Literacy & ABCs
SensoryPreschoolersKindergartners17 Comments
Make this I Spy sensory bag for all types of learning, including sight words and letters like we did!
Sight words have been the talk here in this house this past week or so.
So, now we’ve been practicing a bunch and reminding him a bunch to turn them into his teacher.
Practicing sight words has been pretty easy here. Henry’s usually pretty excited about doing it and reading the list back to me usually satisfies him.
But we do throw in a sight word activity here and there for some fun.
More ways to learn sight words! Try these 12 hands on learning activities to learn sight words.
I Spy Sensory Bag for Sight Words & Letters
Recently, I came across a very cool sensory bag idea on Playdough to Plato to practice sight words.
I quickly made two of these I Spy sensory bags for Henry and George. A sight word one for Henry and a letter one for George.
We did them slightly different than Playdough to Plato, so make sure you check out what she used for hers.
On a piece of scrapbook paper, I wrote down Henry’s sight words from the last a couple of lists that he’s working on. All over, up and down, sideways, very random.
And did the same with capital letters for George.
I then cut it to fit into a gallon baggy and slipped it inside.
Be smarter than me, and cut your paper firs. Then write the sight words on it.
For our sensory element, we used dry white rice. I think oatmeal would be a fun one too!
I poured in a bunch of rice in the baggies, on top of the papers, and then sealed them up.
Hunting for Letters in Your Sensory Sight Word Bag
The boys then began their hunt for sight words and letters.
For Henry, I had him write down the sight words as he found them.
I made a list of the letters for George and as he found them, he’d mark the letters he found.
We’ve also done this with dish soap in the bag instead of rice.
This activity is a mainstay in our house for learning sight words! A couple years later… here’s Louis searching for letters:
It was hard for them at first to move the rice around, they were struggling and couldn’t find any of the letters or words.
Then one of them picked up the bag to show me something, and all the rice dumped to the side and they realized they could find a whole bunch at one time then.
So they did that over and over, tipping the rice from side to side to find all the words and letters.
Hey, it still got them searching for them and helped them learn, right?
Here are 48 ways to explore with sensory bags!
We’ve tried this I Spy sensory bag with tons of other learning concepts, too!
- Numbers
- Lowercase letters
- Shapes
- Rhyming words (find two that rhyme)
- Letters in their name
- Addition problems (and then solve them) or vice versa, give them addition problems and they have to search to find the answer
- Basic pictures (house, cat, flag) for them to name
25 Sensory Activities for Kids
Sight Word Jump & Grab
12 Sight Word Activities with a Lot of Hands on Learning
20+ Activities to Start Learning Letters
35 Fun Name Activities Perfect For Preschoolers
Paola says
It is complicated and non-stimulating for a 3 year old
Erin Parker says
I’m going to try this sensory bag with my 7 year old. He has a number of sensory things going on, thanks for the great idea. Excellent site by the way – I’m a parent of a Special Needs child and a Special Ed teacher, there was some interesting info there, I’ve bookmarked you!
Heather Williams says
Hi this was the 1st of my 7 day challenge. My little girl is only a year old. She was two months premature so her corrected age is 10 months. However she is at that in between stage where she can’t really walk or talk on her own but she is into everything! I joined because I’m running out of ways to keep her entertained. This challenge was a little above he ability but we tried it anyway. I made three bags. Two with her name and birthday. I filled them with couscous as I didn’t have rice. She played with them. Tho not as the challenge was intended they did give her a lot of fun shaking the bags and she did notice the letters and hearts I drew on the paper. The third bag I tried a slight variation. I put a few foam letters in a bag. Then I filled the bag with shaving cream. That bag was a hit. She played with it for almost 10 minutes. Squishing and squeezing it. I did double bag both as a precaution due to her age. Just in case she broke them open. At this stage everything goes in her mouth. Thanks for the fun ideas
Hannah Knecht says
I love how you differentiated this same activity for your children’s different learning needs depending on where they were at in their learning process (sight words vs. capital and lowercase letters)! So creative! Thank you for sharing!
Renee Kelley says
You could this activity baggie to teach older students, i.e., find the name of a landform and then write it on a map or find a picture of it in the stack of cards.
Rachel says
I love those variations!
Liz says
Great activity! 5 yo used shaving cream to find letters of alphabet along with a key. Had attention span to find about half the letters, finished the other half later in the day.
Mikayil says
Love ur methods so muchhhhhhhh, thank u , I appreciate a lot . I have learnt so many , I am a teacher in China , not a Chinese though ,the way you treat ur kids and concerns u have shown to ur kids is really impressive .
Ilenia says
Hi. I am from Naples, italy. My daugther attends an American school in naples.
I will start today with the 7 days challenge. Can’t wait to send you the pictures!!! Thanks a lot for your beautiful ideas!!!
Ilenia
Megan says
This was our first day of the 7 day Challenge. My 3 year old daughter loved playing this game with me. I used yellow split peas, because we happened to be out of rice.
I think we will try it out with different fun stickers later on, too.
Colleen says
I love this idea! I was having trouble getting my son to practice his sight words and I think this activity will help!
claudia says
Is George (3 yo) writing his name? My Sofia will not practice writing her name and her letters. What can I do to motivate her?
Jamie Reimer says
I doubt he was at the time – he’s not 5 and write his name and has been for about a year I believe — it took him awhile. I shared these fun ways to practice writing your name – have you seen it? https://handsonaswegrow.com/practice-name-writing-preschoolers/
Marysue says
Thank you! The activities look great! :)
Krystal says
Super clever idea. I’m going to incorporate this into the classroom!