of lining up the blocks in alphabetical order, with a as the engine and z as the caboose. they would play this game for several days or weeks and then if they still wanted to read, i would show them how to make 3-letter words with the blocks: pat, hat, cat. later we would change the last letter: pat, can, cab. on another day we would change the middle letter: pat, pet, pit, pot, put.
later i would show them a few "sight words" such as: i, to, the, and we would make silly sentences using the blocks: "am i to mop up mud?" "don met dad at the dam." we 