Teaching toddlers through play!!! Making a sensory Alphabet Board!!!

Getting children to be creative is easy. Place a few things in front of them and they will make something. Give them some old cloths and shoes and dressing up and pretending will give them hours of entertainment.

I also like to involve the children when I have a special project that needs to be created especially when it is something really simple. It gives them a sense of accomplishment and pride to do something themselves. So today I thought I would enlist the help of Miss 1 and Miss 3 in the creation of a sensory alphabet board for Master 5 and they could each make their own while we were at it.

We have been working on the alphabet with Miss 3 this week and after some discussion with Master 5’s teacher it was obvious that I needed to do the same for him. As he can not write or even hold a pencil at the moment I though this would be the next best thing.

What you need:
• A piece of cardboard or construction paper
• Sticky letters made from foam

I found my letters in the bargain bin at office works for 50 cents! But you can get them from any craft shop. I like the ones with the self adhesive back as glue doesnt really go well in my house, someone usually eats it or Master 5 glues himself together and I’m just not in the mood for that kind of mess today.

You place the letters on the page in the appropriate place ready to go and then simply stick each one at a time. I let Miss 3 make her own board and we went through the letters together as she was sticking them down. This reinforced the information as we were going and then afterwards we played with them going through the letters again. Miss 3 needed assistance making her alphabet board but had not problem just playing with all the other pretty sticky foams we had.

We also made some extra boards with just the vowels on them and one each with their names. I also want to make number boards and some with animals however I wasn’t able to find the correct stickers this time, but I will be on the look out.

Once the boards were finished we had to wait for Master 5 to get home from school so we could have some sensory play. I didn’t include him in the creation process this time as he finds peeling the little stickers extremely difficult and this gets him very frustrated and I was more interested in him learning some letters today not having a meltdown. Maybe in a couple of months we will give him a go and see how he does.

We all sat around the table and went through the alphabet together. The kids traced each letter with their fingers and of course Master 5 had to count them. He has no problem with counting at all. Miss 1 enjoyed her board immensely, after about five minutes she proceeded to pull the letters of one at a time ruining the whole thing before I could even get a photo, but she had a great time so that’s all the matters.

Once we had played with the boards for a while I decided to hang Master 5’s on the art easel. Having his board in a vertical position means he has to flex his hand and arm into the correct position as if he was writing on paper. We went through the letters again and he struggled a little to trace the last few. This was a clear sign that we were coming to the end of this activity.

It’s always best to stop before frustration or exhaustion sets in. Like I say in almost every post about my little munckins, it’s one step at a time. We decided to call it a day but not before Master 5 requested that we make some more boards out of different letters, so my mission this week will be to find as many different materials as possible to create extra boards with.

Sensory boards don’t have to be all about the alphabet either. We also made some with fairy’s and flowers. They also don’t have to only use stickers, that’s just what I had on hand this week. You can use anything. Paddle pop sticks, coloured glue and glitter to create a scratchy board. Buttons and beads, pasta or rice, honestly anything.

They also don’t have to be about the alphabet, we are just working on that at the moment so it was nice to link the two activities together. Sensory boards can have anything on them from words to animals, pictures or even just a big mess. All of these are sensory and provide stimulating play for little people.

In the coming weeks I’m going to be making several other sensory items including homemade lava lamps and weighted toy bags so keep a look out for those posts.

Thanks for reading.

@mumofmany.