I am sure you are all familiar with the classic toy Barrel of Monkeys! I had one barrel but that wasn’t enough for this letter match game. I scoured garage sales all last Summer to find some more monkey’s. Why you might ask? Cause I am too frugal to pay full price for something I knew I could find much cheaper. I was going to be at garage sales anyways so it was simple to add to my list.
My husband just happened to bring home a large printer box and some of it’s packaging supplies for the kids to play with. I was a little annoyed at first since we are supposed to be getting our house organized for us to both work from home with our VA services AND Lil’ Red turns 2 this week! That means a birthday party is in the works. I want a cleaner house not a more cluttered one, lol. I say all this to say I was glad I did not throw out the triangular pieces of cardboard he brought home.
I had already prepared the barrel of monkeys last year with the letters on their bellies now it was time to find something clever to do with them. I saw the triangular cardboard and ran to my file cabinet to grab an alphabet desk strip from another year’s garage sale find, lol. Voila! The Alphabet desk sticker strip fit onto the triangular cardboard tube perfectly.
At first we were just going to use it as reference for alphabetical order UNTIL we saw the tiny slits on the peak of the triangle. They were just big enough for the monkey hands to fit into. We used a small flat head screwdriver to add some more holes as needed so we had 26 holes about the letter strip.
Now the active was ready for Big Red to give it a go. Of course anything that Big Red does Lil’ Red must see if he can do as well!
Looking for more fun ways to play with ABC’s? Check out all the ideas in our 5 day series!
Super cute idea! LOVE it!
Thank you. The triangular cardboard and alphabet strip just make this activity so much more fun.
I have loved reading about your awesome ideas! I wish I could have thought of these when my kids were little. Thanks for sharing and for linking up with #Alittlebitofeverything! Have a great night!
Thaleia, this is so creative! I love it! It’s so rewarding for me when I can put together something with my own hands that my kids enjoy using! I will be pinning and sharing! And Happy Birthday to Litl’ Red!
What a fun way to learn letters! Thanks so much for sharing on Littles Learning Link Up.
This is such a cute ideal and I might see if I can make something like this for my nieces and nephews as they need to learn there ABC’s.
I bought our monkey’s at garage sales because new ones cost $5 each! I paid clsoer to $1-$3 per barrel and sometimes .05 per monkey in a “toy box”.