1. Reading Game – I Spy the color/letter….
I’ve learned that kids love interactive shows like Dora, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates….the list goes on! They also LOVE a good game of “I Spy.” Why not incorporate that into reading?
Tools:
- Book
- Colorful Alphabet letters (We use Melissa and Doug‘s See and Spell letters)
- Colorful plastic shot glasses (For more color recognition and a bit of extra fun!)
- Magnifying glass (We bought these from ToysRUs but you can find these at Amazon as well)
We didn’t have a purple shot glass to match J’s purple letter “o” so we used this opportunity to learn a bit of basic color theory.
Red + Blue = PURPLE!
Here J is matching the colorful glasses with each of the colored letters.
What’s this? We’ve already spotted a letter from our name! “S”!
J having a closer look at the text to spot any other letters from his name.
Here he is matching the blue sky in the illustrations with his blue “j” and blue plastic glass.
Brown Bear, Brown Bear was the perfect book to do this activity!
2. Alphabet Rock SMASH
This is revisiting an old post. These are easy and fun for the kids to make and it’s even more fun when they smash them! WARNING: This is a messy activity!!
Here is the link to the post.
Josh wanted to spell “rocket”
3. I Spy
I walk the kids to our local shops every week to get some miscellaneous grocery items. Sometimes it can become a bit of a struggle as they tend to get restless and don’t want to sit quietly in their prams as I get our shopping done. So I thought I’d give them a little (educational) task!
I wrote two letters down in upper and lower cases and asked the kids to spot anything that would start with “A” and “B”. Yes, they’re too young to know, but I’d point them out to them and reinforce their letter recognition and word association by showing them the letter and the item we spot.
Let me just say there are A LOT more “Bs” in this world than “As”! No pun intended!
4. I Spy – Part II (Name Recognition)
Again, I used index cards and spelled out the kids’ names. Initially, I had the idea of them tallying the letters as we go. Every time we see something that starts with the letter “J” we’d make a tally with the crayon. Then I thought maybe using stickers may be more age appropriate and more fun for my kids. Plus, I had heaps of St Patrick’s Day stickers leftover!
Josh is doing well spotting the letter “J” in “juice”!
5. Name Recognition – Homemade Sand Excavation
I got my pre-made homemade sand (see previous post via link for recipe) out and split it into two trays. I hid two sets of the kids’ names (Melissa and Doug wooden letters) and kept one set out so they can visually spell out their names and to match the letters they find.
Some sifting tools for their excavation!
Warning! Sand flying! Be prepared for some mess especially with littlies! And don’t worry. Just sweep or vacuum later! You can always top up your sand later with more materials.
Found our last letter!
curiouslittlegnomes 