Structured Play

Joey and I worked on letter recognition and letter sounds with this easy game. (Link to site on week two plans) I wrote the letters into the colored circles. We rolled a die and moved our pieces to the letter.  Once on the letter we said the letter name and the sound or a word that started with that letter. This was as much a number activity as a letter activity. Counting the dots on the die and counting the spots on the game board. The whole game took about 10 minutes. 

We practiced letter identification. Joey knows his letters by singing them but we are working on identifying them. I laid out cards with shells and letters. I started by modeling singing "A" then finding the A. He jumped right in and as we worked I gave him silly identifers. Joey is my silly dude so by telling him B has two bubblers- one in the mouth and one in the belly, he will laugh and remember the letter. I just made things up as I went. Some letters he knows others he confuses. We made it all the way through the alphabet without him losing patience or getting distracted. That is totally readiness on his part. I have tried similar activities awith him and he just wasn't ready. Happy that at 3 1/2, he is ready now!  By the way his favorite letter clue is Q. Q is an O sticking his tongue out! 😛