- 5 - 15 mins
- Fine motor, colour mixing, science concepts
- Minimal mess
- Easy
- Minimal Preparation
This simple activity is a quick and easy learning experience that will encourage phonics or word building depending on your child’s level and ability. This activity aims to engage children in phonemical awareness which is the ability to hear sounds in a word and identify letter-sound relationships through a play-based way.
The aim is for your child to have a hands-on approach to literacy learning. Your child will be asked to dig through the rice, find an object and match it to the matching letter-sound or word (if your child is at that level). We began by using initial letter-sounds which is the first sound in the word; but built on this by adding words to read as an additional challenge. Super simple, easy and full of literacy learning and fun!
What you will need
- Sensory rice
- Container or tray
- Paper
- Markers
- Various play objects to find
Activity steps
Setup
- Fill your container with sensory rice.
- Gather a bunch of play objects and lie them out.
- With your markers write the initial letter-sound for each object on a piece of paper. I used upper and lower case.
- Put all the objects in the container and hide them in the rice.
How to play
- Give your child the container of rice with objects and ask them to pull out an object one at a time.
- Encourage your child to label the object and then find the initial letter-sound and match it to the letter on the paper next to the container. You may need to support your child and help them sound out a word.
- Repeat the above for each item until all objects have been found.
Extension
- Try the same activity above but put a range of objects with the same letter-sound into the container. This time your child can only place one object on each letter-sound! A great way for them to differentiate and recognise similar letter-sounds as well as add an extra challenge to the activity.
- Try the same activity but instead use sight words or words of interest. Can they sound out, read a word and match an object?
Learning Opportunities
- Early literacy- Your children will be encouraged to engage in preliteracy concepts. They will be encouraged to engage and practice letter recognition, letter-sound relationships, phonological awareness and early literacy reading skills.
- Sensory awareness- Your child will engage with their senses to feel around and dig for objects. Sensory play encourages learning through exploration, curiosity, problem-solving and creativity. It helps to build nerve connections in the brain and encourages language and motor skills.
- Fine motor- Your child will use their fine motor skills, to dig and hunt for various objects. They will manipulate the objects to discover what they are which will help to support them matching their letters -sounds.
Reference sites
We would like to acknowledge these amazing sites that have inspired us to create this activity. Thank you!