L is for letters, so we kicked off our letter exploration with this alphabet sensory bin.
I decided to do color the pasta myself, and this is what I used:
That’s about 15 bags of tiny alphabet pasta, a little rubbing alcohol, and a fair amount of food coloring. The pasta was only 33 cents a bag! The funny thing is, if I’d have bought Da Vinci’s brand a few aisles over, the pile would have cost me close to $20 instead of just 5 bucks. Word to the wise: Check the Mexican food aisle first.
To color the pasta, I followed the same procedure I used when coloring rice. You can read about it in my Colored Rice Sensory Bin post.
To begin the activity, I had my Five use a Sharpie marker to write one letter on each of 26 glass gems. As she is always begging me to use the Sharpie (and I always say no), she was thrilled.
Then we buried the gems in the letters and gave my Two this Spring printable:
Get a copy here: Spring Alphabet Match
First he dug his hands into the letters (something all my kids have enjoyed doing in the days preceding this activity).
As he dug out the letters he named them and found their match on the printable.
His big sister really enjoyed helping him find the letters. He needed a little help with some letter names, too.
This was so interesting that my Four climbed up to watch, too.
If you’re wondering why we were doing this on the table, it’s because I have a 14-month old who would not be able to keep his hands out of this box of choking hazards.
My Two loved it and was ready to play again when we finished. For a similar idea, see Letter Hunt & Match.
Alphabet Curriculum for Preschool
$36.00
Our curriculum includes lessons for teaching both upper and lowercase letter names and sounds. You’ll get three lessons per letter, built-in review, simple handwriting practice, rhyming, syllable counting, phonemic awareness, and a whole lot more!
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em
You are a genius! Thank you!!!!
Karyn
I love that you used the Alphabet pasta! What a fun idea. Thanks for linking to Share It Saturday. I’ll be featuring this tomorrow.
annageig
Thanks so much for the feature, Karyn!
Ann @ My Nearest and Dearest
What a fun way to practice the alphabet! I love all your letter activities, Anna. You have great ideas! 🙂
annageig
Thanks for commenting a couple weeks ago, Ann – sorry I’m late with this reply! I have really been enjoying your blog, too – you have such beautifully simple ideas for exploring the world. That’s not my strength, so I love the inspiration!
Lindsay
Love this idea! Thanks for sharing!
annageig
Thanks for stopping by, Lindsay! I’m a little late replying to you — using today’s naptime to catch up on my comments 🙂
Pinkoddy
This is an amazing idea – and something I could really do with my youngest too. Thanks for sharing – oh and loving the Spring theme again.
Debbie @ http://kidsbibledebjackson.blogspot.com/
That looks like fun! Thanks for sharing the ideas at TGIF!
annageig
Sorry to be so late to reply to your comment, Debbie — thanks so much for visiting and commenting 🙂