F is for Fall

Each week Alex learns about a new letter in Kindergarten so I though I would extend what she is learning in school at home and teach Camden the alphabet by coordinating it with her class. We started with the letter F. The kids used fall leaf colors (red, yellow,and orange) to paint on the letter F.Then we counted candy corn . For Alex, I also made her an "F" themed lunch: a flower shaped sandwich and some fruit.

Practicing Letters

I am always looking for fun ways for Little Bug to practice letters. I want to focus now on her learning to write some letters (she is only 3 but she can write her nickname as well as a few other letters) and I found a mess free but fun way for her to practice - using paint in a bag. As a kid I had this toy which I thought was so awesome and now that I think about it the toy had the same concept. As you pushed down on the paint, which was under a plastic cover, you could see through to the neon colors as you pressed down. The same thing happens with the paint bag. Press down hard enough and you can see through to the table. Then to "erase" your work just smooth over the paint.

I had to adjust the amount of paint several times. You really only need a very small amount of paint. I taped my ziploc bag shut so that the paint would not seep out of the top.

That day she also practiced matching the Uppercase letters with the Lowercase letters. When I say she knows/recognizes all of her letters I should say all of the Uppercase. Doing these activities showed me which Lowercase letters we need to practice. Of course she can identify the ones that look like their Uppercase letters but it looks like we'll be doing some more fun letter activities focusing on the Lowercase. 

I Spy

I've read all over about sensory bins and I have wanted to make one for Little Bug for a while. Well this wasn't a sensory bin per say  but it was fun for her to dig through some rice to find the letters of her name. I hid foam letters for her name and then threw in some colored pasta to challenge her. She had a fun time finding her name and lining up the letters. She already knows how to spell her name but practicing can never hurt. We were able to work on letter recognition (again she knows her letters but practice is key!) and so she would say each letter when she would find it. When she would put the letters upside down  I would have her look through and see if the foam letters matched the ones I wrote. 

I thought she would enjoy digging her hands into the rice but she preferred to use her spoon. Then she hid the letters for me to find and I wanted to use my hands and she insisted I use the spoon - she thought I was "cheating" by using my hands!