Learning Letters with Salt

My three year old has been in a phase of noticing letters all around her.  This is one of my favorite stages of childhood.  It is fun to know that they are paying attention.  That they realize now that the things around them have meaning.  
There are lots and lots of ways to help a toddler learn his or her letters and there is so much to learn.  They must learn the alphabet song, understand lower case and upper case writing, the letter name and the letter sound, and then that letters come together to make words.  What a huge thing to be learning. 

This new phase in her life is certainly fun because she can learn these things using the arts.  This week we took a can of salt and mixed in her favorite color of food coloring to make it more fun. (One hint, it wasn't easy mixing in the color.  I had to really stir and grind the color into the salt and stir and grind, but it eventually comes together.)  I spread the colored salt onto a cookie sheet.  This was then used for writing her letters. 

I took a fun ABC book and went through it page by page with her.  I would read the page, write the letter, talk about the letter sound and then have her try writing the letter next to mine.  After we wrote the letters you just give the tray a few shakes back and forth and it is ready for the next letter.

 We only did upper case this time.  Some letters were difficult for her so I would have her just trace over my letter.  It is important when learning letters for it to not be difficult or frustrating for your child.  I always fear if it is frustrating they will learn that writing and reading are not fun activities.  If frustration sets in stop and just let them play with the salt.  That was lots of fun too.