Play dough ABC's

One of our favorite ways to teach and reinforce the alphabet is with play dough.  This is an especially good activity when I'm tired and don't want to put much work into our activity.  It's also really good, because it is a more multi-sensory approach to learning: she not only sees the letter and hears the letter and sound, but she also gets to touch and handle the letter.  I make the letter of the day with the play dough, and then I point it out to her singing the Leap Frog "The b says 'b', the b says 'b', every letter makes a sound, b says 'b'."  I make two or three more, and then I find other B's that we have on her toys and point them out to her.  It has been really effective, even when she doesn't seem to be paying much attention.  Later in the day when we review (e.g., drawing the letter in the sand at the playground, writing it in a notebook while she is on the potty, playing with her alphabet toys, or pointing it out in her books), she almost always remembers immediately.

And remember - if you don't have any play dough around the house, you can cook edible play dough and we can eat it when we're done!  I'm sure there is a recipe online somewhere, like allrecipes.com or something.

Play dough is also great for teaching shapes and numbers. 

While on the subject, my daughter is having a hard time learning to distinguish little b, d, p, and q - any suggestions?