Alphabet Pom Pom Sensory Bin

Even though we are using Letter of the Week themes in our homeschool preschool, we are still exploring the alphabet as a whole. One fun way we're doing that is with this fantastically fun alphabet pom pom sensory bin. This activity was extremely quick to put together since I already had most of the materials.

I used

• pom poms in a variety of colors and sizes,

• foam letters,

• black posterboard,

• and white crayon.

alphabet pom pom sensory bin

Please note: Pom poms can be a choking hazard.  Please supervise young children carefully.

I laid out the foam letters alphabetially on the black posterboard and traced them with the white crayon. Then I tossed the pom poms and foam letters together into a plastic storage container. 

Knowing that pom poms are a big temptation for little hands, I give some time for free play when first presenting this alphabet sensory bin to my daughter.Pom poms just have to be tossed in the air!

(This makes a big mess, but they're fast and easy to pick up. It takes about two minutes to scoop them all up with a clean dustpan.) 

Then we get busy finding letters and matching them to the alphabet posterboard.This provides a lot of opportunity to practice a variety of skills.Pooky had to:

• name individual letters

• match the foam letter to its outline

• orient the letter correctly on the posterboard

Once all the letters are placed in their spot on the posterboard, I ask Pooky to use them to say the alphabet.Pooky has played with this alphabet sensory bin several times. I've also used it repeatedly with our group of homeschool preschoolers. (They're not pictured since I didn't get parent permission for all of them.) But it was no problem to get five kiddos between the ages of 2-4 around this sensory bin since I used a large container. (Luckily, we have a pom pom hoarding habit.)

Take it Further!Use this as an opportunity to really talk about the individual letters. As the child is placing a letter on the posterboard, ask him/her questions such as the following.

• What sound does that letter make?

• Is it in the beginning, middle, or end part of the alphabet?

• What letter does it come after?

• What letter does it come before?

• Is that one of the letters in your name?

When it's time to clean up, we race against our visual timer to try and get the pom poms all back into the bin before the timer goes off.I love this alphabet sensory bin because it is a ton of fun for the kids and it's an instant alphabet activity! Pooky seems to really enjoy it too!For more great ways for young kids to work with the alphabet, check out my Letter Study board on Pinterest.