Structured Play

C is for crab Today we made letter Cs with play-doh and a cookie cutter. This helps with motor skills and, of course, letter recognition. Next, we read At the Beach with the Snappy Little Crab. We looked for letter Cs as we read. Then we made a crab at the beach on paper with paint. Jacob loves handprint art. I had him paint the water as a free paint with a brush. I drew a line and told him to paint the water under the line. He did a great job following directions. Then I painted his hands and he placed them on the paper. He asked where the crab was because he couldn't 'see' the crab until we glued the eyes on the thumbs.  Lastly, we did our I-Spy Box. I do this as an informal assessment of the Letter of the Week. I place items in shoebox. We open the box and look for items that start with the letter C. Many of the items are examples of things we have discussed during the week so they are more of a reminder. There are also items that do not start with the l...

C is for Caterpillar Today we started with The Caterpillow Fight by Sam McBratney. This is a fun little story with many, many Cs in it! It was a great way to practice C is for Caterpillar.  Next, Jacob practiced making circles using a caterpillar to trace from. He is not great at following lines, fine motor skill, which is a skill that will come with development. He becomes slightly frustrated but I just tell him to take his time and do his best. I do not try to correct him at all or tell him what to do after the initial directions are given. He does the best he can and a good attitude goes along way! His focus and concentration are evident. He loves making circles! I don't know why but he loves circles! We use the dry erase crayons. These are the best! I laminate the paper and Jake can use these crayons over and over on the laminated sheet.  Lastly, he used a bingo dotter to make the upper and lower case Cs. This is a great way to practice letter recogni...

C is for Cookie I am what my husband might call Anti-Technology when it comes to my toddler! But he continues to stress the importance of technology and education so every once in a while I include some technology. Today I pulled out the laptop for a little Sesame Street. We watched C is for Cookie with Cookie Monster. Come on, who doesn't love a little Cookie Monster? Next, Jake practiced writing the letter C. We used Dry Erase Crayons (which I love!!). I use the thick letters so Jake has the room to trace without feeling that he is not doing a good job by not staying in the lines. At this age I do not expect him to be able to write the letter but this is more of a letter recognition activity and a pre-writing activity.  Finally, we read the C is for Cookie poem and circled the letter Cs throughout the poem. I had Jake do this for letter recognition, to see that letters make up words and that words make a poem.  Look at that focus and conc...

C is for Cat We started today by reading Cat in the Bag. Every time I read the word "Cat" I had Jacob find the word by looking for the C on the page. He would point to the word and say, "cat!" Next, he fed a cat cat food by stamping the letter C. This is just a simple activity to practice letter recognition.    Then Jacob practiced making straight lines by tracing the dotted line taking the cat to the kittens on the other side.  For printables click here.

C is for Crane Today we started Letter C. You can find Plans here . We traced letter C and looked at some flashcards with C pictures. We also sang the ABCs while pointing to alphabet cards on the wall. Then I read the "C" Book. Jake did the Gel tracing and put together the C puzzle with foam letters. (Simple one this week) Next, we worked on the Alphabet Book page. Each week we are creating a page for our Alphabet Book. Jacob loves cars, trucks and construction equipment so the Alphabet Book is going to be an all transportation  book! Hence this week's Crane Page.  

Oops! Sorry for not posting this earlier! I went out of town for my sister's wedding and I thought I posted this, but going out of town consumed my thoughts and it slipped my mind! We started by singing the ABCs and reading How to Get a Gorilla Out of Your Bathtub. This is a fun book that made Jacob laugh. We really enjoyed it! Next we made a bathtub of our own. Then put in bubbles (with paint) and a bear (drawing).  Next, we got out our B Box. These are the items I placed inside of a shoe box. Some are B words and others are not. I had Jake look through the box and pick out items that start with the letter B.   Bulldozer Bird He did great and picked all the B items. I will use the picture to create a I Spy Book of our Letter Boxes. 

B is for Bee We started with this 'loud' book, The Baby BeeBee Bird. We had a lot of fun reading this and being really, really loud! I had Jake practice drawing lines. He had to connect the bees to the flowers. He is really getting good at drawing straight lines. He did this practice three or four times using the dry erase crayons. Next, Jake practiced tracing the upper and lowercase Bs. He enjoys tracing the letters but does not let me tell him where to start or how to trace the letter. Instead of fighting with him about it, I have decided to let him explore the letters and trace them on his own. As I have stated before, we are not working on handwriting but rather letter recognition. I feel, by exploring the letters he is still building skills. You can find the printables here.

B is for Balls Today we read Blueberries for Sal, a classic. I pointed out the B in blueberries then pointed to the words as I read. When Jake saw the word blueberries he would say, "B for Blueberries!" I was overly enthusiastic and praised him for 'reading!' Next, I had Jacob practice making circles. I asked him to trace around the various balls on the page. He can make circles (more like ovals) but this practice will help him with fine motor skills. We used the dry erase crayons and he made the circles, erased and made them again.  Lastly, I had Jake dot paint the letters. This is just another strategy to work on letter identification, letter formation and motor skills. For Letter of the Week printables click here.

Today we started by reading, We're going on a Bear Hunt. This is such s fun book. I do not typically recommend particular books because I feel there are so many great books within every topic that one particular book is not necessary. This book on the other hand, is one of a kind! It is fun, silly and provides a plethera of activities. We went on a Bear Hunt after reading the book (a couple times). I hid a stuffed bear and we "hunted" for it using the same language from the story. We had so much fun, playing for about 40 minutes! I know that we will be going on many more bear hunts in the future!  (sorry no pictures too busy playing!) Next, we stamped the letter B. Jake fed the bear B blueberries Last, we read a Bear Poem and circled the B letters throughout the poem.  For printables click here.  

B is for Bus We started week 2 of Letter of the Week . I am just going to go in alphabetical order for now. Unless I really start to lose him I will continue in alphabetical order.  I started by showing Jacob the homemade flashcard with felt. We traced the capital and lowercase letters with our fingers. I then read, My "b" Book. I purchased a set of these ABC books at a consignment sale! The entire set (new) for $10! I thought it was a great deal and purchased them over a year ago. I have kept them in anticipation for Letter of the Week. While I read I had Jake trace the Bs in the gel bag. Next, I had Jake put together the letter B Puzzle. I just cut the shapes out of foam. He was able to do this pretty simply! I feel this activity will help him recognize the letters in a more conceptional way. And he likes doing puzzles!!  Finally, we did the ABC book page. My plan is to do a book page for each letter of the alphabet and put them together...

A is for Ants Today we started by listening to Black and Red Ants on the computer. This is a story by Sam Thorn. I sometimes pretend that technology is not relevant to a two year old but who am I fooling? Jacob loves computers, I-pads, I-phones or whatever he can get his hands on. I decided I really wanted to make sure that he stays engaged in our Letter of the Week activities since it will be daily for 26 weeks! Jacob loved seeing a book on the computer! The story was found on Reading is Fundamental website but more great books can be found on We Give Books . We listened to the book numerous times and after a few times we started pointing out the As in the text, as the text was on the screen during the reading. Next, we made a red and black ant using an egg carton. Jake chose to paint his black, his favorite color! I made the red. We painted the egg carton and then added googly eyes and feelers.  After making and playing with the ants we moved on to the in...

A is for Astronaut  I included a practice sheet for making lines in our plans . This is an important pre-writing skill to develop. I thought that our Letter of the Week time would be the perfect place to incorporate this skill building. I had Jacob connect the astronaut to the moon. I included an uppercase A on the astronaut and a lowercase A on the moon just as added exposure to the letters. The next activity was a dot lettering. I had Jake use a bingo dotter to dot around the letter As to practice the shape of an A and to work on hand-eye coordination.  Finally, we made play-doh As. I found alphabet cookie cutters and knew Jacob would love using these with play-doh. He practiced making the As with the cookie cutters while practicing saying A!