Alphabet Soup Toddler Sorting Activity * ages 2-5

Now that summer is in full swing, we try to play outside as much as possible. For Alexander, his favorite activity is water play so I came up with this fun Alphabet Soup Toddler Sorting Activity using magnetic letters and numbers. He’s still too young to identify the letters or numbers so we focused on the colors, but it’s never too early to start reinforcing the names of the letters and numbers as well. (For older kids, you can focus on the letters and numbers and have them sort in order as they are scooped from the water.)

MATERIALS NEEDED (affiliate links):

• Magnetic letters and/or numbers (you could also use baby pouch lids as a variation)
• Silicone cupcake molds (colored bowls would work too) – we love these cupcake molds and have used them for lots of learning activities!
• Slotted spoon
• Dish pan or large pot or bin
• Water

Check out the below video to see our Alphabet Soup Toddler Sorting Activity in Action:

WHAT TO DO:

1. Fill the bin about half full of water.

2. Pour all the letters and numbers into the plastic bin.

3. Arrange the cupcake molds or bowls next to the bin.

4 Give your toddler the slotted spoon and ask him to scoop a certain color. Direct him to place the color into the correct bowls. Once I showed Alexander how to do this once or twice he understood and went ahead filling the cupcake molds.

5. Once the molds were full of letters and numbers, he dumped them all back in the water and started filling them up again.

As Alexander was scooping up the letters from his alphabet soup I made sure to ask him what color he was scooping. Sometimes I would ask him to find a specific color to see if he could identify the correct color.

Check out our other toddler activities!