Letter Boxes

From: I Can Teach My Child

Making letter recognition meaningful for preschoolers is crucial.  Getting your child to automatically recognize letters is great, but children will retain information much more once they have had a variety of experiences with those letters.  Making it fun and multi-sensory will ensure that they are understanding what they are learning.

1.  Here’s what you’ll need:  baby food containers (or other small containers) and letter stickers.  If you don’t have letter stickers, you can just use a sharpie and write the letters on the containers.

2.  Let your child put the letter stickers on each box. 

3.  Go on a scavenger hunt and start filling them!  Opening and closing the boxes is a great fine-motor practice.  This also services as a learning opportunity for sizes–whether things are too big or too little to fit in the boxes.

C for car…

and carrot!

4.  Continue with the other letters. 

5.  A shoebox would be a great place to keep the containers.  Empty them out every so often and let your child have a new adventure looking for things that begin with each letter.

*A variation of this activity for 5+ years could also include looking for letters in newspapers and magazines.

**Use caution when using these boxes around younger siblings (babies) who put small items in their mouths.  These should be put away in a safe place, away from reach of tiny fingers.