Summer Fun School ABCs

We have been taking  a bit of a break around here while I struggled with the first trimester, but I am happy to report that I am beginning to feel up-to-snuff again. I lamented for a while over what to do this summer. We will be beginning Winter Promise’s I’m Ready to Learn preschool curriculum later this year, but I didn’t want to do so until much closer to fall. I also did not want to spend tons of time putting units and things together each week.

Last week my mojo came back, and I was inspired to create a whole summer full of fun activities based (very loosely) on the ABCs. Now that the planning is done I know what I am doing each week and just have to gather a few supplies on occasion.  So these are our plans in case anyone wants to follow along.

My goals for this program are for John to learn his letters and possibly some of their sounds. I also want to give Olivia a review of all the letters and sounds since sometime in this year we will begin a formal reading program to see how she takes to it. The only other goal was to have some activities for FUN already planned out and ready to go, so I am not scrambling to come up with something all the time.

Here is the plan in a downloadable Excel worksheet. Summer Fun ABC Download. Some of the activities are from the Internet, while others come from resources I have here at the house. My plan is to create a post for each letter giving the links or brief directions for the activities so you can follow along if you desire. We plan to spend 3-4 days on each letter. We are also trying to form a little co-op of preschool friends to meet and do some activities with us. If you are local and want to come, shoot me an email.

This was the logic behind each activity:

• Art Activity 1: An activity made using the form of each letter to introduce the letter and form to the kids. All of these activities come from the wonderful blog No Time For Flash Cards.
• Art Activity 2: This is almost always a “process art” activity. The end product is not as important as the DOING is. They also tend to be a bit messy.
• Food: Something for us to make together and eat together. Yes, it is fun, but there is so much preschoolers can learn while cooking in the kitchen.
• Books: These are books that we already own beginning with each letter (most of the time). There are still a few holes. Feel free to substitute books you own, books more appropriate for your age child, and books you can grab at the library. Basically the list is the get us reading lots of books this summer and not fall into a rut. We will also point out the letters as we see them.
• Activity: This is a non-art activity. Sometimes it is a song, sometimes sensory, sometimes number recognition or math related, sometimes science, sometimes geared more towards Olivia, sometimes more towards John. The criteria was FUN.

I have also included a few general activities that we will do for many of the letters. The easier, no planning ones we will do for every letter. The ones that are a little more involved we will only do sometimes.

Sing ABC Song

Learn each letter in sign language -- practice daily

Scavenger Hunt of things that start with that letter. Sometimes use the camera and print out the photos.

Letter Stories

Print and discuss letter/sound sheets here.

Discovery Boxes - Make for them or sometimes let them make

Letter Hunt

If you have any questions, please let me know. If you decide to do some of the activities, we would love to hear from you too.

Caps for Sale Unit

I wanted to start sharing my preschool units on the blog. Partially for accountability (We had such fun with the last one it is a shame it took me so long to plan this one.) and partially because someone out there my benefit from everything I pulled together.

This one is based on the book Caps For Sale by  Esphyr Slobodkina and is planned to last two weeks.

Resources:

• Before Five in a Row by Jane Claire Lambert (BFIAR)
• Caps for Sale Fold-N-Learn (FNL) This you must purchase from the Five in a Row Digital site.
• Homeschool Share Caps for Sale Resources (HSS)
• Preschool Express by Jean Warren (PE)

Themes:

• Monkeys
• Money
• Hats

Additional Books:

• A Bargain for Frances by Russell Hoban
• A Monkey Grows Up by Rita Gelman
• Animals in the Wild – Monkey by Mary Hoffman
• Curious George and the Dump Truck by HA Rey and Margaret Ray
• Curious George Rides a Bike by HA Rey
• Do You Have a Hat? by Eileen Spinelli and Geraldo Valerio
• Money (MathBooks) by Sara Pistoia
• Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw
• Too Many Monkeys by Kelly Oechs

Procedures:

• Daily we will read two to three books not including those Olivia might choose to read at naptime and bedtime. There are days we may read some multiple times (and that’s OK).
• We will read Caps for Sale MWF for both weeks. At each reading I will discuss some of the the topics in BFIAR.
• We have planned activities each day except for Thursday (sitter day).  You can tell by the volume of activities for each day which days we are home and which we are gone more. We will see how it goes.

Activities:

Day 1

• Act out the story using “puppets” made from this activity sheet.
• Play “Monkey Throw a Hat Down to Me” (FNL)
• Walk while balancing a stack of hats on our head. Sing “Hats on Heads” while walking. (PE)
• Begin lapbook – decorate cover. (See a sample lapbook here. Ours will be similar, but not exact. Will share more later.)

Day 2

• “How Many” Worksheet (I will read and write, Olivia can do the counting.) From the Esphyr Slobodkina website.
• Hat Match (FNL). Add to lapbook.

Day 3

• Play Monkey See Monkey Do and share the poem.  I can’t find the source for this. I will list the poem here. If anyone knows who I should credit, please let me know!)

  Pick a leader to make silly movements and others try to imitate it.  Change leader.

  Say this poem together as a variation of Monkey See, Monkey Do
  A little monkey likes to do
  Just the same as you and you;
  When you sit up very tall,
  Monkey sits up very tall;
  When you pretend to throw a ball,
  Monkey pretends to throw a ball;
  When you try to touch your toes,
  Monkey tries to touch his toes;
  When you move your little nose,
  Monkey moves his little nose;
  When you jump up in the air,
  Monkey jumps up in the air;
  When you sit down in a chair,
  Monkey sits down in a chair

• Do Hat Play (PE)

Day 4

• Act out story using monkey masks (FNL)
• Make banana muffins
• Discuss monkey classification card (FNL)
• Do “How Many Caps” Worksheet (I will read and write, Olivia can do the counting.) From the Esphyr Slobodkina website.

Day 5

• Make paper bag hats
• Introduce coins and names
• Make a money rubbing (PE – scroll down)

Day 6

• Share Money Poem (this was shared on the Before Five and a Row Message Board)
  • Money Poem
    Penny, penny, Easily spent
    Copper brown and worth one cent.
    Nickel, nickel, Thick and fat,
    You're worth five cents. I know that.
    Dime, dime, Little and thin,
    I remember, You're worth ten.
    Quarter, quarter Big and bold,
    You're worth twenty-five I am told!
• Make “Whose Hat?” layer booklet and play. (HSS) Add to lapbook.

Day 7

• Act out story again if interest is there
• Cut out photos from magazines that start with letters M and C. Put into mini booklets and add to lapbook. (HSS)
• Do What’s In the Piggy Bank (HSS) Add to lapbook.

Day 8

• Go shopping for bananas. Pay with some coins. Put coins into the St. Jude coin tube at Wal-Mart and watch them go round and round.
• Make chocolate-dipped frozen bananas.
• Decorate cans to make SAVE, SPEND, and GIVE banks. Explain and give Olivia first allowance.
• Finish up lapbook.