Sorting miniature objects by initial sound {101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet}

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When kids are learning the alphabet, they need to learn the sounds that each letter makes. The next installment in my 101 Ways to Teach the Alphabet Series is sorting miniature objects by their initial sound. This is a great exercise in reinforcing letter sounds and helping kids listen carefully to the sounds of words.

Click here if you want more information about teaching the alphabet in a fun, hands-on, and multi-sensory way. 

For this activity, I suggest you start by selecting just 2 or 3 letters for your child to focus on at one time.

When I did this activity with XGirl, she was working on hearing the difference between /b/ and the /p/, so those are the letters I chose. But you can just as easily do this activity with any other letter of the alphabet for which you can find objects starting with that sound. (So you probably wouldn’t use this activity to work on the ‘x,’ for example, because you won’t find many objects starting with the an ‘x.’ But ‘s’ and ‘t’ and ‘m,’ among many others, are all good choices.)

I set up this activity by placing a ‘b’ and a ‘p’ on either side of a tray. In between, I filled a bowl with miniature objects beginning with the /b/ and /p/ sounds, including a bucket, a block, a pear, and a pig. All of the miniature objects I used came from the Language Object Starter Set sold by Montessori Services.

XGirl selected one object at a time from the bowl. She named the object, then determined whether its initial sound was a /b/ or a /p/.

She then placed each object under the correct letter.

She continued placing all the objects until the bowl was empty.

This is a simple and effective way to help young children learn their letter sounds. My kids love doing hands-on activities using our Language Object Starter Set, and there are endless ways to use miniature objects to help kids learn language.

Have questions about teaching the alphabet? We’ve got answers! Click here to learn more.

More ways to teach to the alphabet

More alphabet posts from Gift of Curiosity:

• Letter hunt sensory bin
• Erasing letters with a Q-tip
• I spy letter hunt
• Spaghetti letters
• Letter puzzles
• Montessori sandpaper letters
• Smash the puffy letters
• Kinetic sand letters
• Letter hopscotch
• Letter hop
• Yarn wrapped letters
• Letter tic-tac-toe
• Rainbow letters

You can find more ways to teach the alphabet on my Literacy Activities for Kids page and my Letter Learning Pinterest board.

Follow Katie @ Gift of Curiosity’s board Learning Letters on Pinterest.