ABC Painting

Today we had fun painting with the alphabet. Simply put the colors of tempera paint you want on some paper plates, be sure to have trays and smocks handy (easier clean-up), then all you need are some ABC cookie cutters.......the kids dip them in the paint and place them on their paper.

Be prepared for some teacher guidance as you discuss the letters they are stamping, or words they are even writing. This is a great activity to build your childs literacy!!

Eating Alphabet Soup

We had a simple but yummy snack today in preschool. The kids thoroughly enjoyed eating the ABC's!! None of the kids had ever had this soup before which made it even more exciting. We had so much fun finding the letters in our name in the soup and then I would call out a sound or a name of a letter and we would see who had one in their bowls. As soon as we had found what we could the kids got to eat that letter off of their spoon.....it was a fun way to keep the anticipation up for eating.

After snack, most of the kids couldn't wait to go home and tell their moms to make them some "ABC Soup".......too much fun!

happy ABC eating!

Pretzel Letters!

How can you learn about the alphabet and NOT make pretzel letters?? The kids had blast making the first letter of their names and then being able to eat them!!

Check out this yummy pretzel recipe so you can do it at home or in your own preschool!!

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups warm water

2 TBSP yeast

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

about 7 cups flour

2 TBSP baking soda

1 cup boiling water

1/2 cup melted butter

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Dissolve yeast in warm water and let set until activated. Add brown sugar, vanilla and salt. Add flour one cup at a time until mixture isn't moist. You may need a little less flour or a little more. Let rise for 30 minutes.

Let the fun begin!! Form balls of dough about the size of small fists. Roll dough into a thin rope (emphasis on thin) and twist into desired shape. Have flour available to roll and shape in.

While pretzels are being shaped, boil water and baking soda in a saucepan. Make sure baking soda is dissolved and then keep very warm.

After pretzels are shaped, dip them in the baking soda water and then placed the dipped pretzels on a cookie sheet. You can sprinkle with Kosher salt if you want (I don't like the salt) and then bake for about 8 to 10 minutes. When they come out, brush them with melted butter!!

These really are so yummy!

Fishing for Letters

I put these cloth alphabet letters in the messy table and we used some fishing poles I've had for awhile that I think I got at Target......way fun and cute!! So the kids had a blast fishing for the letters, putting them in the bucket and making sure they don't get away by using the fishing net!

I saw so much great interaction on going on. I would jump in every once in awhile and ask, "What letter did you catch? OOh, I think I hear it saying something!" (I would obviously follow up with the sound that letter makes).

Don't let them get away!!

Something that I saw happening in the classroom that I didn't expect......the kids started bringing the letters over to the kitchen area and cooking up the "fish" letters. They would serve them by saying, "Here, have a letter M." I just love it when the kids carry the activity that I put out a step further!!

GREAT!!

Stamping Letters

On with our ABC week.....stamping is always so much fun!! So we took out the old letter stampers and let the kids go crazy. This activity is great for letter recognition and even just getting to know what letters look like better!! Some of the more advanced students were sounding out and writing while some of the younger students were simply stamping...both are great ways to learn and both students are getting a great lesson from this activity. I would guide the younger students as they stamped, saying things like, "Oh, you found the 'b', it says b"...

This little boy wrote his name and was currently finishing up stamping, "I luv mi dad".....what great experiences!!

Happy stamping

Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom Trees

I'm sure you all know the book "Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom" by Bill Martin Jr. I love his books! This is an activity that is done all of the time, but that's just because it's so great! Whatever activity you can link to a book is one of learning and the child will get more out of it.

I just had these extra letter tiles from when I taught the Saxon program in kindergarten. So I let the children glue them on and go to town. You could use any sort of letters, printed out, written, cut out, whatever you have on hand works great. This is a great activity for letter recogntion. I would ask the kids what letters they had on their tree and if it was ready to tip over yet? At the end of the day we read/sang the book together with our own Coconut trees!

ABC Week

In the messy table today I had all of these different magnetic letters to explore with for the kids. Cookie sheets and magnetic chalk boards work great. I saw so many great things going on. I love the stage of reading and writing where the child links together a whole bunch of letters and then asks, "Teacher, what did I write?" This type of thing happened all day. We all get a big kick out of it because the words are so silly. For example......"trhugnf". I always say something like, "What did you write? trhugnf? You silly, what does that mean?" Sometimes they like to think of their own meanings for these silly words.

Some kids are at the stage of sounding out phonetically. When it comes to phonetic spelling I'm a big believer on letting them sound out on their own and figure out what letter it is. I don't care if it is spelled correctly, but just to see them figuring it out and getting the letter sounds is AWESOME!! Eventually, when they are more developmentally ready, they will be ready for all of the crazy rules. But right now, they need the confidence with those basic letter sounds.

One child sounded out, "pulees reer reer". Which translates into "Police - reer, reer" (making the siren noise). Wow - I LOVE to watch learning in action!!