How to make a Montessori Alphabet Box
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Introducing letters to your child with corresponding beginning-sound objects helps your child correlate beginning sounds when they see and feel an object. Literacy learning is a whole-body, sensory experience!
While I taught kindergarten, I would often make letter baskets with my children, which included several objects that began with the first letter of our Letter of the Week. When I first saw a Montessori Alphabet Box at Counting Coconuts, I knew that I had to make one for my own children.
My son is not at the stage of learning his phonetic sounds yet, but we will use his Alphabet Box in about a year, when I think he will understand the concept, and respect the contents of the drawers!
I am not specifying what age he will start, I am gauging when he is developmentally ready as a learner — it may be sooner or later with your child!
Here are the supplies I used:
- A drawer storage cabinet — looks like they don’t sell the 30 drawer one anymore, but here is a 27 drawer one, or you could always check your local hardware store to see if you can find one!
- I downloaded this alphabet chart from K-3 Teacher Resources in the font: US Zaner Bloser. I wanted to have upper and lower case on the boxes themselves. I cut out the letters and carefully taped them onto the boxes.
- Grab Bag of trinkets from the HighPie Etsy shop
- Various language and alphabet objects from Montessori Services
- I printed out the ABC Chart from Homeschool Creations and cut out the individual letters to put into each drawer
- For letter X: I included the x-ray picture from Homeschool Creations’ Alphabet Cut & Paste Sheets — you can cut a lot of these out if you don’t want to purchase objects!
- You may find some items at your house, so be on the look-out! (with Barbie sets, etc.) — I am still looking for little trinkets at Michael’s and little local gift shops to continue adding to my collection — I want to buy some awesome Toobs — if you have any more suggestions for where you can purchase, please let me know!
I should note that many of these items are huge choking hazards, so only use these learning materials when your child is ready to use them properly — and keep them away from any younger children!
Here are some learning suggestions:
- As you introduce letters, give your child the contents of a letter drawer and let him/her explore.
- Put a letter mat down and have your child place each object down while verbally speaking the name of the object. (I love the simple mats from Homeschool Creations, as well as any pages from 1+1+1=1’s Tot School ABCs.)
- Empty the contents of two letter drawers into a center tray. Have your child sort the objects under the letter card (or into its letter drawer). You can then give your child 3 trays and work from there.
- Place 2 to 5+ objects down and ask, “What object begins with a “mmm” sound?
- Counting Coconuts has a great picture to explain combining sandpaper cards and letter objects.
And here are all of our drawers:
Aa: apple, alligator, (airplane)
Bb: basket, bean, bear, bone, butterfly, bus
Cc: cat, cow, clothespin, cup, car, crown, Coke
Dd: dragonfly, dollar, dog, dice, deer, diamond
Ee: elephant, egg
Ff: flip flop, flamingo, french horn, fish, frog, flower
Gg: glasses, golf club, gorilla, (giraffe)
Hh: heart, hat, hanger, hummingbird, hammer
Ii: infant, ice
Jj: jug, jet, jack-o-lantern
Kk: kangaroo, koala, key
Ll: lion, lobster, lamp
Mm: mop, marble, mushroom, monkey, mermaid
Nn: nut, note
Oo: octopus, (owl)
Pp: panda, pig, pear, pencil, peacock
Qq: quarter, question mark
Rr: rhino, rabbit, ring
Ss: seal, saw, seashell, seahorse, star, scooter
Tt: tree, turtle, tennis ball
Uu: umbrella, unicorn
Vv: vacuum (!), violin, volleyball
Ww: whale
Xx: x-ray, xylophone
Yy: yarn ball, yarn
Zz: zebra, zipper
For more alphabet box inspiration, you can check out these posts:
- Living Montessori Now has so many wonderful Alphabet Box suggestions and examples.
- 1plus1plus1equals1 wrote about why “Hands on the Alphabet” helps children learn their letters and sounds.
- Teaching Mama has an inspiring post on her Alphabet Sound Boxes.
- I Can Teach My Child has fun Letter Boxes with a Scavenger Hunt!
Or you could make it really simple for yourself and buy this amazing set: Alphabet Sounds Tub! (It is $149, but it may be worth it to those who don’t want to spend the time to put it together!)
Looking for more Learning Activities at home? Check out my ABC Learning Pinterest Board!
Follow Wildflower Ramblings’s board ABC Learning on Pinterest.
And my Montessori Learning Pinterest Board!
Follow Wildflower Ramblings’s board Montessori on Pinterest.
Happy teaching!
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No pics of the kids…???
John hasn’t worked with this yet — he’s still a little too young!
Oh, I see… I didn’t actually read the post before, just looked at the pics. hehe! But I can’t believe you made this a YEAR before he is going to use it. You are nuts! …but in a good way ;) love ya!
Nice boxes!! :)
Where did you find the mini letter with the upper and lower case letter and drawing do you mind sharing that
This is so wonderful! Thank you for linking my alphabet sound box to your post!
Thanks, Angela ♥
Thanks so much for sharing what you put in the boxes and a bit about how to use the objects. I haven’t started doing letter learning in earnest with my kids but plan to start soon, and this gave me some really great ideas to get started!
Thanks, Katie! I can’t wait to use it with my son — I have seen so many children learn sounds from simply remembering the objects that match the letters!
Holy moly, Girl! You are on the ball. I bet your kids have a blast with all your fun activities!
Haha, you’re hilarious — I need to remember to do the activities and not just make them — I have a lot of fun “being creative” though :)
I love your ideas for where to get all the little trinkets. I love the idea of alphabet boxes, but I have always been so overwhelmed by having to buy all of the small objects. You make it look so easy, maybe I’ll finally give it a try!
I’m so glad that I encouraged you that it’s “do-able”!! Can’t wait to see what you come up with ;)
That is a really good idea, but my boy would put those little things in his mouth so I think I need to think about it on a bigger scale.
Thank you for sharing at #MotivationalMonday
This is why I won’t be using it with my son until he is around 3 1/2 or 4 years — there are some choking hazards here!! Thanks for visiting :)
This is such a great idea! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing this…I really want to make one of these! Yours is so cute:)
What a great resource, and such a nice way to organize the materials. I use one of those boxes to organize my magnetic letters, and I may need to create this kind of box as well. Thanks for linking up with Stress-Free Sunday! Hope you’re able to stop by again this week! :)
Hi there! I am co-hosting this week on the Raising Imperfetion Sunday Link Party. Thanks for sharing your creations with us! I hope you found inspiration in all of the terrific posts.
I host a (Not SO) Wordless Wednesday Blog Hop and a TGIF Link Party at my place — A Peek Into My Paradise… http://apeekintomyparadise.blogspot.com/ I would love for you to link up and follow if you like what you see. =) I follow back – I love making new friends!
I can’t wait to see what you link up next week!
Hugs, Cathy
What a great box Amy! Thank you for sharing :)
Thank you for linking to Raising Imperfection.
Please come back Friday to see if you were featured. :)
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(¸¤ Lanaya | xoxo
Raising-Reagan.com
OMGsh, what a fantastic idea!!!! I would never even have contemplated doing that! Thanks for sharing.
Your post has been selected to feature on this weeks Hearts of the Home Blog Hop on Monsters Ed. Congratulations!!! http://monstersed.wordpress.com/2013/06/27/hearts-for-the-home-blog-hop-5/
This is a beautiful learning toy. I love all of the little details you put in the boxes. Thanks for sharing at Mom’s Library! Pinned!
Thanks so much, Tulip :)
What a great learning tool. I really love the concept of this. I’d love to make one for Violet.
Thank you for linking up to Raising Imperfection!
Make sure to check back on Friday to see if you were featured.
Leslie
http://www.violetimperfection.com
Thanks, Leslie!!
This is amazing! I’d love it if you’d share this at the After School Linky Party on my blog right now (and every Monday): deceptivelyeducational.blogspot.com. Thanks!
I’m SO glad you linked up at the After School Linky. I’m featuring this tomorrow; stop by to check it out and share more of your extraordinary ideas and activities!
Nice breakdown of what you include in your alphabet boxes. Thanks for sharing!
Amy – I love this idea!! My kids would love it! I think I’m going to make this after we move!
I’m featuring your post at the Hearts for Home Blog Hop today! I hope you’ll stop by and link up again and grab an “I was featured” button!
Blessings!
http://www.myjoyfilledlife.com/2013/06/hearts-for-home-blog-hop-23.html
Thanks so much Sarah!!
Oh that’s cleaver. When my kids were learning their letters we gathered up household items that began with a particular letter and played with them for a while each morning before putting them back. I bet it’s fun for the kids to add items to the drawers.
I love this!! I pinned it to my preschool board :D Thank you for this amazing post. I’m following your blog. I found you through Violet Imperfection, today.
Found you through another linky! This is such a comprehensive post. I’ve been meaning to make something similar. If/when I do, I will link back to you! Thank you for sharing!
Lovely idea!
Just letting you know I’ve featured this on The Sunday Showcase: http://www.herecomethegirlsblog.com/2013/06/29/the-sunday-showcase-letters-and-words.html
I’m so honored, thanks Rebecca!!
Quick question, I am making these boxes and was wondering how you got the tiny little coloured ABC cards in each box? How did you get them so small?
I’m so glad you asked, Jenn, you can print out the Alphabet poster from Homeschool Creations (http://homeschoolcreations.com/preschoolalphabet.html) on a smaller scale, after you hit “print”, click on “custom scale” — I think that I printed it out at 50%, then I laminated them and cut them out. I hope that helps!! Amy
I love this! Thank you so much for sharing at our Pinteresting Party! I’ll be sharing with my readers on FB & G+. They’re going to love this idea too!
Wow, thanks so much Lauren, I really appreciate it!!
I love this idea! I was a sucker and bought some canned soup looking set from Learning Resources. It’s okay but we’ve had it for some time and haven’t used it much. I LOVE this!
Thanks, Alicia — we aren’t using it yet — but I know it will be a good investment!
Hi! The etsy shop you mentioned to by small objects from is not active since a long period now. You can also find a great choice of miniatures at MIMIAbyMIA. There are various options at a great price. https://www.etsy.com/es/shop/MIMIAbyMIA