Review of Educational STEAM Letter Construction Sets

Froot Loop and I pick out some of his Amazon.com wish list items together for his last birthday. Since he was really close to reading and writing and already knew all his letters and sounds, we put these letter and number construction kits onto his list, and he got them for his birthday (Thanks, Great Grandma!)

What I love about these is that kids learn how to construct the letters. They learn that the letters are really just a bunch of lines and curves put together to make symbols that we interpret as letters. This helps when they are learning to write those letters. 

My only complaint about these pieces is that they are very hard to get apart. The pieces all come packed together (like, all the long blue pieces are packaged together), and they all have some interlocking parts to make the letters, so when they’re all stacked together in packaging, it took some real work and one nasty slice on my thumb to get them all apart. I also wish that there were a few more pieces in the box so you could spell words with your letters. We ended up buying both sets and had to borrow pieces from the letters to create all the numbers.

The sets come with lesson/teaching ideas as well as cards that have the letters/numbers on them. The cards have the pieces needed to build on the top half and a picture of the completed letter/number on the bottom. This is fantastic for Froot Loop. I ask him to get all the supplies he needs for his letter/number of choice and lay them out like the card shows. Then we count the pieces to make sure we have them all. I tell him to look at the picture at the bottom of the card and make the letter/number. Most of the time, he can do this just fine by himself. Sometimes, especially when the pieces aren’t facing the same way as the instructions, he can’t quite figure it out. He also has a hard time when large pieces of the pieces overlap, like when creating the capital C. 

I love that these are transparent so they could be used on a light table too. I wish they had done the pieces in red, yellow, and blue instead of orange and green and purple so that we could have done some color mixing too. 

Overall, these are fantastic for preschoolers for learning letters, numbers, following directions, spatial awareness, spelling, and so much more. When given for free play, he has also created some interesting shapes and designs with them. 

They are on the expensive side, but for how many uses they have, it is well worth the cost. The pieces are made of heavy duty plastic that have held up very well. I am not worried about the pieces snapping or breaking at all. The box was heavy! I couldn’t believe how heavy the box was when it arrived at our doorstep. 

We love these pieces. They are a great addition to preschool or a daycare or just for around the house. I’m just thrilled with these. We will be using them for years I’m sure. 

What was the last thing you wrote by hand?