Skip to main content

ABC Rocks

Jake loves all things outdoors! He loves to spend time picking up and dumping rocks with his 'dig, digs'- bulldozers and dump trucks. He picks up rocks everywhere we go. I find rocks in pants pockets, in beds, all over the floor! He loves his rocks!
I thought, what better way to practice learning our letters than to use rocks! I actually got the idea from one of my favorite blogs, I am Mamma Hear Me Roar. She is amazing, check out her blog if you haven't yet!! As suggested, I used nail polish. I wanted to have some bright, popping colors. But I didn't want to buy huge bottles of crazy colors. I found these perfect tiny bottles of nail polish. These were the best I could do with diversity of colors but they really popped on the rocks!
I ended up buying two bags of rocks from Michael's craft store. I wanted the rocks to be close to the same so that it did not distract from the letters. I actually let Jacob pick them out and he went for the black ones, probably because we don't usually find black rocks. 
The rocks are different sizes and shapes but that doesn't bother me. Jake LOVES them! It was cute when he first found them, his jaw dropped and he started clapping. He does not know all the letters and cannot sing the alphabet, but he can find certain letters and tell us what they are. For example, if we ask him to show us the D for daddy he will hold up D. He knows M, C, J, S, etc... These are letters that start common names, like R for rocks! 
This is a fun way to practice for a boy who does not want to sit and practice letters! He doesn't know he is practicing and learning!


Labels:

Comments

  1. Mom to 2 Posh Lil DivasJune 5, 2011 at 5:00 PM

    these are really fun! So much more fun than letter tiles. I ahve to make some for my girls!

    Would love to invite you to link up your fun ideas at the sunday showcasr - kids activity linky party

    Bernadette
    http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mom to 2 Posh Lil DivasJune 5, 2011 at 5:04 PM

    not sure if my initial comment worked so will try again.

    I love this idea - so much more fun than letter tiles. :)

    I wanted to invite you to link up your ideas to the sunday showcase - a kids activity linky party.

    Bernadette
    http://momto2poshlildivas.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jess-June 5, 2011 at 7:07 PM

    Thanks Bernadette! Will do!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousJune 7, 2011 at 9:51 AM

    Awesome! I'm glad the nail polish worked well. Thanks for sharing this with me. I hope he loves them!

    Cheri at I Am Momma

    ReplyDelete
  5. AimeeJune 9, 2011 at 10:31 PM

    You can make duplicates of the letters for older children and teach them how to spell sight words! Great idea and thanks for sharing it at The Sunday Showcase.
    Aimee @ Classified: Mom

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Play to Write- Week 3

We participating in a Wednesday Play Group called Play to Write over at Cherrios and Lattes . This is week 3- Write/Spell Your Name.  We started this week's practice with some name tracing. Cherrios and Lattes provides the printable for some dotted letters. She suggested doing rainbow writing with this sheet. I showed Jacob but he was more interested in writing all the Jacobs. I started by modeling on the first name. Then I held his hand and we did it together. Finally I let him do the last three on his own with only my verbal prompts.  He took this very seriously and was very proud of himself! I was surprised at how much he liked doing this activity. He has a long way to go but he did pretty well! One thing I had to repeat was not to go around the o and a more than once. He wanted to go around and around. This is an activity that I think he will want to do again! The next activity was Missing Letter Name Practice. We started by singing a little song I sing for Jak
2 comments
Read more

Name Writing Practice

Jacob did a little name writing practice today. He was asked to trace the dotted lines to write letters for his name. This is good practice with spelling as well. I had him say each letter as he wrote the letter.  As you can see he is very choppy and not exactly on the dotted lines. His motor skills are not quite sharp enough yet to be able to hold the crayon and he especially loses control as he works on towards the end. We also did a Missing Letter Name Practice. Both of these ideas came from Cherrios and Lattes ' Play to Write, Write to Read. These are good ways to practice names and writing. He gets very angry if he thinks he made a mistake. See the scribbling. I have to reinforce that it is ok to make a mistake and that everyone makes mistakes but we just keep trying. Practice is the only way to get better. When this happens I cannot help but think of my former students that did the very same thing and proceeded to throw fits and give up. I hope to help Jacob ge
1 comment
Read more

Building Good Readers

"Your boys are such good readers! I wish mine loved to read like yours do! How did you do that?" Can parents build good readers? How do parents build good readers? This might seem like a daunting question, a task too difficult to tackle. But truly, it does not have to be.  As our children grow and become readers on their own accord they often feel that they do not need or want parents to read to them. It is very common for this to happen, but as their parents, it is our job to push back.  Readers are not born, they are made.  We must find times to read to our children. That might mean reading aloud looks different as they get older. Maybe instead of before bed; you are reading at the dinner table, as they are playing, or during snack time. The point is to share books that will pique their interest and hold their attention. You might have to choose books you might not otherwise choose. The key to reading aloud is to m odel reading for them and to show them th
2 comments
Read more