DIY Alphabet Box

 

As a mother and former preschool teacher, I'm always on the lookout for great activities that will help children learn to recognize letters in the alphabet and their sounds.  In preschool we focus a lot on this, so I'm excited to share the Alphabet Box I made.

Thanks to Counting Coconuts for inspiring me with this idea. Check out her blog for ideas on she uses her Alphabet Box. It's quite easy to put together. 

For the box, I used a plastic hardware box with plastic drawers. I found this one at Wal Mart in the hardware section. It was black with clear drawers so I jazzed it up a bit with black and white polka dot washi tape around the entire outside. I also used two different  gray washi tapes on the drawers. Then used my cricut to cut out vinyl lettering for each drawer.          

Now for the fun part, gathering a bunch of small objects to go with each letter. You can find a lot just laying around the house but you can also find some on Etsy,  Lakeshore Learning, the dollar store, or a party supply store. I tried to get a least 6 objects for each letter. Some letters like X are harder to find that many objects for.  For this letter I found objects that had the letter x in them like ax, fox, box, wax.

Here is an example of the objects for the letter B. I'm excited to keep adding objects to the drawers because it's fun for the kids to  open each drawer and see what's in there!

DIY Fishing Activity

Every day I'm on the hunt for some kind of activity to keep my little guy entertained. He's so busy moving from one thing to the next, especially if it involves climbing. With the other kids in school all day, I'm lucky to have a lot of playing time with him.

I made a go fishing activity that he could do now as well as when he gets older. Each fish contains a small super strong magnet in the head to make it easier to catch with the larger magnet hook that's on the pole.

I was going to wait and give this to him for Christmas but I couldn't wait. As soon as he woke from his nap, we went fishing!! (Opps, I didn't even take the time to comb his hair for the picture). 

Materials needed:

Variety of fabrics
Fish template-found HERE 
Sewing machine
Poly Fil- I used one bag for 10 fish
Magnets-(I used Super Magnets for inside the fish and larger regular magnets for the hook on the pole).
Wooden dowel-What ever length you want
Paint- for painting wooden dowel, optional
String- I used bakers twine but any kind of string would work
Glue Gun

Instructions
*After choosing your fabrics, trace the fish template onto the wrong side of the fabric. You'll need 2 pieces for each fish. Then cut each fish out and place right sides together for sewing.  

Magnetic Hook

To make the magnetic hook, you'll need a piece of scrap fabric, a large magnet, string, hot glue and ribbon. Tie one end of the string to the magnet. You could always glue the string to the magnet as well. Wrap the fabric around the magnet and hot glue fabric together. This is so the little ones can't get the magnet out. Then tie a ribbon around the bunched fabric and tie the other end of the string to the pole.

Happy Fishing!