Literacy Sensory Play

We gently incorporate letters and sounds into every day life to develop the children's awareness of the purpose of letters and gradually gain awareness of the sounds that each letter makes. The children love open ended sensory play so through introducing the bright coloured magnetic letters amongst the beans and animals the children naturally began to incorporate them into their play without adult prompting. 

Initially the children began to look for the letters that their name began with with one little boy particularly proud to locate the M for the start of his name, something that he is only just becoming aware of. The other children began to pick out familiar sounds as well as starting to put the letters together to form their full names. 

Throughout the play the children also used their fingers to draw patterns through the beans as well as using their fingers to place the beans within the pots provided, all the time developing the fine motor skills that will help them when they begin to write. The children talked constantly amongst themselves, making up stories about the animals and pretending it was raining as hard as  it had been in the park that morning! They even began to create names for the animals using the letters provided.