We love DIY activities in my house. If I could create something new for my children to explore every day…I would! But, with a kindergartener, preschooler, toddler, and baby, I just don’t have that kind of time! So, one of my favorite things to do, is to take the DIY materials that I have already created and present them in a new way.
My preschooler is currently working on identifying the letters in his name. He can recognize his name, but doesn’t always remember what each letter is called. And my 2 year old is just becoming interested with his name. So, I decided to throw together an activity to give them a little more exposure to their names and add a fine motor element, because…well, why not?!
It was super quick to put together since I already had the materials prepared. Here is what you will need:
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Materials
- Rainbow chick peas
- Salt Dough Name – or a wooden name puzzle (You can even carve it out of a piece of cardboard if you prefer!)
- Tweezers or tongs
- Silicone cupcake liners
- Container to hold the chick peas (we used a wooden box from one of our Melissa and Doug Puzzles
- Drop cloth to container the rolling chick peas
How To
The first thing you will need to do (if you don’t already have them lying around) is to make your rainbow chick peas and salt dough name. Follow the links above to see how these DIY materials are created. You can always use a wooden name puzzle if you don’t want to make salt dough, but it is super easy to do!
Once you have your rainbow chick peas and salt dough name ready to go, set up is a breeze!
- Lay down your drop cloth (you can use a towel if you don’t have a drop cloth)
- Set out your rainbow chick peas and add tweezers or tongs
- Lay down the salt dough name and set up a few silicone cupcake liners (these extend the play beyond the name focus)
- Add your sweet toddler, preschooler or kindergartener and show them how to place the chick peas on their name
- Sit back and enjoy a few minutes to yourself!
Related: Looking for more letter practice? Try this quick and easy set up. It’s a winner every time!
Enjoy!
I had so much fun watching my kiddos engage with this activity. My 6 year old decided to make his name a rainbow, filling each letter in a different color. My 4 year old wanted his name all red (no surprise there, haha!). And my 2 year old was much more interested in filling up the cupcake liners than playing with his name. Totally age appropriate! To try to entice him a bit, I filled out the first 2 letters for him so he could see what the activity was all about.
Although filling in their names only took a few minutes, this activity lasted for nearly 30 minutes! That was thanks to the extension I included by adding tweezers and cupcake liners. My littles bounced back and forth between their name plates and the cupcake liners sorting, counting and organizing the chick peas.
While they are engaging in this activity, it is the perfect time for you to add some questioning to their play. What letter is that? How do you spell your name? What color did you make your Aa?
They may be simple questions, but by engaging with your cutie, you are helping him start to make connections and identify some letters. It’s not going to happen overnight, but every exposure our children have to letters is one step closer to them mastering that all important skill.
Looking for more letter activities? Check out another way that we play with letters here!
Thank you so much for reading, sweet friend! As always, you can find us over on Pinterest and see what we are up to on Instagram. Follow along to see what is inspiring our play!
