Monkey is now learning the letter "C". I am quite pleased with how the preschool activities have gone because he is talking more and pointing out the letters he has learn in books and in his surroundings. Here is the preschool template I use and here is the letter "C" template. (note: I decided to move the "discovery bag" activity onto Tuesday - Science days because I felt there was too much I was trying to do on Monday. It worked out well because I was able to tie into the science theme).
Monday - Reading
We started off our week of letter "c" by making a letter "c" to hang on the way. This blog has great ideas on creative ways to display a letter of the week in your house. I adapted the letter to the materials I had on hand so that is why my "c" is a little bit different. But, that is totally okay! Anyways, Monkey loves cars so he had fun making the road and the cars. And, of course, he loves glue.
After we made the letter of the week, we read some books that featured the letter "c". We, of course, reread these books frequently during the week. And, then later that day we practiced making the letter "c" by using our snake play dough letter cards. This is where you make "snakes" out of the play dough to teach how the letter is created.
Tuesday - Science
Because we love baking at our house, today's science project was making corn bread to go with our dinner. Monkey had fun measuring, mixing, and spooning the corn bread batter into the pan. As we made the bread, I did my best to explain to him the importance of mixing the ingredients and why we add certain ingredients (see template at the top of the post for notes of discussion). I love getting Monkey involved while I cook because it helps me out and it teaches him valuable skills.
We finished the day by exploring the "discovery bag". This is a bag filled with objects that start with the letter "C". I make sure to label each word (for example: celery) so that way Monkey will learn to connect the letter "c" with words that start with "c". We then talk about where you can find his item in the house, and we try to discover more "c" words. Because Monkey is only 2 years old, I guide him along this activity. I try to encourage him to find "c" words by asking him questions. For example, "Where are cars found?" This was used to talk about toy cars and actual cars.
Wednesday - Math
I decided to do something different today. I got out the 300 circle pom poms box I bought at Walmart. I dumped the pom poms into a large tupperware so Monkey would have an easier time grabbing them. We worked on sorting them by colors and sizes by using an egg carton and sandwich size tupperware containers. I really like the egg carton to match up colors because we could count and sort and not get overwhelmed. As you can see, Monkey wanted to wear his dragon costume again. Silly monkey!
This went okay. He only cooperated for a little bit before he just wanted to sort them his way, and I allowed him to sort his way because I didn't want to stifle his creativity (He really liked putting the biggest blue pom poms into the egg carton and pretending he had eggs. He did that after we sorted the pom poms by color).
And, he really loved using tongs to grab the circle pom poms and place them into containers. He didn't really sort into any specific categories, but he was able to work on his motor skills. I will admit that this activity gets super messy, but he really loved it. He kept asking to play with them each day of this week. We will definitely be doing another project with them!
Thursday - Art
After reading, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, we made caterpillars. Monkey first painted his egg carton. He, of course, wanted blue.
After it dried, I cut the egg carton into individual units. I them made small incisions at the top of each egg carton unit so I could thread a pipe cleaner through. The reason why I made the caterpillars like this is so you can move each piece as you play with it. Then we glued on the eyes, and made little antennae for them. Note: You don't have to make movable caterpillars, but I wanted to do something different. To save time, you can leave the egg carton units attached and just glue on eyes and the antennae.
I made the caterpillars into different lengths so we could count how big each caterpillar was. This was another way to incorporate math into art. How did I entertain my little one while I assembled the pieces? Well, I let him play with the pipe cleaners and my strainer! A great distraction activity that works on fine motor skills!
Friday - Physical Exercise
We did something really silly today. We did the crab walk. Well, I should say that it was mainly me doing the crab walk because Monkey really wasn't too sure on what to think about this activity. He thought I was being really silly. Eventually, we ended up running around and pretending to be crabs by using our hands to make pincher claws. Oh well, at least we tried.
Saturday - Music
Like the other weeks, I sang the ABC's with Monkey. Monkey loves to listen to music and asks me to sing to him a lot, but he hasn't quite gotten to the point where he wants to sing. I let him watch this video song by StoryBots that sings about the letter "c".
And, I am quite happy to find these cleaning songs at this website. She has some really creative ways to sing about washing hands and cleaning up your toys. So today we practiced singing them. Hopefully, one day Monkey will sing with me. He did enjoy the new songs, and I think it will help with the clean up routine in our household. I plan on using more of her cute songs in our household so go check them out!
Monkey learned about caring today. I wanted him to know the importance of caring for yourself, your family, and your friends/neighbors, and strangers. I talked with him how we need to treat people. It went over really well because we got to talk about caring for his younger brother, Roo. I pointed out how well he cares for Roo by going to him when he cries and patting him softly on the head and back and how quickly he gives hugs to him. I loved the lesson because I got to point out how he is doing well as an older brother. I wanted to take time to make him feel that he is doing well.
Thoughts:
I have to say that working on one letter a week has been really good. Monkey is talking about the letters we have learned about, and he can actually point them out! I feel going at this pace has actually encouraged him to speak more which has been a huge blessing since he has been stubborn with speech (another post for another time).
Want ideas for the letters "A" and "B", then come check out these posts:
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