The kids had a blast running back and forth and working as a team to buy toys. Slipping in some gross-motor play into any activity is always a great way to keep the kids engaged. You can modify this game to play with one kid or lots of kids and it works with mulit-aged groups like my two kiddos. My daughter (preschooler, age 4) worked on identifying the first letter in words while my son (toddler, age 2) worked on learning letters and language.
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We played with animal toys, but you could use grocery food, shapes, colors, or whatever you have on hand. As much as my kids fight over our little shopping cart toy, I knew this game was going to be a hit. There is something captivating about putting things inside a shopping cart and pushing it all around the room.
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Supplies:
Toys
Shopping basket, bag, or bucket
Alphabet letters
Directions:
1. Place the letters out in one area and the animals out in another area. Have child-1 pick a toy, put it in the basket, and return to the group. Have child-2 pick the first letter of the toys name, put it in the basket, and return to the group.
At this point we put the letter on the board so we could all see it and name the letter. I completed the rest of the word on the board, and we talked about the toy. Since we used all animals we discussed where the animal came from, what the animal says (roar, quack..), what color the animal is, and so forth.
If you are playing with children who are learning how to spell words, they could continue to shop for letters in the word until the word has been spelled out.
If you are playing with children who do not know how to spell words, you could write the word on the board and they could shop for the matching letters to complete the word.
We are going to play this game again but in reverse. Next time I will have my son pick a letter, and my daughter pick the matching toy. During the activity I will also ask him to find a certain letter, ” Go find the letter C,” to check and see what letters he knows. I will also continue to have my daughter identify more letters in the word (what is the last letter in the word, do you hear any other letter sounds…)
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More Learning Activities
Hey Hey Hey my fellow KBNer, I love your blog! This activity is so adorable, my preschooler would go nuts! We got rid of our shopping cart 🙁 We just have so much stuff, I need to find a little basket for her to do this with! I'm going to pop over and follow you on instagram! Thanks for linking up at Favorite things Friday! Next time add a link back or button, I'd love to feature you on my blog and social media 🙂 Hope to see you again this week!
This is fantastic! I absolutely love this idea, and I know my children will, as well! I love that you can simplify this for the tots, and extend it for the older child. Thanks for sharing and linking up to 'Favorite Things Friday' with Hip Homeschooling and Simply Rachel!
Hi Nicole, What a fun idea, Thanks!
What a great activity! I found you on the laugh and learn link up. I just did a post on a fine motor skills DIY alphabet set at http://notimefordiy.com/2015/05/20/diy-preschool-activity/ and would love to add a link to this post if that is okay with you. I think the posts would compliment each other well!