The Easiest Alphabet Sensory Bin for Preschoolers

Teaching letters to preschoolers is an important, fun skill. Your kids will love this alphabet sensory bin for preschoolers!

a young girl smiles and moves her hands in a sensory bin with colored rice and plastic letters getting ready for an alphabet sensory bin.

Preschoolers love an alphabet sensory bin

The number of alphabet sensory bins I have created over the years is in the tens of millions.

A limit for how many is too many does not exist.

You take a simple base like colored rice, oats, colored pasta, etc., toss in letters, and have a dynamite learning activity!

Related: Our GIANT 10-foot alphabet theme coloring poster is beyond popular with preschoolers!

You can likely set up your alphabet sensory bin today!

Because you only need letters and something to put them in, there’s a good chance you can set this up the moment you finish reading this.

We absolutely love, love, love the plastic letters used here (they’re translucent and gorgeous + the set includes numbers).

BUT, magnetic letters, alphabet beads, and alphabet puzzle pieces work just as well. Use what works best!

Are you looking for more sensory bin ideas? I’m so glad you asked!

Bug Sensory Bin – Friends Art Lab
Magnetic Apple Sensory Bin – Friends Art Lab
Pumpkin Oobleck Sensory Bin for Fall – Busy Toddler
Plant the Trees Sensory Bin – Happy Toddler Playtime

Red, yellow, green, and blue plastic letters scattered in colorful blue and purple rice.

Materials

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Letters – any kind
Sensory base – ex: rice, oats, pasta, garbanzo beans, sand, etc.
Large shallow container
Small bowls – optional
Pom poms – optional

A young girl smiles and holds a red letter and sorts it into a bowl. Four white bowls sit in a sensory bin of blue and purple bin and letters are sorted by color for this alphabet sensory bin.

Directions

Fill a shallow container with your sensory base (here I used dyed rice).

Next, add in your letters. Review the names and sounds with your child as you add them in.

WAYS TO PLAY

Idea 1 – I Spy: Repeat the saying, “I spy with my little eye the letter [letter name],” and invite your child to find it. For children who are still new to letters, don’t begin with all 26 letters as that could be overwhelming, and instead, use a small number to begin.

Idea 2 – Phonics Match: Say, “I’m looking for the letter that sounds like this [make a letter sound],” and invite your child to find it! When they find it, name words that begin with the same sound.

Idea 3 – What letter comes after? Name a letter (ex: r) and invite your child to find the letter that comes after (s). Repeat through multiple letters.

Idea 4 – Beginning letter hunt: Say something like, “I am looking for the first letter in the word [say a word],” and invite your child to figure out the letter, then find it.

Idea 5 – Let’s spell it: Using simple words, invite your child to find all the letters to spell easy words (ex: cat, sit, hop, tin, fun, etc.).

Idea 6 – Color sort: If you have letters of different colors (like we had here), invite your child to sort the letters by color.

Idea 7 – Pom Pom and Letter Sort: Using the same idea as “color sort,” invite your child to add pom poms that match the same colors as your letters and ask them to sort them all.