Phonics sensory box

This is an easy phonic activity which makes learning phonics fun.

Set Up

It really is as simple as dumping objects starting with two different letters sounds in the box and putting the shredded paper on top. And it is ready to go. You should be able to find objects around the house. Raid the kitchen and the toy box! If you want you can also add the two sounds written on cards (I use these, which I highly recommend) so that your child can sort the objects onto them and recognise the letter that makes the sound.

As soon as the girls saw the activity the were instantly intrigued. “What is it?” “What’s in there?” Once I said they had to find the objects inside the box M. was straight in there. F. was a little more tentative and initially was reluctant to dig her hands in. Instead instructing “Mama” to find things for her.

However, once she realised she could find the objects by throwing the paper out, shredded paper went everywhere. M. was keen to do the activity “properly” and when a toy was found I asked M. what sound it started with and then she was in charge of sorting the objects according to correct sound card. With F. I focussed on showing her the sign for the object. It all started off tame and gradually they spurred each other on to get messier and messier.

The girls loved it and I loved how easy it was to clear up afterwards. Afterwards we put the objects and paper back in the box and then played the whole thing again but this time M. had to guess just by feeling what object she had found.

M. also had the follow on activity of practicing writing the sounds that were in the activity. And of course F. had to do “writing” too, which they got on with whilst I started dinner.

This is definitely an activity which we will do again and again as it really was so simple in every way. They had so much fun and some learning even took place!