Alphabet Sticky Tray

Learning the Alphabet through Play - Alphabet Sticky Tray

Yesterday I announced the start of my new series, Learning the Alphabet through Play.  The intent of this series is to introduce letters and sounds in playful games and activities.  I'm not looking for mastery or learning to read at age three.  I am presenting age appropriate activities to my twin three year olds and then following their cues.  Today I set up an alphabet sticky tray.  We have done sticky table art, sticky window crafts, and sticky wall learning many times in the past, and my boys always love the sticky texture.

How to Make an Alphabet Sticky Tray

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Supplies:

• cookie sheet or tray
• contact paper
• letters
• tape

Directions:  I covered two cookie sheets (Dollar Tree) with contact paper, sticky side out, securing the contact paper in place with packing tape.  I put some letters in a bowl for each boy and set the items up on our picnic table outside.

Tank and Peanut did not need any instructions or prompting to begin placing the letters on the sticky trays.

Of course they had to experiment with the sticky paper.

Tank showed more interested in the alphabet learning part of this activity.  He held up each letter and asked me the name.  He also said each color.

Peanut found matching letters and paired them up on his tray.

I mentioned in my introduction post for this series that I intend to follow the lead of my boys in our activities.  What this means is that if neither of them demonstrated an interested in saying the letter names and sounds I would have left it alone and let them focus on the sticky aspect of the activity.  At this age learning should never be pushed or forced but rather guided as their interested is piqued.

As much as they enjoyed placing the letters on the sticky trays, Tank and Peanut loved peeling the letters off even more.  This is a great activity for boosting fine motor skills, and it made the clean up a cinch!

For more ideas for learning the alphabet through play follow me on Pinterest.

More alphabet activities for preschool:

Preschool Activities for Fall ~ ABC Eruptions ~ Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Alphabet Tree