Z Week

I can’t believe we have gone through the entire alphabet!  This year has flown by, and we have had so much fun exploring all of the letters of the alphabet!!  Life has started to get busier as summer is near; so once again, I spread the letter Z out over two weeks so we could take time to really enjoy our last letter.   

We started Monday by learning the songs, poem, and Bible verse that go along with the letter Z.  We talked about the z sound, came up with words that start with the letter z, and then Brooklyn practiced writing z’s on her chalkboard.  Next, Brooklyn made her Zebra Z.  I had cut a large z out of white paper and then cut strips of black paper for her to glue on her z for the zebra stripes.  The easiest way to do this is to leave the black strips long, let the child glue them on the z, then trim the stips of paper to match up to the shape of the z.  After her zebra’s stripes were trimmed up, Brooklyn glued the z to her paper and then used the black paper scraps to glue around her zebra to make his mane.  She also glued on an ear and drew on an eye and nose.  

The strips of black paper on her Z before she glued them on

Tuesday was all about the zoo.  We started by singing The Zookeeper Song then we read Goodnight Gorilla.  We talked about the different animals that live in the zoo.  We have the Melissa and Doug zoo animal stamp set which Brooklyn loves!  I gave her a piece of paper (she chose to use yellow) and a strip of green paper.  I let her start by cutting slits in the green paper to make grass to glue on the bottom of her paper.  She loves to use scissors so this was a good way to let her practice!  She then used her stamps to fill her “zoo” with animals.  She decided to put four of each animal - a mommy, daddy, Brooklyn, and Madelyn.  To finish off our zoo, Brooklyn helped me punch holes in the top and bottom of the paper (I helped her line up the top and bottom holes).  She then laced yarn through the holes to make a gate around her zoo animals.  Lastly, she glued on a “zoo” sign to the top.

Stamping the animals in the zoo.

Lacing the yarn to make the gate of the zoo.

The back of the zoo picture to show how she laced it. 

On day 3, we talked about zebras.  We looked at pictures of zebras on google and said the Three Little Zebras poem.  I gave Brooklyn a print-out of what looked like a horse.  I told her it was a zebra and asked her what was missing.  She quickly told me that her zebra needed black stripes.  Before adding stripes to her zebra, she used a sparkly pen (which always makes things fun) to trace the letters in the word “zebra” at the top of her paper.  I then gave her some water color paint which she used to add black stripes to make the horse a zebra.  We then said the poem again and used our fingers to act it out.  As each zebra galloped away, we would put down a finger.  Once all of the zebras were gone, I asked her how many we had left.  She said “none,” and I realized I have never really taught her the number zero.  She quickly caught on and soon, we were counting from 0-10 and then back down from 10-0.  We also did a few subtraction games that involved the number 0.  For example, I would give Brooklyn 7 (pretend) cookies and takeaway 5.  She would tell me that she had 2 left.  Next, I would take away 2 cookies.  She would then tell me she had 0 left.  The rest of the day, she went around talking about the number 0.  I love her excitement when she learns something new!

We combined the zig zag activities and the Zacchaeus lesson on day 4 to complete the letter Z.  First, I gave Brooklyn the zig zag print-out and let her start by tracing the zig zag lines.  After she traced each one, she practiced her scissor skills by cutting along the zig zag lines.  It was a little difficult for her to trace and cut in a zig zag pattern as opposed to a straight line, but she caught on by the third line each time.  Next, we read the story of Zacchaeus from her Bible and sang the Zacchaeus song.  I printed out a small picture of Zacchaeus which she colored, and I cut out.  I traced her hand and arm on piece of paper to make a tree which she colored with markers.  She wanted to add Jesus to her picture so she drew Him at the bottom of the tree.  (She was very careful to add “hair to His face.”  Apparently, that’s a very important part of a portrait of Jesus.) Lastly, we did a simple trick to complete this craft.  I taped the end of a small popsicle stick (horizontally) to the back of Zacchaeus.  Next, I opened up a pair of scissors and cut a vertical slit up Brooklyn’s paper (from the middle of the tree trunk to the middle of the “hand” of the treetop).  We slid the popsicle stick through the slit so that she could make Zacchaeus climb up and down the tree.  She thought this was the coolest thing.  She then told me the story of Zacchaeus while making her Zacchaeus first climb up the tree to see Jesus and then climb down when Jesus told him to come down.  

Tracing the zig zags

Cutting on the zig zag lines

Here's how I taped the popsicle stick on the back of Zacchaeus.

This shows the slit and where to put the popsicle stick.

For details and instructions of these crafts and activities, please click to see my lesson plans.  If you have more ideas for the letter Z, please comment and share - I would love to hear them!!