Letter Sand Art!

Here's a great activity that I used when I started my teaching career in Kindergarten.  I hope many of you find it useful!

Materials: colored sand, glue, large index or medium sized index cards, container, and a pencil or pen

1. Write or have your students write the letter of the week on an index card (I had them do two one for capital and one for lowercase).

2. Students trace it with Elmer's Glue (I don't think glue sticks would work).

3. Sprinkle some colored sand on the letter.

4. Pour the rest into the bin, which makes it easy to clean up and reuse the extra like Terri mentioned from Terri's Teaching Treasures with the glitter glue!  I hadn't thought of doing that with glitter for some reason so thanks Terri!  It works well with the sand!

5. Let the sand dry on the index card and the children will have a textile letter.

Differentiate: For the students who already know their letters you can do the same thing with sight words!  Many will fit on the large index cards or you can use card stock!

I hope your students have as much fun as my students had doing this.  I have no doubt it helped them learn their alphabet much quicker!