Let’s go to the farm and practice letters of the alphabet at the same time! The animals that live on the farm are always a topic that is a hit with preschoolers. Farm animal sounds, farm songs, and farm pretend play are so fun to add to a farm theme of learning activities. Our farm alphabet match sensory bin activity will fit into your farm theme in the fall or spring and allow your preschoolers to practice letter identification, letter sounds, and uppercase and lowercase letters.
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Farm Alphabet Match Sensory Bin
The farm alphabet match sensory bin activity can be printed from the pink button below. Print the uppercase farm animal cards and the lowercase farm animal cards, or just the set that you will use.
Cut the farm animal cards apart on the gray dotted lines. Laminate the set to make it more durable when using it with preschoolers.
There is also a farm letters page included in the file. Print this on white paper and make copies as you need them.
Set Up & Play
What you decide to fill your sensory bin with is up to you! I recommend deer corn. I think it fits well into the farm theme overall and is super easy to clean up if it falls out of the bin. And we do our farm theme in the fall, which means that it is still the beginning of the school year, and sensory play can still be extra messy!
Fill the bottom of the bin (or tray if you are creating individual sensory bins) with deer corn. Make sure that the corn is tall enough that the letters on the farm animal cards will be covered when placed in the bin.
Choose the set of letters that you will add to the bin. Definitely think outside the box on this decision when deciding which skills to cover because there can be different options that work for different leveled learners.
Stand the farm animal cards up in the corn so that they appear to be standing on top of the corn and the letter is hidden.
Farm Animal Sorting: For younger preschoolers, instead of matching letters, start with matching farm animals! Make a pile of horses, pigs, cows, and roosters. See which letters on the cards can be identified, talk about the names of the letters, etc.
Letter to Magnet Match: Add farm animal letter cards and letter magnets or lacing beads to the sensory bin. Make sure that the matching letters are all included. Pick an animal, identify the letter, and find the matching magnet.
Uppercase to Lowercase Match: Add both uppercase and lowercase farm animal cards to the sensory bin. Pick an animal and identify the letter. Keep picking farm animal cards until a match is found!
No matter which way you play (and there are probably even more ways!), lots of learning will be happening!
Farm Letters Writing Page
Included in this farm alphabet match sensory bin is a printable farm letters writing page. Stick the page on a clipboard and let your preschoolers use it during the sensory bin play.
Pick a farm animal and write the letter that you see on the page. There should be no real expectation except for your preschoolers to gain confidence. Little kids are not always willing to write when they get to kindergarten because at times they fear making mistakes, spelling words incorrectly, etc.
My goal in preschool is always to get my class writing whenever I can. So even if they cannot form the letters the right way yet, I am all about them trying and having lots of ways to be encouraged to write!
If you are not ready to add writing to the sensory bin, no problem! Simply create a writing activity where your preschoolers can write the letters or stamp them on the page.
More Farm Hands-On Learning
I don’t know if you like hands-on learning that sometimes can be just a little bit messy as much as I do, but I have some farm themed learning that seem necessary to share with you!
Your preschoolers will love how fun they are and you can appreciate how developmentally appropriate they are for your little learners!
🐷 Clean the Muddy Pigs Alphabet Cards
☔️ Pigs in the Mud Sensory Bin
Grab your farm alphabet match sensory bin printable now!
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