Sensory Play // Alphabet Hunt and Match Toddler Activity

Elian loved this simple rainbow rice alphabet hunt sensory activity I set up for him. I love finding play ideas that will help encourage his learning and letter or number recognition. As he gets older I can adapt these ideas to find and build certain words or sounds. This basic version is great for toddlers who are just starting out with their letter recognition, but this set up is great for a number of activities for kids of all ages, and you’ll find some ideas at the end for older kids.

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What you will need for this activity

• Alphabet Letters (we used a jigsaw like this but also have these foam letters too)
• A tub or tray (this one is a good size)
• Rainbow rice (see our super easy dyed rice tutorial here) or you can use plain rice its just not as appealing for little hands
• Floor mat (for easy clean up) or a tuff tray if you have one
• Pen and paper (to write letters on if not using a jigsaw)

How to set up your Alphabet Hunt Activities for Kids

To be honest this is super simple and pretty self explanatory

• Cover your floor with your mat or tuff tray (you’ll think me when your having to clean up all the spilled rice!)
• Add you rice to your tub
• Bury all the letters in the rice 
• If using a jigsaw just pop it down next to it, but if your using paper, just write all the letters on a large sheet of paper so little ones can match them up
• Invite your little one to play and enjoy

How to use the alphabet hunt activity for older children 

If your kids are a little older and you’d like to make this sensory play activity a little more educational or challenging here are a few ways you can progress the set up

• Introduce tweezers, tongs or even chop sticks for letter retrieval
• Only include the letters of certain words and challenge the kids to work out the words
• Talk through each of the letters as they find them, encouraging them to sound out the letter and think of words starting with the letter
• Set them a challenge to think of an animal, food, place, name, etc for each letter they find

Skills Developed During This Sensory Play Set-up

• Improves letter recognition 
• Increases attention to detail and ability to recognise similarities
• Strengthens fine motor skills and Hand/Eye coordination
• Encourages vocabulary and sound making
• Improve concentration