Paper

Learn now Why You Should be Using Beginner Pencils for Handwriting Practice with young children.

Can’t wait to hear how your child’s pencil themed clothespins turn out and how they use them at your house. They’ve be a cute little teacher gift idea for their teacher too.  You could even attach magnet to the back to create pencil themed magnets for their classroom.

Want more Back to School Resources? {CLICK HERE}

More Sight Word Games for Kids

Sight Words with Glass Gems 

Sea Shell Sight Word Game 

Pumpkin Sight Word Game with Sensory Bottle 

Fish Themed Sight Word Game 

Want the best pencil to learn to write? Here’s our favorite!

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