Letter Of The Week

Letter Of The Week – M Theme

February 27, 2012

Letter of the week is a popular theme for daycare centers and preschools but more and more research points to making sure that you don’t focus only on one letter too extensively . So please remember to have a environment rich in print, choose a few of these projects NOT all and only ones that are or will be meaningful for your child or students.The trick is finding the right balance in your preschool activities, learning in context is key. A great place to start is with the letters in your child’s name.

Letter M Crafts

Map M- Marshmallow M- Monster m – Mountain M

Crafts & Activities That Begin with M

Map – Masks- Matisse Collage – Maze – Memory Games- Mining Activities- Mitten Match

Monster Crafts- Moon Crafts - Moose Craft- Mouse Puppet – Mushroom Printing

Alphabet Books

Alligator Alphabet by Stella Blackstone and Stephanie Bauer. I was so excited to find this book because just this week my son started pointing out lower case letters in text. This book is a beautifully illustrated book with each letter represented on it’s own page. Pretty standard right? Wrong, although the text below the illustration had both upper and lower case letters, the main illustration is only the lower case letter. This is perfect for children like my son who are just starting to learn their lowercase letters.Alphabet Books

“A” Was Once An Apple Pie by Edward Lear and Suse MacDonald is an adaptation of the classic Edward Lear poem that had both my children transfixed. The bold bright colors kept my daughter who is 10 months old wide eyed the whole time and the playful way Suse MacDonald adapted the text had my son listening from A-Z as well. It was incredibly fun to read allowed tongue tying me at times which resulted in us all giggling hysterically in a heap. A book that can do that is a must have in my opinion.

Al Pha’s Bet by Amy Krouse Rosenthal is a rare find. An alphabet book that can keep a 5 year old who says alphabet books are for babies, completely engaged. The story follows Al who has bet himself that he can win a contest ordered by the King figure out an order for the brand new 26 letters that were just invented. In a string of adorable events and a little chance the alphabet as we know it is put together. My son thought it was hysterical that P was put in the line up after Al went pee. It’s a cute idea for a book and abstract enough to be a bit of a challenge for preschoolers but just the right level of interest for kids that think they know it all when it comes to the alphabet.

Posted in Crafts, Letter M Theme, Letter of the week, Letter Recognition |

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Letter Of The Week – Letter L Theme

January 23, 2012

We are almost half way through the alphabet with our Letter of The Week theme series. These theme posts are meant to bring together upper and lowercase letter crafts, crafts and projects that begin with the letter and whole alphabet books and activities. Why do this? To make it easier for you to find what you need for every letter.

{Letter L Crafts}

Ladder L- Leaf L -Lighthouse l - Love L

{Crafts & Activities That Start With L}

Ladybug Craft – Ladybug Math- Lanterns- Leaves – Lego Measuring – Leopard Craft- Lightning Bugs – Love Bugs

{ Alphabet Books }

The Alphabet from A to Y With Bonus Letter Z! by Steve Martin was introduced to me by Rebecca when she sent it in for this post . When I saw it at the library I grabbed it and so glad I did. It’s a fun book with silly rhymes for each letter and I was surprised that my son sat all the way through it. It’s a pretty long alphabet book for a toddler. I liked the details in the illustrations even if the sometimes gross humor was not my favorite, but kids will love it !

Alphabeep!: A Zipping, Zooming ABC by Debora Pearson is a great book for older toddlers and preschoolers. The transportation themed book uses rhymes and colorful illustrations to go from A to Z. The text was a bit long for my young toddler but I shortened it and he was able to enjoy the book , children 2 and up will love it just the way it is! This ison my must buy list.

{ Whole Alphabet Activities}

Alphabet Sensory Tub - Car Alphabet – Family Letters

Posted in Crafts, Letter L Theme, Letter of the week, Letter Recognition |

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Letter Of The Week – K Theme

January 9, 2012

Letter of The Week is one of our most popular series. If you want to know more about my approach to letter of the week and how I have used it in my classes and home I explain it all here. We believe in playing with letters, playing with books and playing with language in it’s many forms. Kids learn best through hands on experiences so expose them to the world of letters through their world of play. Our eBook has a whole alphabet full of crafts as well as some exclusive never seen on the site!

Posted in Crafts, Letter K Theme, Letter of the week, Letter Recognition |

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Letter Of The Week J Theme

October 24, 2011

I have been putting off the J because I wanted to do it the week leading up to Halloween for Jack-O-Lantern! I got an email a while back asking how I do letter of the week. Right now I am not doing it at all to be honest, my daughter at 16 months is not interested in letters yet and my son does a letter of the week at preschool and I don’t feel the need to enrich. That said when I was actively doing them at home and as a teacher I did a letter craft on Monday and we’d reference back to the letter when it came up in other activities, ususally read one book with a subject matter starting with that letter and a craft to match that book. I didn’t focus all my energies on that one letter because letters and words work together as a whole dynamic alphabet. Introduce, explore, and have fun but don’t focus only on the letter of the week. I hope that helps anyone with that same question.

{ Letter J Crafts}

Jaguar j – Jelly Bean J

{Crafts and Activities Starting With J}

Cupcake Liner Jelly Fish - Dry Erase Jack-O-Lantern - Jack and The Beanstalk - Jackson Pollock - Jasper Johns- Jelly Fish- Rock Jack-O-Lanterns - Sandpaper Jack-O- Lanterns

{Whole Alphabet Activities }

Glue Letter Tracing – Muffin Tin Letter Game - Pumpkin Patch Letter Match

Posted in Letter J Theme, Letter of the week, Letter Recognition |

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Letter Of The Week I i

October 3, 2011

Our letter of the week series continues with letter I . There aren’t a huge number of letter I activities but that is a great reminder for parents and teachers to focus on the whole alphabet even while doing a letter of the week program. Letters work together and so we should teach them together. Use letter of the week as a way to focus some extra time on one letter not to focus all your time on it. Alphabet books are a great way to bring all the letters together and we have 3 great ones in the post too!

{Letter I Crafts}

Ice Cream I – Island I

{Activities And Crafts Begining With I}

Ice Cream Taste Test - Indian Corn - Indian Headdress - Insect Painting - Insect Hunt

{Alphabet Books}

Bruno Munari’s ABC by Bruno Munari will make you wish you had an extra copy to pull out the pages and frame them. It’s 1960 retro gold. The book is simple enough, each page is devoted to a letter like most alphabet books, and on those pages are objects that start with the letter. There are cheeky bits of dry humor throughout as a fly shows up on pages after F and my son liked the S page with a sack of stars and snow for Santa. All in all a little different but not ground breaking. However the way it is graphically designed perfectly captures the retro cool that simply can’t be recreated with a new book. My son liked it but wasn’t nearly as into it as I was.

A Is for Astronaut: Exploring Space from A to Z by Traci N. Todd is a typical themed alphabet book that is atypically funky. The vintage illustrations and historical photos from NASA makes this book stand out from other similar books. Each letter represents a number of space related items and the historical photos are so powerful in this because it bridges the gap from being a story to being information that children are eager to dive into further. There is something so powerful about a photograph to make that connection that this really happened, these guys really walked on the moon in ” the olden days” as my son calls any time before his birth in 2006.

Learn The Alphabet : with Northwest Coast Native Art by Native Northwest was an amazing gas station find. Yes I said gas station. I ran in for some diet coke and came out with an alphabet book ! This book is amazing, bright beautiful and even though I bought it for my daughter since it’s bright colors and sturdy pages are perfect for a baby, my almost 4 year old son adores it. What I love is when he reads it to her . The Native art is gorgeous and if you are unfamiliar with North West coast art you are in for a treat.