AEIOU Special Letters

First of all, I feel really bad that I lost track of the days and I have missed some posts. With that said, I get over it fast and I must move on.

Today we had game day and prizes for our special letters.... AEIOU!
Our first game was Picture Bingo. Each kid had to identify the pictures when called on their game board and then find the special letter. Austin was the first to get three in row and Carter won black out. Halloween Sticker book was the prize.
Next we went down stairs to a tic tac toe game board on the ground. Letters, including vowels, were placed in the squares. The kids had to throw a bean bag onto a vowel and identify it. The prize was vampire teeth. (sorry) I then added more letters to each square and the kids threw the bean bag into a square and found the vowels. Prize...
They had three felt pictures each and identified the vowel in them. Prize Band-aid.
They also played a sort of slap jack game with our Zoo Phonic Cards. Prize  Pretzel and Cheese Pack.
The run around the kitchen game is always fun. They just had to answer my vowel questions. Prize Skull and Bones candy and eraser.



We made all the Vowels with Play-doh

Our last game was more like work. Each child was given a vowel paper with their full name at the top. They had to identify the vowels in their names and circle them. Then they put the vowel lids in order AEIOU. And lastly we put army guys on the letters. 

I am sure I have forgotten one or two of the activities. It all went so fast... and yet we had time for bean and cheese burritos and Mandarian oranges for snack and time to free play. 

Letter S... Super Hero Day

 We started super hero day outside at the American Flag. After a victory run around it, we headed inside into the learning center. It didn't take the kids long to see Superhero candy taped to our ABC board. We talked about what their last names begin with and they had to sing the ABC's and stop when they came to the letter that it begins with.
Then the super hero rescues began. We rescued a Dinosaur and found the letter he began with to earn a superhero sticker. We put the shark back in the sea and earned a sea shell.

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We rescued letters from the Dinosaur and earned a superhero candy. We found something that began with M and B that a Baby likes.

 We saved a parrot from a snake. We traced all our Zoo Phonic Letters and found a superhero treat inside. We saved a Giraffe from someone that begins with a P and then took Swedish Fish as a reward.

Baby Sock Monkey asked the super heros to save his father. Then he gave them a Super hero candy. Gordo Gorilla and his father asked that we find our Zoo Phonic animals that were missing, and We also saved Rapunzel from the pirates. (see video).

We had Soup, and Saltine Cracker Sandwiches with Scooby Do fruit snacks. We finished the day with super hero play on the tramp.

Day Ten... K and Kick Backs!

Most of the learning methods I use are rotated from week to week. For example, for each letter I will have the children draw the letter inside my bubble letter on my Ikea board. Sometimes it is chalk, sometimes it is dry erase markers.

Each child takes a turn singing while pointing to the ABC chart.  We have started to each day put up ABC cards on the wall for recognition and letter sounds.

We add our Zoo Phonic cards to our book and then trace the letters with our fingers using the animal's body shapes on the cards as starting and stopping points. (um there is a lot of talk about bums during this time. As my directions usually sound like this. "Start at the top of his head. Go down his back." Giggles... "You mean to his butt!")


Somedays I introduce something new. Today we sang "Row Row your Boat" from this book I found. It has many cleaver verses about loosing a paddle, falling in the river, going around a beaver dam, stopping for lunch, hiding from a storm. We acted the whole book out.

We played our drums to the book with monkey's and drums. We are getting quite good at the beat... Dum Ditty Dum Ditty Dum Dum Dum.

But today was fun because it was windy. So we made Kites for the letter K during Individual Time. The kids taped down all the straws and ribbons. They held down the paper for the final taping. Then we went outside and flew our kites while I sang... Let's Go Fly a Kite.

We ended the day with acting out the K portion of Dr. Suess's ABC Book. Big K, Little K. Kitten Kangaroo. Kick a Kettle, kite and a King's Kerchoo!

Wonderful videos from this day. I am excited to make a video... Just need more time.

Keep Kicking those Letter sounds at those Keepers!!!

Day Nine.... J... Just a Day!

Today we had a reading comprehension time. I have a book that has several stories in it. The stories have pictures where the words go so the children can help read the book. Each child read with me for 3 minutes. 

Carter helped me cut rubberbands for our Jelly Fish and I had the kids work on them at the kitchen table while I made PB & J. We had Juice as well. The kids were not hungry, but the dogs sure enjoyed lunch. We added our "Inny the Inchworm and Jerry the Jelly Fish" to our Zoo Phonic's book and we made new ABC pictures for the wall. 

With our remaining time, the kids could play downstairs. But instead they all got sucked into "Baby Signing Time." Who can help it? Those songs are so catchy!

Day Eight... H.... Hero's in the End

"Big H, Little H. Hungry Horse Hay Hen in a Hat Hooray Hooray. We started day 8 downstairs with individual learning time. I think we did the rhyming game. We picked a horse and went to the kitchen table to look through a H book for names for our horses. We ended up with Helicopter, Honey, Happy Rosa, and High and (Goodness I can't remember) We ate Hot Cakes and Hashbrowns. (do not buy the 0.55 pancake mix at Walmart. As Liberty pointed out... They are not very good.) We also rode the green horse... Please forgive me Grandma.

They had to say Honey Horse + H sound to get off. We took our horses we named and made them a chalk home at Happy Horse Ranch.

But my favorite part of the day was when on their own they cheered on an underdog....








We had enough time left over to jump on the tramp. I had let little Stuart join us this day. He was afraid to get on the tramp with all the big kids jumping. Liberty tried to help him up several times. She even asked and convinced the other kids to stop jumping. Stuart was still scared. All the kids started chanting his name.... "Stuart, Stuart, Stuart," as they jumped in a circle. It made my heart so proud. And in my eyes made these preschoolers into Heros!

Um.... Lost track of the Days... But Today was Good!

If Monday was Fun... Today was Good. On Monday, we started with a turn taking learning technique I use to have the kids not get bored with answering boring question or repeating boring things. The kids line up. (That took some teaching) Each kid is presented something to say or do depending on the best learning style. So the boys guessed the names of the Zoo Phonics Animals, or repeated the letter sounds, or both, and my girl... started with the word family AT.

We moved on to the basement with this simple gameboard created with tape. I placed toys in each square and asked questions and had the kids take turns throwing a bean bag into the square for the answer. What does it begin with? or I am thinking of something that begins with F and it hops. With the same game board we matched letters to objects too. 

There were snacks that began with F. Like Fruit Snacks and Frankenberry Cereal. We discovered that we all need practice with the scissors as we made a duck. And we added some Zoo Phonic Animals to our Book and who knows what else. 

Wednesday started with a little trading game to help us review the A-G Zoo Phonic Animals and the Letter Sounds. Each kid had a card and an animal. We would take turns asking a person for one of their cards until each of us had the card and animal that matched. Lots of People skills there!

We headed down stairs for individual one on one learning time. The kids each took a turn rhyming and then looking at and tracing the letter G. For snack, we had Cheese Quesadillas, Green Beans (Which no one ate), Fruit Cocktail and Chocolate Milk. Some Diego and a G-O racing game ended the day.....

But my favorite part of the whole day 

was listening to your children during free time. They are so cute together. One child was upset because someone swiped the toy he was playing with. I encouraged him to boldly take the toy back and say 'I was playing with that. Please don't take my toys." Others felt like people were not being friendly or that they didn't like them. I would just say we are all still trying to learn how to get along and be friends. Hugs were given at the end of the day between these two children. They all are so fun to be around. They are learning great people skills. Thanks again for letting me spend the afternoon with your children.

Day Four... C is for Cookie and many more things!

We started the day with puzzles in the Learning Center. We quickly moved on to the Pledge of Alliance, The Hat Song, and the Zoo Phonics Song. We headed downstairs with our timers for one on one rhyming time. The children picked an object out of the sock tube and found the object on the table that rhymed.

Pan and Man!

After goats in a boat and bugs in a mug, we went up to the kitchen to learn about the letter C. I asked the children to draw a C inside the C on the C worksheet. It may not have happened. They were distracted by all yummy things that begin with the letter C. 

We then began the letter C feast... talking about all the things that begin with the letter C. 

Crackers, cookies, chips, cream soda, and chocolate milk, candy.... and CARROTs. (not everyone wanted one of those!) We talked about corn Chex Cereal all beginning with C. 

We had some play time outside and then we went inside to add two animals to our Zoo Phonics Books.... Catina Cat and Dee Dee Deer. 

Everyone should have received a rhyming car game. Rhyming is an important pre-reading skill. If you can help teach your kids to rhyme... they will be better readers. 

Happy C Day!