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July 9, 2010 by Jenae - 4 Comments
This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy.

Letter Boxes & Scavenger Hunt

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.

We have tons of baby food containers right now, so I thought what better way to recycle them than for them to be used as letter boxes! This activity is a little above Big Brother’s head right now since he is only 2 1/2, but I thought I could simplify it enough that he would at least have fun participating in the scavenger hunt.

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. I put them on myself because Big Brother doesn’t have the fine-motor control yet to manipulate these particular stickers without tearing them. I chose to do the letters that Big Brother hears on a daily basis–“D” for Daddy, “M” for Mommy, and “C” for Caleb. You can do as many or as few boxes as you would like.

3. Go on a scavenger hunt and start filling them! Big Brother obviously needed a lot of direction with my emphasizing the beginning sounds of the items we chose. Older children would be able to do this activity more independently. Opening and closing the boxes turned out to be great fine-motor practice for Big Brother. 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. Big Brother didn’t want to stop–but Little Brother woke up from his morning nap and needed our attention.
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.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tammy Dove says

    October 2, 2011 at 3:05 pm

    I work with autism children and I’m trying to find activities for these children to do. some are severe autism that doen’t like you in their space if you know of anything or have any thing that i can use i would appreciate it thanks Tammy

    Reply
  2. Kristen @ Titus 2 Work in Progress says

    December 24, 2011 at 4:56 pm

    Oh I love this idea. I have a TON of these containers and have been thinking of something to do with them. Pinned this. Thanks Jenae. You are awesome!!

    Reply
  3. Eva says

    September 3, 2015 at 10:01 am

    You can also find a great choice of miniatures at MIMIAbyMIA. There are various options at a great price. https://www.etsy.com/es/shop/MIMIAbyMIA

    Reply
  4. Clare Blackburn says

    January 12, 2016 at 1:56 pm

    Am expecting two great nephews at the weekend, aged 4 & 6 and need some ideas!

    Reply

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