Letter Drawers

I can't remember where I got this idea, but it has been a great game for my kids on days when we are looking for something to do!  This particular Alphabet Activity was easy to make and has created a nice little storage space for all the small random toys I find in my house that need a home.

All you need to get started is one of these garage/miscellaneous drawer organizers.  Matt and I purchased this for nails and odd tools in our basement and when I wanted to create this activity I quickly found a different home for all of the things occupying these drawers! ( I like when I don't have to buy new things, but can make use of something already in the house.)

Once you have the organizer all you need to do is type up your letters in a word document, print them out and tape them to each drawer.  You can easily find things around your house that begin with each letter and begin to fill up your drawers.  I picked up a bag of small animals at the zoo when we were there.  You can also find random bags of fun at any dollar store.  Another option would be to print out and laminate pictures from the computer or magazines that could go into the drawers. (I always laminate things like this with packaging tape.)


The Way We Play:

• I lay a variety of objects on the table and the kids have to say the name of the object.
• Once they discover the first letter and sound of the object they put it in the corresponding letter drawer.

Alternative Way to Play:

• You can also keep all of the objects in the drawers and make the "first letter" sound of the object you are thinking of.
• Then have the kids open the drawer and see if they got it right.
• The one who gets the object right gets to keep it in front of them.  The one with the most objects at the end is the winner.

**Teaching Tip: This is a great game to get the kids thinking about objects and their corresponding letter sounds.  The drawers display both Capital and Lower Case Letters, which is just another way to expose them to the Alphabet at an early age.  For really young kids, you don't need to include letter sounds, but simply use the drawers to practice letter recognition with their favorite small items or toys.  My really little guy just loves opening and closing the drawers and playing with the objects...this is great fun too!

Whatever you do...just have fun doing it and so will your children!