If I had to pick just one skill that was the absolute most important foundational skill for learning, I would say that it was this: Learning the Alphabet.
Of course there are many important skills for young learners to master, but the alphabet is the foundation for reading and writing. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your job is. You use the alphabet every day! Reading emails, shopping at the store, sending text messages, checking mail; you have to use the alphabet for all of it!
It is because of this that so many of my activities when my kiddos are young revolve around the alphabet. Playing, sorting, matching, sounding out, forming; there are so many different ways to play! This Alphabet Muffin Tin Activity is a great introduction to the alphabet and a wonderful way to involve kiddos in a tactile way. Let’s check it out:
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Materials
- Chunky Alphabet Puzzle *The puzzle pictured is currently unavailable, this one is similar!
- 12 count muffin tin (or 2, depending on how large your letters are)
- Tin Foil
How To
This is a super simple set up that I like to do the night before, so my activity is ready to go.
- Grab your alphabet puzzle and muffin tins. Add one letter to each tin (you would need 2 trays) or 2 letters to each tin (you can use one tray) depending on the letter size. You want to make sure that the letters aren’t sticking out of the tins, or it will be harder for your child to poke and extract. Since there are 26 letters, you will obviously have to double or triple a few letters.
*If you don’t have muffin tins, you can use any kind of container that is a few inches deep. Just put all the letters in there and foil it closed. Be sure, however, that you do not use a glass container for this activity. Small kids and glass are not a winning combination unless you are sitting right there with them the entire time!
2. Once all of the letters are placed, grab a sheet of tin foil large enough to cover the entire muffin tin and close it up. You can always use 2 smaller sheets if your foil is not large enough to cover the entire thing.
3. Add eager kiddos and model how to do the first tin. Poke a hole with your finger and pull the letter out. Find that letter’s place on your alphabet puzzle board and put it there.
That’s it! Now, sit back and watch the magic as your little pokes, extracts, and matches those letters. They may not know the name of each letter yet, but that is perfectly ok!
Our Alphabet Puzzle has pictures that match the letters in each space (ex. the Aa space has a picture of an apple on it) to help my kids start to connect letters to words. It is the perfect way to start working on beginning sounds. And, in my opinion, beginning sounds are waaaaayyyyy more important than knowing the letter names! Think about it. When you are reading, do you look at each letter individually and name it in your head or do you say the sound that it makes? The sound!
To help my kiddos make that letter/sound connection when we are doing this activity, I have a little catchy saying that I use for each letter (it’s the same one I used in my Kindergarten classroom!). It goes like this, “A for apple, A, A for apple”. And so on for each letter and picture combination. It helps those growing minds start to connect the letter to the picture in a low-pressure environment. And it’s catchy, so my littles will walk around the house repeating it!
Enjoy!
This one is truly a favorite in my home. It’s a surprise each time they get to poke into a muffin tin and extract the letters. So fun!
Thank you so much for reading, sweet friend. As always, you can find our favorites on Pinterest and see what we are up to on Instagram. For more alphabet activities check out this fun outdoor search!
