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Teaching my kids the ABC for the first time has been an adventure for me. We had to start somewhere and once those basics were done the kids got tired of the same activities I would offer to teach the ABC.
These days I mix it up with sensory play, coloring, stamping, cutting and a host of other ideas. Keeping it fresh and interesting keeps them playing and sneakily learning their ABC.
Sensory ABC is easy to setup.
You will need:
- Mini Foam ABC
- Color or Plain Rice (see how we make color rice!)
- Dish to put the rice and letter into
- Optional extra tray to help contain rice / mess
To start arrange your mini ABC foam in their ABC format. I have done 3 in a row.
Take out the foam letters and place them in your dish. You can do this yourself or ask your child do it. Mine just love to handle these foam letters so she is more than willing to pop them out.
Next pour the rice over the foam letters until they are covered and there is a generous layer to dig around with. You will also want to ensure you leave some space in the dish so the rice doesn’t spill over just from digging.
Start digging for letters to complete your ABC foam molds.
After each letter is found we played a little game.
What sound does this letter make? What word can you think of that starts with this letter? I give hints 🙂 Where is the letters mold can you find it?
You could even ask what color the letter is.
My preschooler was engaged in this activity for a good 30+ minutes. We did the soundings of some of the letters as I was making things in the kitchen. Because of the rice this is a supervised activity for my kids. (Handfuls of rice all over the house, yes it’s happened)
The size of these foam letters also makes for excellent fine motor skill work.
Other ideas we have tried with this set is to find the letters to our names.
As well as using the numbers set to count with in the same manor we use the ABC.
Kelley says
I just made the the rice with my 3 year old daughter today and she had so much fun making the rice and learning how mixing colors can make other colors as well. She can’t wait to mix the colored rice up after drying and getting to hide her foam letters and numbers. Thanks for sharing!