Here is a fun craft/learning project that your kid will love, takes up a decent amount of time, and is super easy for you! Remember, I’m a lazy mom – if it takes more time for me to prep than for them to execute…nope, not happening. If I can combine letter recognition and fine motor skills plus art…with little effort on my part…that’s a win.

So the quick overview – little pieces of paper are glued down to make a letter. There are lots of little things you can do to make this more of learning experience and many small variations to this project…

Start with your “canvas”…you can use any paper and color, or, in our case, the inside of a cereal box we were about to recycle. Engage your child here by asking “What letter does your name start with? What sound does it make? What does it look like?” My 3 year old practiced some “B”s on scrap paper but then I ultimately drew a giant B for him. If they are able to draw their own, great! Or you or the child can write their whole name. Or a favorite word – really, whatever you want!

Then use any scrap paper, colored paper, etc and cut little squares. Again, I did this part but this is also a great chance for 4 and 5 year olds to work on scissors skills and hand strength! Parents can always cut and hold the strips of paper and kids can just cut off the squares. Once we had a big pile, we were ready to begin.

Armed with a glue stick, he went to work carefully picking up one square at a time, applying glue, and placing the square onto the line.

A great variation for older kids is to use different colored squares and have them make a pattern as they go! Or, if you’re wanting to focus more on letter sounds, use Red for R, Blue for B, etc.

Once we completed that, we went through our giant bin of stickers and looked for things that started with that letter! Younger kids will need guidance, older kids can likely do this part on their own. This is a great way to work on letter sounds and you’d be surprised how much they get into this – and get excited to find things that start with the same letter as their name!

So that’s it! Fun, easy, educational activity you can do with little to no prep – and your happy kiddo has “art” to show off at the end!