Snowflake Sensory Bin Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

Snowflake Sensory Bin Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters of the Alphabet

For Christmas this year, I created three smaller sensory bins for our son, Ben. I picked up three clear 6 quart containers with latching lids from Target and filled them up with lots of fun items. Today, I am sharing the snowflake sensory bin that I created for Ben to practice his uppercase and lowercase letters.

Ben is fairly consistent with being able to identify all of the uppercase letters of the alphabet. Recently, the focus has turned more to identifying the lowercase letters. So, I thought that this would be a fun activity to bridge the gap.

Snowflake Sensory Bin Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

SUPPLIES

Plastic Bin

Rice

Snowflakes

Glittery Styrofoam Balls

Recycled Water Bottle Caps

Paper

Markers

Optional: Scoops and/or Tweezers

I purchased most of the materials at our local Dollar Tree, which is one of my favorite places to shop for art supplies and sensory bin fillers.

Snowflake Sensory Bin Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Begin by assembling the snowflake sensory bin. This could not get any easier. First, dump a bag of rice into the clear container. Then, add the snowflakes and small glittery styrofoam balls.

Snowflake Sensory Bin

2. Next, using a black permanent marker, write the uppercase letters of the alphabet on the recycled water bottle caps (one letter on each cap). After you have finished, add the bottle caps to the sensory bin.

3. Once the sensory bin has been assembled, it is time to draw snowflakes on the paper. The center of the snowflakes should be a circle that you can write the lowercase letters of the alphabet in the middle. I used three pieces of paper to get all 26 letters in snowflakes.

Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

4. Finally, set everything out for your child. Explain how to find the bottle caps in the snowflake sensory bin and match the uppercase letter to the lowercase letter on the paper. Then let them take it from there. I also gave him a few different scoops to use in the sensory bin.

Snowflake Sensory Bin with Water Bottle Cap Letters

INVITATION TO PLAY AND LEARN

Ben absolutely loves sensory bins! He really enjoyed digging in to find the different letters. He did a great job matching the uppercase letters with the lowercase letters. However, he did need help with some of the harder lowercase letters.

Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters using Recycled Water Bottle Caps
Snowflake Sensory Bin

This was such a fun activity. After Ben matched the letters, he continued to play with the snowflake sensory bin. He even built a maze out of blocks and had the styrofoam balls navigate their way through it.

Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters
Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters using Water Bottle Caps

I hope that you give this sensory bin a try with your little ones, since it is both educational and fun. Yay!

Snowflake Sensory Bin Matching Uppercase and Lowercase Letters

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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children. As your child’s parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family. I always encourage contacting your child’s pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies). Observe caution and safety at all times. The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.

How to Make a Recycled Cardboard Monster

Recycled Cardboard Monsters

This week’s homework assignment was to make monsters out of recycled cardboard. Challenge accepted. I love crafts, and I especially love reusing or repurposing items. Therefore, making a cardboard monster was right up my alley.

This is a fun activity that allows your child to use their imagination. What do you want your monster to look like? Is it going to be big or small? How many eyes will it have? Does it have antennas?

Recycled Cardboard

SUPPLIES

Cardboard Boxes (tissue boxes, cereal boxes, etc.)

Toilet Paper or Paper Towel Rolls

Googly Eyes

Glue and/or Tape

Construction Paper

Scissors

Art Supplies (such as feathers, pompoms, dabbers, markers, and pipe cleaners)

Divided Tray

Art Supplies Tray

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Set Up Supplies

I assembled a bin of random cardboard boxes and toilet paper rolls. You could also add paper towel rolls, tin cans (be careful of sharp edges), plastic bottles, and bottle caps. In addition to these, I set out a tray with colorful feathers, bright popsicle sticks, pompoms, pipe cleaners, googly eyes, and construction paper cut into shapes. You can have your child cut out the shapes that they want. I leave this to your discretion as you know your child’s skills best. Finally, I laid out construction paper, markers, glue, tape, bingo dabbers, and scissors.

Recycled Cardboard Monsters

2. Pick Out Your Cardboard Materials

First, I had Ben pick out a box. He wanted to make a tall cardboard monster, so he picked out one of the bigger boxes. You can either add legs and arms now or after you decorate the main box. We chose to add them at the end, which made it easier to to decorate. Plus, it takes awhile for the glue to dry when attaching the legs, arms, etc.

3. Color Your Monster

Next, we used construction paper to color our cardboard monster, but you could also use crayons, markers, paint, or even wrapping paper.

When asked what color did he want to make his monster, Ben exclaimed, “Rainbow!” We cut out colorful panels of construction paper that Ben attached with glue to each side.

Recycled Cardboard Monsters

4. Decorate Your Monster

Let your child’s imagination run wild. It’s time to decorate your monster. Be creative.

Recycled Cardboard Monsters
Recycled Cardboard Monsters

5. Assemble Cardboard Monster

Time to put your monster together. Add its legs, arms, tails, and antennas with either glue or tape. Allow time for everything to dry before playing with your recycled cardboard monster.

Recycled Cardboard Monsters

TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES

This activity teaches so much to your child. Not only are they working on their engineering and fine motor skills, your child can works on shapes, numbers, math, counting, colors and more.

Here are some ideas:

– Name colors of the the items that you are using.

– How many eyes, arms, antenna, etc.? Add or subtract items.

– Name shapes that you are using. I cut out different shapes to be used and asked him to name which shapes he wanted to use.

– Name body parts as you are adding them to the monster.

These are just a few ideas of lessons that you can work on while creating your cardboard monster. I would love to hear what lessons you worked on with your little one while making cardboard monsters.

Recycled Cardboard Monsters

Alternative Cardboard Monster

If you do not want to make a big cardboard monster with lots of parts, I suggest making some with just a single toilet paper roll. We covered ours with construction paper, but you could use markers or paint to color it. Then add your decorative items like above. Aren’t they cute?!

Toilet Paper Roll Monsters
Toilet Paper Roll Monsters

For more monster fun, check out our DIY Colorful Monster Play Dough Kit.


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All activities here are activities I feel are safe for my own children. As your child’s parents/guardians, you will need to decide what you feel is safe for your family. I always encourage contacting your child’s pediatrician for guidance if you are not sure about the safety/age appropriateness of an activity. All activities on this blog are intended to be performed with adult supervision. Appropriate and reasonable caution should be used when activities call for the use of materials that could potentially be harmful, such as scissors, or items that could present a choking risk (small items), or a drowning risk (water activities), and with introducing a new food/ingredient to a child (allergies). Observe caution and safety at all times. The author and blog disclaim liability for any damage, mishap, or injury that may occur from engaging in any of these activities on this blog.