Sensory Sentence Boxes

Beginner readers who are learning how to decode and read words can feel a disconnect between the letters on the page with the actual meanings of the words themselves. Greater and more substantiated learning occurs when “real life, hands on” connections take place. These Sensory Sentence Boxes helps to bridge the gap between abstract letters and words with real life objects that will help solidify and enhance learning.

Sound complicated? Actually, these boxes are very simple to make and kids love to touch and feel these “real life” sentences. These boxes take away some of the pressure the kids face when learning to read and inject some fun into the process instead.

How to Create Sensory Sentence Boxes

Find an old box that’s about the size of a checkbook box (decorate if desired)

Gather some small toy items (I used action figurines, plastic eggs, doll house items, pieces from board games, etc..)

Write a sentence on a strip of paper (or popsicle stick) that includes some of the items in the box (i.e. The dog is in the egg.)

Include a total of 3-4 of these sentences (each sentence written about different items in the box).

How to Play

Have the child open the box and pull out one of the sentence strips.

Instruct the child to use the clues from the items in the box to decode the words on the sentence strip

Repeat until all the sentence strips have been read.

Check out this video to see how it works:

Make learning enjoyable and more effective with these Sensory Sentence Boxes. Please share what items and sentences you made in the comments section below! Enjoy!