In this BLOG post I will share my favorite ways to learn and play with the alphabet, all through sensory play!
Click HERE for our favorite alphabet tools for learning and play!
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Sensory play is SO beneficial for children. It's open-ended, encourages creativity, provides sensory input & teaches them about their personal boundaries. Sensory play activates the senses and has been known to be calming, offering an incredible opportunity to practice self-regulation strategies.\
This alphabet pasta is the PERFECT way to incorporate learning into your day. Use it to work on letter names, sounds, spelling your name or even sight words. The possibilities for play are endless!
Head to our blog post HERE that explains all of the different ways to dye a dry sensory base!
Salt trays offer a multi-sensory approach to learning. Utilizing this approach is highly engaging, reduces frustration and can be differentiated in so many ways! Sensory play is so fun for kids and this method of practicing writing is sure to engage their senses and get them interested in learning!
If you have a resistant writer, try this! It is a low risk, high reward activity. If you make a mistake, that's OK, just brush it away!
Head to our blog post HERE to learn how to dye and create a salt tray!
Frozen fizzy activities are so much fun! They are a hands-on and get kids exploring and problem solving. You can create them in so many ways, but the base is freezing water or a mixture in an ice cube mold and using it to learn, play and create.
These letters are our favorite!! You can add glitter to make them sparkly or leave them as is. You can add food coloring to the vinegar and water mixture, or not. They are fun and engaging no matter how you do it!
Whichever way you choose to explore them is absolutely perfect. Activities like this are inclusive. There is NO wrong way to play!!
Head to our BLOG post HERE to learn how to create and explore these frozen fizzy letters!
Not only are these FUN, but there are also so many learning opportunities.
What color is this letter?
What is the name of this letter?
What sound does the letter make?
What happens when you put these two sounds together? What word does that make?
Make the word /pat/. Now change the /p/ sound to a /h/. What is the new word you made?
Let's sort: letters in your name/letters not in your name.
Can you point to the letter that makes the /d/ sound?
This letter makes the /g/ sound. Can you think of a word that begins with that sound?
Can you find the letter that your name begins with?
Let's point to all of the vowels!
Which letter is next to the /b/?
Head to our BLOG post HERE to learn all the ways to learn and play with these alphabet ice letters!
Frozen Letters:
Activities like this are an incredible way to strengthen fine motor skills. As kids squeeze and squirt and smoosh, they are strengthening the tiny muscles in their fingers and hands. Those same muscles are responsible for self-help skills like feeding yourself and zippering your coat. They are also responsible for supporting you during the writing process!
The more we can strengthen those muscles early on through sensory-driven experiences like this, the more supported children will be when they enter school-age.
Head to our BLOG post HERE to learn all of the different ways to incorporate learning into your day with this frozen alphabet activity!
Oats Writing Tray:
This tray is simple, fun and works on SO many skills! All you need to do is sprinkle a thin layer of oats in the bottom of a sensory tray or bowl. Grab a paintbrush (or your finger!) and practice making marks, writing letters, numbers, shapes or words!
When you're done, just give it a little shake to erase it and start all over again!
Store it in an airtight container and reuse over and over again!
Play Dough Puzzles are such a simple and fun way to incorporate learning and motor skills into your day! It’s one of my favorites because it combines sensory play & learning & the connections you can make are SO good.
They’re squishing. They’re pulling. They’re pushing. They’re looking & listening & touching & tracing & smelling. SO much good is going on!!!
Head to our BLOG post HERE to learn how to make your own play dough and all of the different ways you can incorporate learning into this activity!
If there was one activity that I could highly recommend, to you, it’s this one.
It’s engaging. It’s working fine motor skills. It’s color identification & letter names & letter sounds & early literacy skills all combined into one simple sensory set-up.
Head to our BLOG post HERE to learn more about our Alphabet Soup Activities!
We took our learning outdoors with this activity & we had the absolute best time!
Have you ever made bird seed ornaments? We used to do it every holiday season in my kindergarten class & it’s such a fun one!
On top of the benefits of fresh air, here are the skills we worked on:
math skills (measurement)
phonics skills (letter ID, sounds)
teamwork
gross motor
empathy
Head to our BLOG post HERE to see how to make these adorable bird treats!
When sensory play meets fine motor skills meets learning…the magic happens!
It’s hands-on. It’s academic driven but sensory-based. It’s engaging. It lessens the stress that sometimes accompanies writing.
It helps make incredible connections in the brain!!!
They learn. They play. They create. They strengthen skills. All of the good stuff combined!
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