N is for night

Our little letter project was Nn today. We made a list of things of that start with Nn with drawings, but then decided to go with a "night catcher" instead. It catches the "night sky." Of course it confused little dude because I made a moon on with a paper plate to hang it. So, then it became a "night time necklace." That made more of a connection with him. Yay!

Another word wall game

Little dude and I add a word wall word every week. Usually the words come from his suggestions (Mom, Dad, silly, work). He's really getting into making sentences now. Here's a game we play with word wall words.

Make a Smilebox collage

Word Wall Fun

Actually, it's more like Refrigerator Wall but you get the idea. Stevie's Memaw got him started on "g-o, go" and we've just been building from there. We started with the names of family members and then short sight words to help make sentences. We briefly do a word wall activity each day and when I'm on the phone, Stevie will usually try to out-talk me with word wall sentences. Smart little guy. Love him.

Initial sound pages

Stevie and I have just started playing "school." Here's some good initial sound worksheets to work on together. If your tot is familiar with all the alphabet letters/ sounds, then this is fun. If not, and your tot likes a little "tv time," check out Super Why. My kid loves it and it makes learning fun.
http://www.kidzone.ws/kindergarten/learning-letters/index.htm

Letter R Fun

This is our little project on the letter Rr. Stevie colored the R's with markers and I cut them out. We then played an "initial sound" game after I cut out some pictures from magazines. I usually cut out some pictures that start with /r/ and some that don't. Stevie has to decide which one belong on the Rr and he glues them. It's a quick activity, but obviously takes some prep time.

Texture T

This one used to be a hit in my kinder classes. Basically, just cut little pieces of different types of textures and paste them on a "t" that your child colored with marker. Talk about the different the way each one feels.

Little ABC Underwear Bag

Stevie is now wearing only 2 diapers a day. One at rest time, and one at night. Today we decided to make a home for a pair of underwear by using a paper bag. That way, he always has a pair of underwear ready after his nap. Strange craft, but kid-inspired for sure. That's really the whole idea.

Materials:

Letter marker stamps

Paper bag

scissors

stickers

undies

Peas on P's Project

After reading Eat Your Peas, Ida Louis, I thought it would be fun to do a craft with split peas. Here's what we came up with. All you need is some split peas, a gluestick, paper, scissors, and markers. Stevie like sorting the peas more than the actual project. Good fun.

Letter collage

This was Stevie's first time using a glue stick. He was intrigued by the texture and loved it. First, I cut out pictures from a magazine, we glued them, then labeled them with letters. I think next time we'll just cut out and glue, then later on label them with their initial letter. Stevie was proud of his art work. Take out the letters that your toddler will need to ensure success with this one.
The conversation went like this:

Mom: What's that picture?
Stevie: A fish
Mom: What letter makes the /f/ in fish?
Stevie: F
Mom: Yes, F says /f/. Let's find the F and glue it on the fish.

We put Stevie's art on the refrigerator and he's been commenting on it all day. We'll do this one again soon.

Letter Matching Game

This game happened kind of accidentally today. Stevie and I were reading in his "book nook" and his lowercase letters were all over the floor. Chicka Chicka Boom Boom was right there and Stevie noticed that the letters looked the same. I asked him if he could find any matches. He started matching letters and we played that game for a good 5 minutes (forever in toddler time).

Letter Detective

Stevie and I went on a search for the letter Tt on a Triscuit box today. I gave him a washable marker and asked him to circle the letter Tt's. I had to hold part of the marker for this one. His 2 year old hands aren't ready for drawing small circles yet. He liked it, but wanted to write the letters on his legs too. Artists!