Learning Our Alphabet Sounds

Adelyn and I came up with a way to learn alphabet sounds while using all of our sensory systems.  Kids practicing this way get to be active and moving while learning letter recognition and sounds. Quite honestly, it was more fun for me as the teacher as well! When I wasn't taking pictures and videoing, I joined in with her which she loved.

I think, the best way to do this, especially if the child is still a beginner in recognizing the letters, is to try it following these steps.

• Sing the alphabet song SLOWLY (most recordings go much to fast for little ones processing the new information) while having your child hop on each letter you call out. 
• When you pause or the music stops, have them tell you what letter it is and what sound it makes. 
• If the child is having trouble ith a sound, I like to sing the song on the Leap Frog alphabet products.  We have it on our Fridge Phonics. 

To the tune of The Farmer in the Dell

A says ahhhh
A says ahhhh
A for _________, ah ah ah.

In our video below, I did not sing the alphabet song as she hopped around the circle, nor did we listen to it. We just picked some fun dancing music for her to hop around to. I paused the music on random letters and she told me what letter it was and what sound it made.

Making learning fun!

Alphabet Sensory Buckets

One week this fall, Adelyn and I were learning letter S.  We made a letter to hang on our wall and then we decided to go on a scavenger hunt for things that started with letter S.  We walked around the upstairs making the S sound while looking around and here are a few things we found!  Snoopy, soda, slide, stethascope, square, strawberry and skunk (he's next to the basket).  After we hunted she got to use explore her items in her basket.  

Alphabet Hide and Seek

I have two great friends who started the "No Time for Flashcards" series with their children last year which inspired me to do it with Adelyn this year since she turned 2 1/2 in September.  We have made letters through H which are hanging in a line above our TV upstairs.  I have not yet taken the time to get a good photo of our fun letters but hopefully I'll get that done soon so I can post it as well.  A couple of weeks ago we decided to review the letters we learned by playing Alphabet Hide and Seek.  

Hide and Seek is one of Adelyn's very favorite games right now so this was very motivating for her (and actually I still LOVE playing hide and seek so I also had a blast.)  We picked a letter to hide and then we both took turns hiding and seeking the selected letter. I hid the letters in very simple and semi-obvious spots for my little toddler, to make the challenge achievable.  Adelyn still has not correctly recalled all of the names of the letters we have made, like many two year olds, so this easy set up was great for learning the names of one letter at a time.

For older kids you could probably hide several letters, make the hiding spots more challenging, or even try to hide it on something that starts with the same letter (that may be for 5-7 year olds).  

When you play just remember to set an alarm in case you lose track of the time :) haha. That did not really happen but we sure had fun!!

ABC Play Doh

We did the good old play doh with alphabet cookie cutters which was the perfect Friday activity for us.  We are reviewing the letters Adelyn has learned so far from our "No Time for Flashcards" art which I still need to post!  I love play doh time and it's so good for fine motor skills (including speech...not only talking about the things they make but also because speech is a fine motor skill and improving all types of fine motor skills assists with speech development in that frontal lobe of the brain)!  

Creative Letters for the Wall

My sister n law (ah so nice to say that officially!!) married to my only brother took the time and effort to make Adelyn this beautiful name decoration for her wall.  Adelyn has become a purple fanatic as you can see with the bed and outfit.  This was the perfect addition to our decorating her area of the room. 

The letters are wood and are painted with purple acrylic paint.  My brother drilled holes through the sides at the top of each one in order to string them all together for hanging. The ribbon has the wire edges which made it easy to shape the ends into the curls hanging down.  The flowers on the front are embellishments for scrapbooking.  The back of the flowers have a self sticking adhesive which makes it easy to peel off and stick onto the wood. 

To hang I put push pins in the wall and wrapped each side of the ribbon around them.  I also hammered tiny nails through the ribbon underneath the push pins and added more sticky adhesive under each letter. 

Thank you Kathryn!

Yarn Letters

The Great Northwest Library here in San Antonio does a wonderful ABC club which we attend on Wednesdays.  We here stories and see puppet shows which are selected based on the letter of the week. The kids also get to bring a show n tell item that begins with that letter. After the story time they can participate in games and crafts that have to do with the letter.  

This week we did a craft to practice shaping the letters using yarn.  Adelyn who is now two and Zachary were both able to participate.  We did letter X and Y this week and here is a sample of the artwork.  We had a great time making them with our friends and the little ones really enjoyed just playing with a ball of yarn. Thank you to the great librarians who come up with the crafts and activities!