I have been planning to introduce letter/numbers to M a little bit more later. But now being stuck at home due to the current covid 19 crisis it made me change that decision. While R do his first grade work I have tried to engage her with many activities from busy bags to sensory activities. Nothing held her attention long enough and she craved for more time with me. So I thought why not start her with ‘ Tot School’.
What’s Tot School?
Now coming to the term Tot school please understand it’s a far cry from the real schooling set up. It’s a term defined by Carissa from 1+1+1=1. Please refer this post to know more about Tot school. For me what it means is intentional play time with my little one while working on overall skill development. It’s never too late to expose them to the concepts but forcing it on the kid is a big ‘nay’. If they spent 30 mins on an activity it’s a big win or if it only lasts 5 mins that’s an okay too. Follow the child and never expect the child to do everything as planned. Go with the flow!! I think that’s the key point while teaching or playing with young toddlers. Moreover I just love teaching , planning and I’m overjoyed by even the slightest progress they make. These curious exploring little minds are looking for learning opportunities everywhere. You just tap it in !!
Here’s the plan for Letter A week. We try to keep our activities more play based. She is also drawn to his big brother’s worksheets. So I have included some hands on worksheets to go with the theme. Some days she would finish many activities but other days she hardly finish one activity. But we keep on reading and pointing to our focus wall or just sing the alphabet song any chance we get. So you know your child best and always remember to have fun with them.
Focus Wall
Usually I do the prep work over the weekend and keep them in boxes for easy access. Also we do the focus wall for the letter on a pocket chart. This was a great investment I did and it has been useful in many ways to us. I used all the alphabet supplies I have around my home which include:
- Alphabet Flashcards
- Letter A ( most of them from target dollar spot that I collected over the period of time)
- Letter puzzles ( again from dollar spot )
- Beginning sound object cards ( from This Reading Mama)
DAY 1
We started off the day with an object bin filled with items found at home that start with the letter of the week. In this bin you could see Apple, Ant, Alligator, Airplane, Acorn. We also have this Letter construction set which we got as a gift from a friend and it’s a perfect tool to learn alphabets.
For the sorting activity we used the apple erasers from dollar spot. I used them with our nesting cups to learn sorting by color. She could do the sorting for a while and then started hiding them under the cups.
Next we did the apple dot marker page and ant dot marker page. Dot markers are so good to learn grasping skills and this activity focus on letter recognition. These printables are from This Reading mama website. She has an entire letter pack you can download for free here.
Usually we do crafts and sensory bins in the afternoons . That’s a great way to ease them out of dull period after nap times . We did the alligator craft today. I got the printable template here. Cut out the A first and paint it green.
Once it’s dried off paste big white circle and small black circle for eyes and white triangles for teeth. Paste the eyes on top of A and teeth inside A to make the alligator.
DAY 2
Today we started off with Letter A book from The measured mom. She loved this little book with realistic images and it has just one picture in each page. Also having the letter in each page help reinforcement.
Next up we played a hopscotch game using the laminated apple decals. These are the bulletin board accents from dollar tree. I wrote numbers from 1-10 on them and stuck them on floor. R could jump well and M practiced jumping over each of the apples. You could also draw a square around the apple on the floor using chalk to make it look more like a hopscotch game.
We did an afternoon painting activity using halved apples. They create perfect prints and make sure to slice the top to make a good handle for the littles. She happily painted away on our Ikea paper roll spread on the floor.
We did letter stamping using Melissa & Doug Letter Stamp and used a printable from Tot school printables
DAY 3
M is a big fan of any cut and glue activities. We got this cut and glue worksheet to practice some phonics Cut and glue phonics sheet. I cut the strips out and let her cut on the line and glue them while saying out the words loud.
We did a capital and small letter sorting activity next. I printed off these baskets from here. I wrote the capital and small letters on the laminated apples and put up on our tree which I made sometime back. Tape the baskets also using double sided tape and she has to ‘pick’ them and put in right baskets.
We did another letter craft after this. This time it’s an apple using a lowercase’a’. Make an ‘a’ on a cardstock paper and paint it red. We chose to use red dot marker and then trickled some water on it to spread the color using a dropper.
Once it’s dried off cut it out and glue on another paper. Add a brown and green paper for branch and leaf. Also draw some seeds in the middle using marker.
We printed the number puzzle bundle from the website inmyworld which you can find here. I laminated the letter A puzzle and then cut it out in pieces. I spread it out and ask her to find out in order to stick on our contact paper wall. You can also simply arrange it on floor.
DAY 4
Today we spent the morning practicing to make Letter A using some materials available at home. It’s a great tactile way to learn the alphabet. You can use any straight objects at home to do this. We used craft sticks, bottles caps, kitchen/toilet paper rolls and pipe cleaners.
During snack time I gave them some cut apples and toothpicks. The idea was to make some structures or shapes by connecting them together. But they happily picked the apples with toothpick and ate them away and looked at me like what else we are supposed to do. 🤔
We did another art project for letter A using qtip and paint. Just draw small circles on a paper in the shape of A and let them dip the qtip in paint to fill them up. A great fine motor work coupled with painting fun.
The measured mom has some great free resources to teach alphabet for little kids. One of the activity we like is the Letter sound cover page which you can find here. Call out the object name and see if your child can find it out and cover with a bingo chip or any round manipulative. She was eager to name all the things that she could identify in the page.
DAY 5
Today we read the book ‘ Ten apples up on top’ by Dr. Seuss. She loved the part where the bear chase them away with mop.
Later we tried to balance some apples on head and tried racing too. Then we enjoyed the yummy apple. Here’s another bookish activity we tried some time back with legos and apples. Trying to balance them on legos was harder than I thought.
We tried the tape resist art activity to make a Letter A. Use a masking tape or painters tape to design the A on cardstock paper. Let them paint with any tools. We chose to try sponge painting.
Once it dries off peel the tape out to reveal the letter. Choosing red and green gave a good contrast to the picture and it came out great.
We printed off these dot marker pages and used them with pom pom magnets on a cookie sheet to trace them. It’s a fun sensory experience too and looks colorful at the end.
SENSORY BIN
A fun sensory bin twist to color sorting with the apple trees. Make the trees by covering TP roll with brown paper and hot gluing green foam cut in tree shape. Lastly velcro dot the pom poms to it. Trees were taped to bin just to make sure it stays put.
R enjoyed using the tongs to pick pom poms. M is much into transferring things lately so she happily scooped and poured for a while. She also sorted pom poms as well as ‘plucked’ apples from tree.
We also did a sensory letter search using black & white beans. I got the printable from ABC find it pack here. After cutting the individual pieces I laminated them and hid in the bin for her to find out and match to the sheet given.
Both kids competed to get the cards and R thought it’s a game and did most of them fast. She loved to play in the beans scooping and pouring. The bin itself was enough for them to have fun.
PLAYDOUGH INVITATION
Afternoon I set up this Apple Playdough invitation for her. She loves to poke on Playdough and also to make shapes and decorate them. Here’s the items on tray:
- Homemade red Playdough
- Twigs & leaves
- Red gems
- Beans
- Cutters and roller
The Wall of Fame
We display her work on the wall clipped on a piece of yarn tied at the ends . It’s also a good way to review the letters and they feel proud and confident to see their work being displayed.
