I Spy ABC Tub

You know I love a little I Spy fun at my house.  I have found lots and lots of sensory tub ideas all over the internet and came up with a fun variation on an alphabet tub for my boys, borrowing and adding to lots of great ideas I've seen elsewhere.

I started with some white rice and some alphabet pasta, dyed with the trusty Wilton gel food colors.  I wisely kept the dye out of Mr. Three's reach.  (It was a fun little experiment for the boys to take the baggie of uncolored pasta and squish it in the plastic bag with the vinegar and food coloring and watch it turn colors.)

After putting that together, I added 26 water bottle tops with scrapbook sticker alphabet letters stuck on the inside of the lid, and tossed them in.

I also tossed in a set of magnetic fridge letters and some round colored abc beads.

Then, the funnest part for my boys:  scoops, funnels, magnifying glasses and a pencil-magnet fishing pole to catch the letters.

I also put a cookie sheet with a sun bleached magnet puzzle and a homemade dry erase board (a cd case with white paper inside) alongside the tub to use to explore the letters.

They loved sorting the letters and examining the tiny pasta abc's with the magnifying glass.

I spy some B's!

I was happily surprised when Mr. Three immediately took to finding "his" letter in the box, excitedly pulling out his T's and showing them to me.  He is really fascinated by beginning letters in names right now and points them out on store signs, books, street signs, food packaging.  The kindergarten teacher in me does a little happy dance at this.

Mr. Two, who is starting to read, began making words with his letters and writing them on the homemade dry erase board.  Victory!

Oh, this tub will be put to good use!  I'm so excited that it turned out and that my boys love playing in it as well.