summer session - week one

SUMMER SESSION WEEK ONE
ABC’s
Welcome to our first Crown Hill Virtual Summer Session.  I am excited to see all of you during our virtual classes and I hope you can find some fun things to do with your child in the emails I will send each week.
 
ABC’s are the beginning of letter recognition and reading.  Playing with letters is one of the ways to expose your child to the printed word.
 
MOSAIC LETTERS
On a piece of cardstock or cardboard write your child’s name in block letters.  Let them fill in the letters with a crayon. Then give them some glue and cover the crayon with glue.  Add pasta, sand, buttons, little pieces of paper/tissue paper to the glue to make a mosaic out of their name.  For the little ones be sure that the items you glue to the letters are not choking items if they are still putting things in their mouth.
 
You can have them decorate DADDY and give it to him for Father’s Day
 
FINE MOTOR SKILLS / LETTER RECOGNITION
Roll ropes of playdough and make alphabet letters out of the playdough. Let your child use scissors, or a little cheese knife, to cut the letter you say.
Yummy snack idea--  roll out cookie dough or bread dough to make alphabet cookies or pretzels just like the playdough activity.  Tastes much better!
Another yummy snack idea is to give your child a big pretzel stick and some cream cheese or humus on a plate.  Using the pretzel like a pencil they can write letters in the cream cheese  / hummus and enjoy a snack at the same time.
 
Write a letter to someone and go for a walk to drop it in the mailbox
Point our letters on signs and buildings on your walk.
 
Build a tower with alphabet blocks.  As you put the block on the tower be sure to say the name of the letter that is on the block
 
Scrabble Game Tiles are fun to sort and play with.  You can match them up, spell their name, stack them, put them in a line.  Write their name and familiar family member’s names. While you are playing with the tiles they are learning what a letter looks like and as you say the name they are building their awareness of letters and words. 
 
Learn to Sign Their Name A beautiful sign language alphabet book is THE HANDMADE ALPHABET by Laura Rankin. It teaches the alphabet and the sign for each letter with beautiful illustrations.
 
LARGE MOTOR ACTIVITIES
Play Alphabet Simon Says
Using tape, or chalk, write your child’s name on the floor or sidewalk.
You can do the whole alphabet if you want and other people’s names.
Then call out a direction that starts with the letter.  “Jump on J”
“Hop on H” “Laugh on L”. You can let the child call out the letter and directions – it may not be as accurate but it is fun and they love being the leader.
 
Using the letters you have drawn you can play a version of hopscotch. Give your child a bean bag and have them toss the beanbag on the letter you say.  For the little ones you can point the letter out for them.
 
Say a letter and see if your child can make that letter with their body.  Can they make the letters of their name?
 
Dance to a song and when the music stops make a letter with your body and have everyone guess what letter it is.
 
 
MAKE A BOOK
Using your child’s name make a Name Book.  On each page write the letter of your child’s name.  Then fill in the page with pictures that start with the letter on the page or pictures of them.  You can make the letters a color and find pictures of them dressed in that color or in an environment that has the color in it.  Orange letter and pictures of pumpkins / pumpkin farm.
 
Attribute Book Write an attribute that describes them for each letter of the alphabet.  Or just use the letters of their name if you want a less time consuming project.
 
Name Alphabet poster Write their name in capital letters from top to bottom on a long piece of paper.  Using the capitol letter write a word that begins with the letter of their name.  It can be a noun that starts with that letter or an attribute that describes your child.
Apple                          Active
Monkey                      Musical
Yellow                         Young
 
 
And we all know that singing the ABC song is just the right amount of time to wash our hands!
 
~Teacher Janice