Art Activities - LETTER D Daisies Have the children cut out a circle and glue it to the center of a paper plate. Show them how to cut petals in a variety of colors and glue them around the circle to form a daises. Have the children add stems and leaves. *************************************************************** Dads Ask the children to draw and color large pictures of their dads (or another important male figure in their lives). Have them tell you something special about their dads to write down on the pictures. *************************************************************** Movement and Games Ducks Have the children pretend to be ducks out for a walk. As they waddle, ask them to make the sound of D. *************************************************************** Dodge Ball Have the children form a circle facing inward. Choose two or three children to go inside the circle, the other children throw balls into the center trying to touch on of the inside children. If they are successful, they exchange places with the children they hit. *************************************************************** Alphabet Appetizer Dirt Dessert Give each child a small paper cup with 1/2 C. Vanilla Yogurt. Let them measure and crush 1/4 C. Granola and sprinkle it over the yogurt for "dirt". *********************************************************************** Art Activities - LETTER H Hands Ask the children to carefully trace one of their hands and cut out the tracing. Have them write their names on the cutouts and keep them to attach to and identify artwork throughout the year. *************************************************************** Miniature Hats Prepare hats for the class to decorate by melting styrofoam cups in a 350 degree oven. Place the cups on a cookie sheet and set them in the oven for 30-60 seconds. (this goes very quick once it starts.) Have the children decorate them by drawing on them with markers and by tying yard or ribbon around them. Hang them from a tree branch for a display during H week. *************************************************************** Movement and Games Hopping a Trail Press down contact-paper foot shapes along a play area. Let the children hop along the trail making the sound of H as they go. *************************************************************** Horseshoes Have the children play a game of horseshoes with plastic horseshoes. *************************************************************** Alphabet Appetizer Happy Hamburgers Provide each child with a small bun or biscuit, serve them a cooked hamburger patty and have them place the hamburger on the buns and give it a happy face by decorating with cheese chunks, ketchup and mustard. *********************************************************************** •How about teaching the kids to sign those letters while we are teaching them to recognize, write and sound them out. I learned sign language when I was young and although I could not sign to someone, I could figure out what they are signing. I also remember most of the alphabet, the signs for each letter are pretty easy to remember. *********************************************************************** •Make a braille letter on an index card for each highlighted letter. Use glue and make dots to dry. Make need to put a second coating on the dot to make it stand out for little fingers to detect. *********************************************************************** •When I choose to use letter themes, I usually draw up coloring sheets using the letter and several objects that begin with that letter. *********************************************************************** •Another idea would be to write the chosen letter at the top of a piece of construction paper and have the kids find pictures in old magazines that begin with that letter, cut them out, and paste them on the paper. *********************************************************************** •What I do is offer the alphabet over a 9 month period along with numbers. *********************************************************************** •I always did a letter of the week, announced Marque style with a poster board by the front door-worksheets apply accordingly!! *********************************************************************** •I do one shape and 2 letters, and one color, about every 2 weeks.... a month was too much, a week too short..by using a variety instead of just letters or shapes, I've been able to work on transference...finding the shape,color, etc in real life...my neighbor across the street has yellow rectangles for windows, etc....works really well for us..kids go crazy on walks looking for colors and shapes, and numbers on the houses!! *********************************************************************** •For anyone really into doing letters I would recommend Alphabet Theme-A-Saurus by Jean Warren. Published by Warrne Publishing House, Inc *********************************************************************** •Have you tried letter tubs! Ask your local grocer to donate 1lb. containers. Mark each A, B, C, etc. In the tub you place "SMALL" items that begin with that letter! B - bracelet, ball, etc. Parents are great helpers with this project, when they clean out junk drawers!!! You can BUY the set for $400.00 Needless to say we made our own!. *********************************************************************** •An idea for letters "A", "B" and all the rest. Each week, or twice a week: Cut out large capital letters from construction paper. Find stickers (or pictures from computer clip-art) that start with that letter. Have kids put stickers on the letters. For preschoolers and up..teach the sound that letter makes. Have them learn to write that letter. *********************************************************************** •I have found that concentrating on 1 letter a week works well. Not too much to learn at once and you can do each letter enough that it really is absorbed. My dck's can't wait until each letter and the 3 and 4 years olds are starting to write their names now. *********************************************************************** •I also do emergent literacy in my classroom. We try to envolve the children in the words we use. For a small group activity we encourage the children to think about a word they would like to learn to read. Then we ask them if they would like to illustrate it. At that point the teacher writes the word (if they are able to of course they would be encouraged) on their picture. We put all the words in a basket and at opening each morning we introduce a "word of the day". We discuss the word, count & name the letters, discuss the first & last letter, identify children who begin with the same letter as the "word of the day"... At the end of the day, we add the word to our "Word Wall" (located in the art area) Here children may choose to read, write & or illustrate the words. *********************************************************************** •Each week we have a letter of the week. The children who's names begin with that letter are our "Special Letter People" and get to wear a decorated letter as a necklace for the week. During our circle time they usually get the privilege of doing the weather or putting the number on the calendar. We also have a letter box and each week, depending on the letter, the children bring in items that begin with that letter and place them in the box. This is a great home/school connection as the children and parents work together to find things for our box. Not all of the children do this, but several of them really like to see what they can find at home. Then each day of the week we look at the items in the box, emphasizing the sound of the letter, and we play different games with them. One of the other ways that we work on learning letters is by doing our calendar each day. We always go over what month it is and go over the letters that make up the name of the month and thier sound. Most of my kids learn almost all of their letters this way. What I've found over the years as I've taught this way is that children will learn all of this when they are ready. Of course developmentally they will be ready at different times. But when they are finally ready, when it finally "clicks," it doesen't mean now I can teach them. It means now, everything that they heard before, makes sense. It's like "oh, now I know! that's an A and that's a B." Then they learn so quickly and they really like it because they see what they can finally do. I don't see anything wrong with exposing kids to academic learning (i.e. A B C's and nos.) early as long as it's done in a way that keeps the child's interest and isn't forced on them. We spread our letter learning out into all areas from crafts to cooking so that each child, no matter what kind of a learner they are, will be able to experience the letter their way. One thing I don't do, however, are worksheets. They don't seem very effective at this age although I will do some that have mazes or finding same and different with my pre-K's. We don't do much writing either. My young ones are still learning how to hold a crayon to draw. With my pre- K's we do work on writing thier names. Most can do that before they graduate but we don't go much further than that. *********************************************************************** •Here is another idea for formula cans. If you have enough, dedicated one to each letter of the alphabet and put objects in them that start with that letter. Cover the outside with colored paper and write the letter in upper and lower case. It's a great hands-on way for the kids to