Making Robots

Yep, it’s Letter R week already! Head on over to Totally Tots to see what other robot activities we did.

Owls

I never really thought much of owls until this year. When I started planning Lil Pumpkin’s room, I came across so many adorable owl items! Who knew they could be so cute? Her room now has owl bedding from Target and owl wall decals.

This owl-decorating obsession was the perfect thing to incorporate into one of our letter of the week lessons. We read about owls, made some crafts and played some games. One night after coming home from a late-night grocery trip, my oldest daughter and I saw an owl perched on our garage roof. It was so cool to see one up-close —especially since we had been studying about them that week! You can see all that we did over at Totally Tots: Oo is for Owl

For even more Owl-themed ideas, check out all the fun stuff I’ve pinned on my owl board on Pinterest:

Jj is for…

a jelly mess!

and

Check out what we did for our Ode to Jack theme on Totally Tots.

Joining in on Wordless Wednesday at:

Go Graham Go
5 Minutes for Mom

Immi’s Gift

We used Immi’s Gift in our letter Ii week. See what we did over at Totally Tots.

Hh is for Hands

I’m over at Totally Tots today sharing what we did for our Letter Hh week!

Little Gorilla Craft

 
Letter G was the letter of the week, and we read Little Gorilla by Ruth Bornstein. This is a cute book about a little gorilla who is loved by everyone in the jungle, but when he starts to grow big, he isn’t sure if everyone will still love him.

We made a craft to show Little Gorilla growing up.

Supplies:
washable brown paint
brown yarn
gorilla face printable
banner paper or white cardstock
glue
piece of colored cardstock or craft foam


First get your student’s foot full of brown paint. I covered the bottom of a plastic shoe-box with paint and had my daughters step in it and then step onto banner paper.

 
Next, cut out the footprint after the paint has dried. I had three of my children do this craft so that we could have 3 different sized gorillas.


After the footprint is cut-out, adhere onto colored cardstock or craft foam. Cut small pieces of brown yarn and glue onto the top of the foot.

 
Print and cut out the gorilla face and ears and glue onto the top of the foot.

 
Here is Little Gorilla growing up!

Check out what else we did for letter Gg week over at Totally Tots.

Linked to:
stART : A Mommy's Adventures
Read. Learn. Explore.
Preschool Corner

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Tips for Letter of the Week

I’ve got a guest post up at A Heart for Home today. I shared some tips on Letter of the Week planning.  I’d love if you checked it out and let me know what you thought:) (Link is fixed—Thank you for letting me know!)

For those new to reading Spell Outloud, you can find what we’re doing for Letter of the Week on my ABC Printables page. I share printables plus the link to my posts on Totally Tots.

 

All About Reading

I am so excited that Marie Rippel from All About Spelling has a new program out called All About Reading.  Today the Pre-1 program, which is geared toward preschool-kindergarten, is available for purchase

So why am I excited?

I have been working with my two little girls on learning letter sounds and letter knowledge through our Letter of the Week studies, and from looking at the teacher sample, this program will fit right in with what we are doing. What I appreciate is the emphasis on the five fundamental pre-reading skills:

letter knowledge
phonological awareness,
print awareness
listening comprehension
motivation to read

I also like that these skills seem to be presented in natural ways through songs, reading stories, and playing games. You can see samples of the student activity book, the hard-back letter book, and the hardback poem book.

This is not an official review---I am hoping to get the products and test them first-hand with my kids. I do know however, that Marie’s All About Spelling program is wonderful, and I’m expecting that same quality, and attention to detail in this program.

Right now you can also download two free e-books that go along with the program:

and

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for All About Spelling and if you click the links you’ll be helping me get my own set of books. Opinions stated are my own.

My Top-10 ABC Materials to Have on Hand

 As many of you know, I get to post what we do for Letter of the Week over on Totally Tots. I love coming up with creative ways to teach the alphabet using themes. If I had to do everything from scratch though, I would burn out. I do have an ABC arsenal at home that helps me stay on track and keep things easy. Here’s my top-10 list of abc materials for Letter of the Week (in no particular order):

1. Foam alphabet letters. These are great for tactile learning and play. They can be sorted, hid, traced, painted, sequenced and more. For more ideas check out Julie's posts on Little-Hands on ABC & 123's over at Totally Tots.

Using craft foam as sorting mats

2. Felt pieces or craft foam. I use these all the time as sorting mats. 

3. Magnet letters. I use these to switch things up. We use them on our fridge or magnetic dry-erase board. They are used for sorting, practicing beginning sounds etc. Sometimes changing where the learning takes place helps keep my kids' attention.

4. Laminated alphabet flashcards or ABC mats. I purchased a set from Kumon and it has the direction arrows for learning how to write. Since they are laminated, we can write on them and use them with Playdough. I also hang the letter we are learning on our morning board.

5. Basic Alphabet books. Lots and lots of books! Not all of ours are ABC books, but are also ones we have used/are using for our Letter of the Week themes.

6. Alphabet puzzles: We have several different ABC puzzles on hand. Of course we use them as intended, but I also use the pieces for sorting, in our ABC letter box, for games and more.

7. Playdough Just an all-around great material to have on hand. We use them with printable playdough mats, with abc cookie cutters and for pretend play.

8.  ABC wooden blocks I will admit that I was surprised at how much my girls like playing with something as simple as wooden blocks. Besides building, we use them in games (knock down the tower that has the letter A etc.), for sorting, and building some words.

9.  Dry-erase crayons I like that dry erase crayons don't smell like dry-erase markers. Since they are crayons, they are also a little easier for my girls to control when using on laminated surfaces.

10. Leapfrog ABC Fridge Magnetic Set We use the letters for sorting, games, and as reinforcement of the letter sounds.

What things/products/materials do you find are must-have's when teaching the alphabet?

Disclosure: There are affiliate links in this post. I do receive a small commission if you order through the links. Thank you in advance for using them and supporting this site.

Submitted to:

Helpful Homeschool Hints hosted by Many Little Blessings. Click to check out more helpful hints!

Duck Week

One of the hardest things for me is to wait two weeks to show you what we've been up to! :)  Can you guess what we studied for letter D week? Head on over to the Totally Tots blog to see all our duck activities!

One thing I didn’t feature in the Totally Tots post (because I made the printable at the last minute) were the duck color cards. You can find them along with the other letter D printables.

ABC Letter Box

As part of our Letter of the Week studies, I decided to add an ABC Letter Box.

First I colored 2 boxes of ABC macaroni noodles and then placed the mini abc's in a shoebox. [I mixed about 1 T. of rubbing alcohol and 10-12 drops of food coloring to about 1 c. of dry noodles in a Ziplock bag. Spread on a paper towel-lined cookie sheet to dry.]

,

Next I added objects and different fonts of the letter we are studying to the box.

Tips: Use mini-erasers, buttons, old abc puzzle pieces, chipboard letters, wooden letters, miniatures, and printouts.

I printed out ABC images from Homeschool Creations at a reduced size to fit in our box. 

On the first day of the letter study I pull out the box and have the girls tell me the names of all the objects. We listen to the first sound the word makes. Then I point to the letter and tell them that this is the letter that makes this sound. Here are a couple more ideas:

• Place both the target letter objects and other letter objects into the box.  Have the student sort the objects that start with the letter ____ and objects that don't start with the letter____.
• Match letters with objects. Place several objects from letters learned in the box along with tile letters. Have the student pull out the objects and the tiles and then match the object to the correct beginning sound letter.
• Place only letters in the box. Hold up an object and have the student find the matching beginning letter.

For more ABC Letter Box Ideas check out:
ABC Box from Pink and Green Mama
Counting Coconuts: Alphabet Box plus some game ideas

I highly recommend:
ABC Themed Sensory Tub by Time for Tots (available for purchase $15.00)
ABC Kit w/ objects by Time for Tots (available for purchase $20.00)
They have everything all ready for you! A wonderful time-saver and they are wonderful to work with.

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