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Letter of the Week A- Day 3

A is for Apple
Today we started with The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall. We pointed out the As as we read. We sung the ABCs and traced the A felt flashcard. 
Next, I had Jake trace the upper and lowercase letters (get printables here). I laminated the sheet and then had him use dry erase crayons to outline the letters. He is not able to told the crayon in the correct way but that is not an expectation at two years old. The fine motor skills of most two-year-olds have not developed well enough to be able to hold a pencil or crayon "correctly"- hence the fat crayons.
Here is a great diagram that illustrates the phases of motor skills and the development into being able to hold a pencil/crayon correctly. As you can see Jacob is right on track using the digital grasp for 2 years and 5 months.
He had great focus and intent. He traced while repeating down, down, across. I have apple pictures on the letters where I want him to start the crayon. On the top of the capital A for the down, down and at the side of the A for the across. This helps remind him to pick up the crayon and lay it back down at the apple pictures. 
 I used these Dry Erase crayons. They worked beautifully! They came with an eraser mit that worked perfectly to remove the crayon. It took a little elbow grease but Jacob could do it without difficulty and he enjoyed it!We read Apples, a poem and circled the As (capital and lowercase) throughout the poem. The purpose of this is to see the letters in context and to start recognizing that letters form words. I laminated this paper as well and we used the dry erase crayons so we can do this activity more than once. We can also correct mistakes by using the dry erase crayons. 
Horrible picture, sorry.

Lastly, we made some uppercase As with Popsicle sticks. This was very difficult for Jacob. I made the one on top and told him to look at that to make his. He just could not do it, so I made mine again slower talking my way through it. Eventually I pulled out the tracing A paper and had him make the A on top of it. He was able to do it with the assistance of the paper. 
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Comments

  1. PipFebruary 6, 2012 at 5:23 PM

    Thanks for the lovely ideas and great pritables. we will be enjoying these!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jess-February 6, 2012 at 8:45 PM

      Great! So glad you can use them! Have fun!!

      Delete

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