"Look, Mommy, it's Bubba's letter!"
I glanced over at my little boy covered in sweet smelling bubbles, his smile a huge upside down rainbow, and his little fist tightly clutching a soaking wet letter N. I bit my lip to keep back the laugh that was threatening to explode from the depths of my belly.
All of my kiddos have the privilege of their siblings calling them by their given names. Well all of them except the oldest. This little nurturer, who helps me in so many ways with the twins, has affectionately been named Bubba.
Big B was right. N does happen to be the first letter in my oldest child's name, but it isn't the first letter in Bubba. Even though I wanted to laugh at his cute mistake, it also made me realize that it was time for our alphabet learning to be expanded on.
It was time to take the alphabet learning that was happening in our bathtub to the kitchen table.
Our First Alphabet Activity!
We have been playing with foam letters in our bathtub for quite some time now. The twins are getting pretty good at recognizing the letters and being able to tell me a word - mainly family names - that start with that letter. Once we start back to school in a few weeks we will be focusing on one letter each week, but until I can get my ducks in a row I wanted these little toddlers to have opportunities to explore the letters they are showing interest in. I also knew this would help build some vocabulary for my little girl whose speech needs improvement.
I wanted to get the kiddos ready to play the beginning sound alphabet game with the letters, but I wanted to expose them to the to pictures first. We did a cookie sheet activity, followed by a puzzle. Both of these activities gave the twins exposure to new vocabulary, - Kiwi is not a fruit that often makes it way to my grocery cart - allowed us to work on beginning sounds, and gave those little toddlers a chance to learn the names of the pictures.
Beginning Sound Sensory Alphabet Game
What you need:
- Colored rice or any other type of sensory material
- Container to hold sensory material
- 2+ sets of magnetic letters
- Game Piece
- Free Printable game board (download below) - includes 6 game boards. Each game board focuses on four to five letters. For example, the first game board only has pictures for the letters A, B, C, and D.
This game is simple to play, but there is a massive amount of learning taking place.
To begin, bury the magnetic letters in the colored rice, and have player one dig through the rice (sensory play) until they find a letter. When they pull it out, have them tell you the name of the letter (letter recognition). Next, have them begin moving their game piece up the board. At each picture ask them to tell you what the picture is (building vocabulary and speech), and then ask them if the pictures starts with the letter they have in their hand (beginning sounds). If it does, the player leaves their game piece on that picture. If it doesn't they get to move to the next picture. When their game piece is on a picture that matches the letter, rebury the letter and allow player two to have his turn.
Player two gets to repeat the process. The game is over when one player reaches the word "end" before they find a picture that matches the letter in their hand.
Helping you child learn the alphabet is such a precious time. Enjoy those soapy letter moments, rice and letter filled bins, and all the conversations that flow from this time with your child.
More Alphabet Activities
Other Sensory Activities:
Download Beginning Sound Sensory Game
Before you download your free pack you agree to the following:
- This set is for personal and classroom use only.
- This printable set may not be sold, hosted, reproduced, or stored on any other website or electronic retrieval system.
- Graphics Purchased and used with permission from
- All downloadable material provided on this blog is copyright protected.
>> Download Beginning Sound Sensory Game<<
Rachel is a homeschool mom to four little ones, ages 2 to 6. She is a former public elementary teacher, and has recently began blogging at her page You’ve Got This. You can also find her on Facebook and Pinterest.
