Learning the Alphabet Sensory Style

 Rosie has recently taken an intense interest in the alphabet, so we have been doing a variety of early literacy activities.  One of Rosie's favorites has been creating a sensory letter alphabet.

Since children learn and retain the most information when every sense is reached, I thought a sensory alphabet would be a great way to reinforce Rosie's letter recognition and begin introducing the concept of words. 

All that we need to create our sensory letters is  glue, paper, and a variety of sensory materials.

Whenever we are ready to add more letters to our collection, we go on a hunt in our kitchen for sensory materials that begin with each letter we are making.

Once we have our materials gathered, we first explore them.  

We talk about the color and smell of each material.  

Then it is time to make our letters.

Once we draw the letter on the paper using the clear glue, Rosie adds the varying sensory materials.  This gives the letters texture and scent.

Handling the materials is a great way for Rosie to explore new textures and scents

Exploring new materials  is also a great way to expand Rosie's vocabulary.

We used rainbow sprinkles to create the letter S

After adding the sprinkles, Rosie and I talked about the word sprinkles, and how it begins with an S

As we make new letters, we add them to our Sensory Letter Journal.

At first, we were only creating the upper case letter, but I recently decided to add the lower case letters too! Rosie has fantastic upper case letter recognition,  so we are beginning to focus more on the lower case alphabet.  

We still have lots of sensory letters to add to our collection.  Here are the materials we have used for the letters we have made so far.

We used apple flavored sugar candy for the letter A

We used blueberry tea for the letter B

We used coffee grinds for the letter C

We used dirt for the letter D

We used garlic for the letter G

We used peach flavored tea for the letter P

We have not been making our letters in order.  I have been asking Rosie which letters she wants to make, and she picks two or three at a time to make.  Rosie is having a lot of fun exploring the alphabet in this way.

I already have lots of ideas for materials to use to make the rest of our sensory letters.  I am thinking we will use egg shells for the letter E and flakes of some sort to make the F.   I look forward to sharing more sensory letters as we add them to the collection.  

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