I think we're getting in a sort of groove now that Little Miss and I are in our 3rd week. She's ready and eager for her "Glimmercat" activities and she is noticing letters all around in her everyday world. I heard her calling out "A,B,C,D,E,F,G!" when the credits began rolling at the end of a movie the kids were watching.
So, this week we are covering the Letter of the Week for the letter C:
Everything we go over in this packet in available for free download here at this link: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-of-the-Week-C-1971569
In our letter of the week packet, the summer background has shifted to winter and Glimmercat is cuddling around a hot cup of cocoa.
DAY 1:
I explained to Little Miss that Glimmercat was really cold. So cold that she had started chattering like this: "C-c-c-c-c!" (Hard C sound). Which, of course is the sound for C. And now, Glimmercat is warming up with her hot cup of cocoa.
So, of course, we had to have some hot cocoa too.
First, we began with the Color sheet that shows the kitty in the snow up above. I noticed that Little Miss was tracing the letter with her finger...Yay! That's such an awesome jump into understanding right there!
Next, she colored her page because she loves coloring. And then, we moved on to the Matching Game. For the first time, I decided to print out the colored version of this game. We went over each of the pictures to make sure she knew the names of them. "Cactus" and "Crab" were new, and she needed a refresher on "Clown", too. But she definitely knew "Cupcake".
Then, with great pride, she showed off how she could cut these squares out ALL BY HERSELF to Grandma who was visiting. Look at her go!
Now on the first Matching game with Grandma, Little Miss cleaned up. She got all the matches! We were impressed until we realized that she could see the colored images through the thin paper. (Haha! Smart girl!)
Teaching Tip: Use THICKER paper for printing out the colored version of the Matching Game!
Not having thicker paper, we improvised and I cut out little squares to tape to the backs of the paper squares. Grandma and Little Miss had another game and this time it was a bit more evenly matched.
Still fun, though! Grandma and Little Miss finished up this teaching time by cuddling on the couch with an old book called, "Cowboy Andy".
Remember, "Cuddling" and "Couch" are both wonderful "C" words to explore with your little learner, too. Especially when a book is involved!
DAY 2: C is for Caterpillar
This was one of those neat times when it seemed as though God was working out a special serendipity for us, because on the very day we were planning to do "C is for Caterpillar", guess what Little Miss found outside!
We brought it inside and gave it a jar to hang out in, and it stayed with us for the morning, (until Mommy got worried that we didn't know what sorts of food it needed and let it go back outside). What a great introduction to caterpillars!
After that excitement, we did the Cut and Paste C words together. This time, Mommy cut out the words and read them one by one to Little Miss and she found the pictures and glued them on herself.
Then, I printed out the Dot to Dot Caterpillar, which she guessed ("That's a Caterpillar on a leaf!") before we did it together. Little Miss doesn't take easily to Dot to Dots, so we always do these together, with Mommy's hand gently over her's, helping her go the right way. We say the numbers together as we go.
We finished up with a tried and true Caterpillar Craft made from an egg carton. Even her older brother decided to get in on this. I think finding the real caterpillar outside was inspiring to him, too.
A pair of googly eyes and a pipe cleaner poked through two holes in the top is all it needed to be finished off.
I'd like to say we finished off this perfect Caterpillar day by reading "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" by Eric Carle...
...because how awesome would that be? Talk about pulling it all together! (Insert Lego Movie "Everything is Awesome" song here).
But, it didn't work that way. After the craft, and the excitement of the real caterpillar, my two kiddos were just done. Ah well. We have this delightful book pictured above and we read it regularly, so we'll connect those dots another time.
Teaching Tip: When your child is done learning, you will know. Let them go and play. It doesn't help to insist on keeping them there when they are done. They'll make up for it another day. Keep the learning fun so it isn't a chore for either you and your small one.
DAY 3: C is for Crown!
So, C was for "Crown" on this day, along with the other things we ended up working on. I decided to print out the C Little Book...which looks like this:
This little book is really four activities in one...First, Little Miss explored "C is for Coloring":
Because she loves coloring. And then, she and I worked on the other activities together. She is too young right now to be able to do these other things all by herself. But she enjoyed learning to match the Crabs with other C words, and finding the little c's in the picture.
I also pulled out the little pom poms to have her fill in the C of her little Book, but as you can see, she had more fun just making a pom pom C all by herself on the table. Great job, Little Miss!
The last thing we did was to do complete the "What Do You See?" puzzle, which in the C packet, is this cute little clown. Then, I helped her write "Clown" underneath.
Remember, everything you see here for the "Letter of the Week for C packet" is available for free download here at my store: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Letter-of-the-Week-C-1971569
Do, DO download that freebie and try all this fun stuff at home!
DAY 4: C is for Cow!
Your child has their good and bad days just like you. My girl's been doing so great, and then, well, today just began rough. I had other things planned, but decided to keep it light based on how her morning had been going so far. (It's SO okay to change your plans like this!)
Here's what we did to make the day easy and fun:
This C craft is mysteriously labeled as Letter B (I must change that!), but it is of course a Cow, and I printed it out from our Letter of the Week C packet and we did this first. Little Miss cut out most of the rectangle herself, and was willing to try cutting out the head of the cow with my help.
Here she is applying her glue-stick like a pro.
And there's her finished cow...very easy and satisfactory.
Then, while I was working with her brother, I gave her some salt in a pie pan to do a little sensory C practice...
She wrote some nice C's in the salt, and then busied herself drawing additional pictures in it. She was having fun drawing "Sally" from the Cars movie, so technically she was still doing C work...but it would have been okay if she was just doodling around.
NOTED TODAY: I like the salt better than flour, because it draws nicer with a little one's fingers and is easier for them to shake to get a fresh surface.
We finished up today with this hilarious picture book which happens to be loaded with Cows and the letter C. "Click, Clack, Moo, Cows That Type" is a pretty funny story about Cows who go on strike with the Chickens in order to blackmail their farmer into giving them electric blankets. It's a fun read with nice sound effects: "Click, Clack, Moo. Click, Clack, Moo. Clickety-Clack, Moo..."
Both of my kids love it and like repeating those words with me.
Little Miss and her brother cuddled up for this read aloud and here she is pointing out a C for me on the pages.
Teaching Tip: The best picture books for kids age 5 and under are short reads with few words and plenty of sound effects. Even though Meg Ryan makes that chapter book appear extra fascinating on "You've Got Mail", I can guarantee that in real life, those kids sitting in her story hour would be yawning and looking around for more interesting things to do. Save the longer, wordier books for when they're older: they'll enjoy them eventually.
DAY 5 - C is for Camels, Crickets and Calling it Good
Today, I started on the C Maze with Little Miss, going over the little pictures on the bottom, and then explaining which ones to circle. She was very excited to see the ant picture on here, and would have liked to have circled it, too, since she recognized it and figured that it needed a circle also. But I just explained again that we were only circling the pictures that started with the C sound.
...I figured we should watch a YouTube video on camels. Little Miss has been to the zoo and has seen them in person, but you see so many animals when you visit the zoo, I didn't think she would have remembered them.
So, we watched this YouTube video animating the song "Alice the Camel":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBe49Yo3ca8
And that was fun, but then I thought it would be good to show her a real one, so we watched this video that shows children riding a camel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jxpaVW4_cE
And then to finish up, we watched this pretty funny video showing camels up close and in the camera: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtezAP-AbzY .
Then, we were ready for her Camel Coloring page:
She's getting better at finding the lowercase letters and coloring in just the shape that belongs to those letters...but there were a lot of shapes, and she gave up on it partway through. That's okay.
I read one more story:
And then we decided to call it good.
She has done a great job this week, and is ready for a break. Time for a little bit more Cuddling on the Couch with hot Cocoa...
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