Kinetic Sand Activity: Letter Search and Spell

Kinetic sand has been popular in our home lately and I am finding new ways to use it while learning. This Kinetic Sand activity integrates literacy and fine motor practice.

Letter Search and Spell using Kinetic Sand. This activity for kids combines fine motor skills practice and literacy!

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This activity is very simple to set up and carry out. Kids will enjoy searching through the sand to find the letters you’ve hidden. I tell Evan that we are going to dig through the sand to look for letter treasure. The letter gems really help play up the whole treasure hunting aspect of the activity too.

Materials Needed: 

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Decorative gems – I got mine at the dollar store. I think you can get about 35 for $1. Score!

Kinetic Sand – the more sand the better, but one package works well for 3 or 4 letter words.

Permanent Marker

Activity Prep:

1. Write one letter on each gem with the permanent marker.

2. Hide the letters need to make the word of your choice in the kinetic sand.

*Tip: You may need to make a few extra stones for words that contain more than one of the same letter.

Activity Details:

Right now we used this activity to work on identifying the letters in Evan’s name and then spelling it out with the gems. So I hid the letters of his name in the sand and then he would go digging for them. Once he found all the letters, we worked to put them in order on the table so it spelled out his name.

You could do this with a bunch of random letters and just work on letter recognition. It would also be a great way to work on sight words and even spelling words.

For more letter learning activities check out my ABC Activities Pinterest board!
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