It has been awhile since we've played with our rainbow dyed chickpeas, which is hard to believe because they're my absolute favorite sensory bin filler ever. The other day I paired the rainbow chickpeas with some alphabet cookie cutters to encourage some alphabet and literacy learning for my three year old. Zero preparation is involved (unless you don't have rainbow chickpeas already on hand, but they only take 3-5 minutes to make), which makes this a quick and simple activity to pull out when the kids are telling me they're bored.
For this simple literacy activity, we used:
- Rainbow dyed chickpeas - They are the easiest sensory bin filler to make ever and we've been playing with this same bag of chickpeas for almost a year already.
- Alphabet cookie cutters - We use this 101 cookie cutter set.
Simply add the two materials to a sensory bin and get playing. When you push the cookie cutter down, it will fill with chickpeas.
But three year old K found other ways to play.
Then he wanted to spell words. He started with "E-X" and asked me how to finish spelling EXIT.
Then he spelled the words IN and OUT all by himself. I really do think he has a bit of hyperlexia himself, but certainly not to the same extent as his older brother. I love how he initially spelled the word IN in the chickpeas and then OUT outside the chickpeas.
PS: How gorgeous is that last photo?! I am in love with it!
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