We had a great start to our
alphabet school time adventure! Brooklyn
has really enjoyed having this learning time each morning. Several days, I found her waiting for me in
her circle time spot on the floor when I came downstairs from laying Madelyn
down for her nap. This time has quickly
become a highlight of my day also. I love
seeing her excited about learning!
This
week we focused on the letter A. We
learned about alligators, ants, airplanes, apples, and animals and had so much
fun in the process! On Monday, we started
out with our circle time songs, then I introduced the letter A. We talked about the sounds that A can make
and different words that start with the A sound. I also introduced our Bible verse, finger play,
and song for the week. Our theme song was
“The Ants Go Marching” which I found on one of our fun Wee Sing CD’s. This quickly became Brooklyn’s favorite part
of school time each morning. We would
march around together and act out what each ant did in the song. (I got a good workout too after marching
around to all 10 verses over and over each day!) After getting some of our energy out, we
worked on our craft - a big letter A that looked like an alligator. Brooklyn
enjoyed gluing the teeth and eyes on! We ended our school day with a yummy
snack of more A things – applesauce and animal crackers.
On
Tuesday, we learned about ants. Brooklyn
really enjoyed our ant craft. She loved
painting green grass and later stamping her fingerprints to make little
marching ants in the grass. We attempted a math counting/beginner addition game
(which is explained in the lesson plans) but after two times, Brooklyn started
eating all of the ants (raisins) (I even thought of that possibility beforehand
and planned snack time right before this math game thinking she’d be full and
not eat them, but Brooklyn always seems to have room in her tummy for a few
more raisins!). For snack, we made ants
on a log (I forgot to buy celery at the store so we used carrots. They look more like logs anyway, and they
must have been good because she ate them all up!) We got around to our
science lesson for the day but may try it later.
We
had MOPS on Wednesday so we skipped school time.
Thursday
was apple day. We talked about the parts
of an apple and where apples come from. I showed her a picture of an apple tree. We cut an apple in half to look at the seeds inside. We used this apple for our apple stamping
craft which was lots of fun. We then
enjoyed apple slices for snack. If you
have more time, you can try making these baked apple chips
together.
We
ended our week on Friday with Bible day.
We read the creation story and focused on how God made the animals. This website has lots of hand print
animal ideas. We chose three animals (giraffe,
monkey, and lion) to make for our craft.
We then ate animal crackers for our snack.
I
think we had a successful week of learning.
Although Brooklyn has been able to recognize all of her letters for
almost a year now and even knows most of the letter sounds, I can already see how she is starting to be able to hear and understand how words start with those letter
sounds. Each morning in circle time when
I asked her what words start with an A, she was able to name several words on
her own. We constantly talked about A
words throughout the week, and we had fun discovering new ones each day. I was also so proud and surprised that by the
end of the week, she was able to say her verse (with a little help to get her
started). We reviewed it randomly
throughout our day, and I was sure to say it (and sing the little song I
made to go with it) before nap time and bed time each day. She loves showing off all of her crafts,
which are proudly displayed on our craft board, to everyone who comes over. I’m
looking forward to B week and all of the fun it will bring J
For
details and instructions on these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans. If you have more
ideas for the letter A, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!
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