This post is sponsored by Dollar Tree. All opinions are my own.
Teaching my daughter letters has been a bit of a challenge. It's just not something that interests her. So I have to get really creative these days to come up with projects that are so fun, she forgets she is learning! Luckily, I got the opportunity to make this awesome project from the Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club! After we made this adorable Monster box craft, I came up with a fun little game to practice letter recognition and letter sounds!
To create this Monster box craft, you will need the following supplies:
- tissue box (Dollar Tree)
- paint (optional)
- circle labeling stickers (Dollar Tree)
- construction paper (Dollar Tree)
- googly eyes (Dollar Tree)
- tape or glue (Dollar Tree)
The instructions for making this Monster box can be found at the Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club. Membership is completely FREE! You'll find tons of crafts, recipes, décor, tips, contests, insider information, and frugal ideas. The content changes every month, so you'll have lots of fresh ideas for each season, holiday or just every day fun! All the materials can be purchased from Dollar Tree, and you can even print out the project sheets to take with you to the store as a convenient shopping list!
This Monster box was such a cute craft, and super easy for a toddler or preschooler to make. (I helped with the eyes and teeth, but that's about it)
As we were making the Monster, I told my daughter that this Monster likes to eat only letter M's and things that begin with M. It won't eat anything else that begins with a different letter or sound! Those "rules" set us up for some fun activities!
For the first activity, I took out some letter stickers that I had in my craft supplies. But you can also use letter tiles, letter magnets, or any other moveable alphabet pieces that you have on hand. Fortunately, we had a lot of letter M's, so I gave my daughter a bunch of letters to feed to the Monster (about half of them were M's and half were other letters). She took one letter at a time, called out what the letter was, and determined whether the Monster would eat it or not. This is a great game for letter recognition and can be modified depending on what materials you have!
For the next game, I collected a bunch of small objects and toys from around the house. I tried to find as many things as I could that start with the M sound. I found a mirror, a mitten, a monkey toy, play money, a marker, Minnie mouse, a small map, a mouth and a moon. I also added a bunch of other small objects that don't begin with an M sound. One by one, she identified each object and if that object started with an M sound or not, and fed the correct ones to the Monster.
This game can be modified for a lot of different learning activities, whether you want your child to practice letters, numbers, sight words, colors, etc.
For more fun crafts and ideas like this one, sign up for Dollar Tree Value Seekers Club. It's FREE!
That is the cutest game ever invented! I love your monster with the polka dots, too!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! We had a blast playing it!
DeleteThis is great! I didn't know about the club, and I'm using Monsters as my classroom theme this year. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea! Thanks for linking with Tuesday Tutorials #pintorials
ReplyDeleteLove this fun idea! Pinning!
ReplyDeleteWhat a super-duper cute Monster!!
ReplyDeleteVery, very cute! :)
ReplyDeleteStopping by from the PreK/K linkup at Homeschool Creations
great idea, very creative!
ReplyDeleteSuper cute monster box! I pinned it =)
ReplyDelete