Easy Alphabet Sensory Bin for Kids

The other day I was browsing the pasta aisle of my grocery store (because pasta is a preschooler’s best friend), and I came across this bag of alphabet pasta for only 50 cents! I had to have it. Well, I had to have six of them to be exact…four for an alphabet sensory bin and two for actual eating 😉 Four bags wouldn’t be enough to fill our typical sensory tub, but when mixed with our rice sensory bin it would be perfect for adding alphabet recognition fun into our regular playtime!

Recommended Grade Level:

Preschool

Kindergarten

Supply List
Coordinating Activities

Materials for the Alphabet Sensory Bin:

Rice
Alphabet Pasta
Tongs
Small Bowls
Food Coloring

how to make a summer preschool sensory bin.

create a bug sensory bin for preschoolers to use during your insect unit or when you are learning about life cycles with your preschoolers. they can learn about habitats, what bugs are and what food they eat with this fun bug sensory bin.

First you’ll want to dye your alphabet pasta (I have a simple method to dye rice or pasta using hand sanitizer and food coloring here). I chose to leave the rice in our bin un-dyed so that the alphabet letters would really stand out.

Read more: 20+ hands on Alphabet activities here!

I put the sensory bin on a mat to keep everything neat. This way, any rice/pasta that spills over could be easily poured back into the bin!

The itty-bitty alphabet letters are about the same size as the rice, and they *almost* went unnoticed by my preschoolers…

…but upon closer inspection my kids realized the alphabet surprise mixed into the bin and were ecstatic to play!

Read More: 25+ Fun Alphabet Books for Kids!

They made me delicious servings of word cake, letter lattes, and of course alphabet soup! Searching for letters through the bin of rice provided great fine motor practice, and using the scooping tools was an awesome way to work on pre-scissor skills!