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Glow in the dark letter hunt literacy activity

August 2, 2016 by Kate 14 Comments

Set up this fun glow in the dark letter hunt literacy activity because your children will really love it. It’s a unique approach to getting them to build on their knowledge of the alphabet. It challenges them to identify each letter independently and not in their usual sequence. Adding tweezers can also increase the level of difficulty and encourage children to build on their fine motor skills. Hopefully you can find an opportunity to give this literacy activity a go with your child. 
Glow in the dark letter hunt literacy activity

My preschooler Possum (aged 4.5 years) is very enthusiastic about learning letters. She is often found arranging our magnetic set on the fridge into form make believe words and sentences. To help her develop her growing interest and knowledge to learn the letter name and sound of each letter I came up with this fun idea. Lets me honest, who doesn’t love something that glows in the dark! 

Recommended age: 5 years+ 
(Active supervision is required on for this activity)

glowing lettersGlow in the dark letter hunt literacy activity

To set up this glow in the dark letter hunt literacy activity you will need – 

  • Container of rice
  • Glow in the Dark letters
  • Tweezers 

Charge your glow in the dark letters by placing them in direct sunlight for at least an hour and then hide them into a tub of rice. I reused the rice I had stored away from our ‘Digging for Worms’ activity as the dark brown colour really worked well to disguise the glowing letters. 

dark room

Fine Motor Skills

To help build on Possum’s fine motor skills, I gave her a plastic tweezer to use to sift through the rice and locate each letter. She thought it was lots of fun and it was a good way to pace the speed at which each letter was discovered. If she’d used her hands she would more than likely uncover multiple letters, which could be quite distracting and take away from the learning purpose. 

Finding letters in the dark

Learning letters and making connections 

All children, regardless of age, learn in different ways and at a different speeds. For Possum, who is super interested in knowing more about letter names and sounds, I encourage her to build on existing knowledge and try to do the following with each letter –  

  • Letter sound – /b/ (short sound)
  • Letter name – B or ‘bee’ (long sound)
  • Name something that starts with that letter – basketball

Of course this is not an expectation for Possum to know this at her age, I am taking advantage of her interest and her enthusiasm to complete the activity and using it as a learning opportunity. The moment she felt ‘tested’ then I stopped, pulled back and just let her have fun. 
FB glow in the dark

Children love things that glow in the dark and this fun activity has an exciting literacy element to it. Using tweezers for an added challenge, children will have a great time sifting and digging through the rice to discover and read each letter of the alphabet as it appears. This is one activity they will love doing over and over again. 

Do your children love things that glow in the dark?

Here are some more ideas you’ll want to check out – 

Fairy Playdough using three ingredients  Counting with pipe cleaners and beads math activity for preschoolers  Sensory writing bag for preschoolers. Fine motor activity.

 
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Filed Under: 5 - 10 years, activities for preschoolers, Fine Motor, Literacy, Uncategorized Tagged With: alphabet, glow in the dark, letters, literacy, preschoolers

Comments

  1. Sarah Powell says

    August 2, 2016 at 9:55 pm

    AWESOME IDEAS! I love all these ideas. I’m going to forward these to my daughter.
    Thanks Kate

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:29 pm

      Thank you so kindly Sarah. I hope you’ve subscribed. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  2. Danya says

    August 2, 2016 at 10:04 pm

    Bee is super keen to learn her letters too. I might try this with her – I reckon she’d love it!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:29 pm

      It’s one of those activities your kids want to do over and over and over and over! LOL

      Reply
  3. kate @ livinglovinglaughing says

    August 2, 2016 at 10:25 pm

    oh goodness, glow in the dark makes anything a billion times more fun!!! love it, what a cool idea πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:28 pm

      Thanks Kate and I completely agree! Hahaha

      Reply
  4. Kelly says

    August 2, 2016 at 11:39 pm

    We love glow in the dark things! Great fun ?

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:28 pm

      Thanks Kelly. I have a few more glow in the dark ideas coming. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  5. kate says

    August 4, 2016 at 12:45 pm

    Oh my preppy will LOVE this and I love any hands on letter learning activity as it really helps my boy who is struggling to learn some of his letters. Thanks!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 4, 2016 at 11:24 pm

      No problem Kate! Thanks for commenting. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  6. Renee says

    August 5, 2016 at 11:10 am

    Ohhh beautiful & fun!!! We love our glow in the dark activities… I am pinning this so I can do it with my little one.
    Renee xx Creative Educational Play Australia.

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 7, 2016 at 10:46 pm

      Thanks Renee. I’m hoping to do more glow in the dark activities soon. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  7. Carole Venecourt says

    August 7, 2016 at 3:10 pm

    The glow in the dark idea is “Great” Thank you!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      August 7, 2016 at 10:44 pm

      Thank you very kindly Carole! πŸ™‚

      Reply

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Welcome
Hello and welcome!
My name is Kate and I am a mum to two little girls, Possum and Boo. We have lots of fun together learning with play at home and are pleased to share some of what we do with you.
Read my about page to find out more.

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