Letter-Matching Drop Box

I created the letter-matching drop box in response to my three-year old’s fascination with letters (phonics and writing).  The colour-matching drop box was so successful with my two-year old that I decided to apply the same “control of error” principle to the letter-matching drop box.

I purchased a sturdy cardboard box from Hobbycraft and cut out 15 windows into the lid.  Above each window I wrote an upper- and lower-case letter, so that each window's letter corresponded to an object (the name of which began with the corresponding letter) that was to be posted into the window.  For example, above one window was the letter “Ee” and in the basket to the side was an object (an elephant) to be posted into this window.  

To enable my son to check whether he had matched the objects to the letters correctly, I took pictures of the different objects in the basket, printed these out, laminated them and fixed them to the bottom of the box underneath the corresponding window.  Once my son had completed the activity, he could remove the lid of the box and check whether he had matched them correctly. 

As the drop box contained many windows, I decided to create sections inside the box to stop the objects moving around, therefore making it clear whether he had matched them correctly.  The intersections were made from an old cardboard box with slits cut into them so they interlocked with one another.

As this was a new activity, I decided to use mainly familiar objects that I knew my son could match correctly.  There were a few less familiar objects like the otter, the beaver and coral, but including these became a way of introducing new vocabulary and to maintain his interest.  The sheer number of windows meant that a little more concentration was required of him than with the colour-matching drop box.

After a few attempts, my son has become familiar with all the objects in the box and can match them correctly without any help from me. The activity can now be modified to include different objects to further expand his appreciation of the beginning sounds of words as well as with his knowledge of objects around him.

What we used:

• A sturdy cardboard box (a shoebox would work well, provided it is strong enough to have the windows cut into its lid and provided words and patterns do not obscure the letters around the windows)
• Craft knife
• Small objects and figurines
• A marker pen
• Paper
• Laminator