by Allison McDonald 
This post wasn’t planned at all but the series I am going to create with it is . This is going to be the first in a series of posts that are unplanned and on the go. The pictures might not be as good because they will all be taken with my iPhone but the fun will be ! I don’t know if there will be 2 or 50 posts in this series but I hope that they will be useful to you and your kids. This one shows you how to do simple letter activities with sidewalk chalk and a spray bottle or two.
What we were doing when inspiration struck :
My son was shooting hoops and my daughter was drawing with sidewalk chalk. I was trying to play with both of them and like always one of them was not happy with how much ( or how little) attention I was paying them compared to their sibling . You can’t see my daughter because she is on my leg asking me to draw her a bulldozer with the chalk.
What I did :
Took the sidewalk chalk and wrote out some letters.
What it turned into :
1. Find The Letter / Letter Sound
Simple game of me calling out a letter and my daughter would run to it. After she found them all easily I turned it to letter sounds which was much more challenging . I only did a few letter sounds not expecting her to know them but introducing them playfully.
2. Letter Action Words
This continues the find the letter with a little more movement. I called out the letter and asked her to perform an action that starts with that letter . So I would say ” Can you jump on the j? ” and ” Now wiggle on the w ! ” as you can see she had a blast with this one. I will be repeating this for sure!
3. Walk and Spell
Now it was time to get the big guy over. The object of this activity was to spell out simple words by walking to each letter. I called out simple words like hat, bat, cap, tap, jam, Sam … I chose to always call out one word then after he was successful a 2nd changing only the first letter . This set him up for success while still offering a challenge. 
He loved it and as you can see he had a shadow .
4. Read and Spray
( grab some spray bottles and fill with water)
This was really just my attempt to clean the cul-de-sac up. My kids went from letter to letter spraying and calling out the letter names.
I hope you will follow this series of ” Unplanned and On The Go ” activities because they will be perfect bursts of learning for a busy summer schedule!
Such fun and simple ideas! I love the differentiation! I’ve got students that are at both levels. (acting out action words and spelling simple words) Now all I need is for it to stop raining here so I can get my kiddos outside!
Paula
Learn + Play = PreK
What a great idea. I’m so going to try these later this week. Thanks
What a fun unique idea! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this great idea! I came by your blog via Pinterest, and will be including this post in my weekly round-up of inspiring pins this coming Monday. If you’d like to have a look, you will be able to find it here on Monday: http://littlegreenteacher.blogspot.com/2013/09/pins-of-week-literacy-edition.html
Thank you,
Kelly at Little Green
Love it!! You are golden! My son had a really hard year at prep last year (our first year of school in Australia – it was all worksheets and flash cards ;)) and so I’m homeschooling this year to get him back to enjoying learning. Anytime I ask him to read or write he freaks out and won’t touch a pen, so fun games like this are an awesome way to start to bring the love of learning and literacy back. Thanks so much for sharing your beautiful ideas!!
Thank you for sharing this. I love it.
thank you so much for the ideas!
You’re welcome!!