Week 12: Letters S-Z 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  Most of the weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain days, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Just fyi, I may not follow my weekly plans exactly.  Sometime this year we will do a potty training week and I also combined TV shows and Movies into one week.  I also want to do Colors and Shapes again this year, so there may be minor changes, but you will know about them if you follow my blog. :)  For example Ocean/Beach week just moved to March 30th.

Letters S-Z

Monday:  Our focus letter for today is S.  I checked the library calendar and they don’t have discovery time this Monday, but they do the following week, so we again might not go into Ogden again, but we did just get at least one wonderful new book.  Plus my mom found one that she had that he also loves that I talked about last week.  We’ll also continue reading the kids dictionary for each letter(s) of the day.

How it Went:

So, we read in our kids dictionary some of the words that start with S.  We also read to other books the lift flap one I talked about last week and the pull out one from 2 weeks ago.  He really likes both of them.  They are short and can keep his attention and also have nice illustrations.

Tuesday:  We’ll stick with the same songs from the last 3 weeks.  Letters has been fun so far.  I think he’s really enjoyed them and he even likes to watch the videos of the other 2 songs.  Our focus letter is T.

How it Went:

We sang the traditional ABC song and then we watched the ABCD one.  He enjoyed it, not as much as last time, but he was pretty tired from not taking a nap, not to mention it was past his bedtime.  

Wednesday:  I think instead of doing the coloring page since he hasn’t been liking those as much lately, we’ll do the chalk for art.  This idea came semi-indirectly from the pin DIY alphabet games.  He really enjoyed that last week.  Today we’ll focus on U.

How it Went:

We did go play with chalk, but he was definitely more excited to be and play outside than he was about the chalk.  He played with it for about 5 minutes and then was done.  We drew a Unicorn since today the focus was U. We finished the alphabet! 

Thursday:  I think we’ll go back to our magnet board for the letters S-Z.  Our focus letter will be V.  I think of this more as a sensory idea than an activity, I think we’ll switch the fishing for letters in the tub idea to today and leave the magnet board for tomorrow.

How it Went:

Yesterday was a crazy busy day for me.  So, we didn’t get to this activity, nor did Lijah get a bath, so hopefully this will happen tomorrow, but if not Sunday will be the day.

Friday:  W is our focus letter today, but I think we’ll repeat the sensory idea with the fishing pole from last week.  Although I think we’ll switch Thursday and Fridays ideas.  I think the magnet board is more sensory, plus he almost always has baths on Thursdays.

How it Went:

I think we skipped T, but went over, U, V, and W, so today we read in the children’s encyclopedia about the letter T.  We didn’t do this activity either, this weekend is just busy.  Well, there’s always next week! :)  Hopefully we can catch up!

Saturday:  X, Y, and Z will be our focus letters for today.  So I was thinking I’ll try something zebra for his food, but again mostly what I found are cakes and cookies.  My little guy likes zebras because they are like horses.  So I may have to get creative on this one.  I was thinking I could use string cheese and stripes and he doesn’t eat anything black, so that’s as far as I’ve come.  I’ll add more as I think about it.

We may forgo this idea completely because we’ll be in Provo all day for a baby shower.

How it Went:

We definitely didn’t get this as I suspected.  Not to mention my little guy had an allergic reaction and threw up every 10-20 minutes for 4 or 5 hours. :(  We probably won’t do this one next week.

Week 11: Letters M-R 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  Most of the weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain day, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Just fyi, I may not follow my weekly plans exactly.  Sometime this year we will do a potty training week and I also combined TV shows and Movies into one week.  I also want to do Colors and Shapes again this year, so there may be minor changes, but you will know about them if you follow my blog. :)  For example Ocean/Beach week just moved to March 30th.

Letters M-R

Monday:  We’re planning to go to the library to do something similar to circle time.  We may have some books to pick up or we may not, but we will be taking back some.  The books I requested are called 123 vs ABC and First ABC.  M will be our focus.  We’ll also read our 2 Monday books, 5 little Monkeys jumping on the bed and 5 Little Monkeys sitting in a tree since our focus is M and my little guy loves monkeys.

How it Went:

We didn’t end up going to the library.  We renewed books, so we didn’t have to take any back.  My little guy has been really grumpy at night, but won’t sleep longer than 1 ½ hours for a nap, so I think he needs 2 a day again.  So, we’ll read the books we already have and pick up the new ones this week sometime. We also read the books about the letters.  One is dictionary and we went over all of last weeks letters.  We talked specifically about the letter M and words that start with M in this book.  The other is Animal Alphabet.  The animals are in the shape of the letter they start with.  It’s written by Suse MacDonold.  We both really like this book.

Tuesday:  I think we’ll just keep going with the same ABC songs as before.  The original and then both of the ones on my Pinterest board Week 11: M-R.  We’ll be focusing on N this day.  To keep N our focus, we’ll probably take about things that start with the letter N.  We’re going to add a leprechaun song and search for gold for St. Patrick’s Day.

How it Went:

We learned about the letter N in our children’s dictionary book.  We sang the original ABC song.  We also listened to the animal ABC song.  We didn’t sing the Leprechaun song, I totally forgot about that.  We did a scavenger hunt for colors.  I wrote on each color things like, Roses are Red, Trees are Green, etc.  He found each of the colors by whatever object was that color.  At the end, he found a “pot” of gold!  He liked it because most of it was outside.  I think we’ll do it again next year! :)

Wednesday:  O is our focus.  I think we’ll do the coloring page for O.  I was going to switch it up the art activity,  but I think I’ll wait until he’s older and knows his letters better.  I like that he can practice the words that start with that letter.

How it Went:

We learned about the letter O from the children’s dictionary and talked about words that start with O.  We again read the Animal Alphabet book. He didn’t really color the picture, so we’ll finish it tomorrow.

Thursday:  Our focus today will be P.   It’s getting warmer here, so maybe we’ll break out the side walk chalk.  I can draw (not well) some things that start with the letter P.  I think he will like this activity, we’ve never used our own chalk before!  This idea came semi-indirectly from the pin DIY alphabet games.  We’re going to do the Shamrock painting activity for St. Patrick’s day.

How it Went:

He loved the chalk!  Way more than finishing his coloring page from yesterday.  He colored all the pictures and letters I drew for him.  We ran errands today and didn’t have time for the St. Patrick’s day activity, we’ll plan to do that tomorrow.  We also got 2 new books from the library!  One is a trace and lift the flaps which I love!  Lijah loves lift the flaps.  I think it will better help him to recognize the letters, but he’s still young, so I’m not pushing it.  The letters are more for an introduction than anything else.

Friday:  Today’s focus will be Q.  We’re going to do a sensory idea and our “bin” will be the bathtub.  We could either do glow in the dark letter to fish or just regular colored letters.  We may have to do both since some are missing.  We’ll fill the bathtub with water, put the letters in and either find the magnetic fishing pole my mom made or make a new one.  We’ll talk about some words that start with Q to keep our focus on that letter.  I modified the idea slightly.  This idea comes from 20 ABC Games for Boys.  I also liked the other one in the bathtub, alphabet soup, but we don’t have those ABC bathtub letter yet.  I’m also not sure he is ready to recognize the letters, maybe just say them, but it’s worth a test.  We completely forgot about the St. Patrick's Day activity from last week. Oh well, 1 activity for the holiday is just fine! :)

 Our makeshift fishing pole :)

How it Went:

He really loved our makeshift fishing pole, but couldn’t really figure it out.  We had him hold the magnet only to get the letters out and that worked out just fine.  We had him repeat the letters he pulled up and sometimes I would say a word that started with that letter.  We just used his leftover bath water.  He had fun with it and tried to get in the bathtub a couple of times. :)

Saturday:  We’ll be focusing on R today.  My first thought for food was make a bunny (rabbit) which wouldn’t be too hard, but he knows that animal as bunny, not rabbit.  Then I thought I could make a rhinoceros.  I looked up ideas, pretty difficult.  I thought of a simple way to make it, but then a rabbit might be better.  I could teach him that some animals have more than one name.  Plus, Easter’s coming up.  Next though, I could make a 4 leaf clover since next week is St. Patrick’s and we don’t have anything planned in regards to St. Patricks, but it doesn’t start with R.  Maybe we’ll do St. Patrick’s activities on Tuesday and Thursday and stick with a food bunny for Saturday.  It’s decided, the plan is to do something similar to the pin of the bunny on the board!

How it Went:

I forgot to do this in the morning and we maybe gone for dinner, so it may not happen.  I may need to improvise...we’ll see what happens.

Week 10: Letters G-L 2015 Plan and How it Went

*All of the daily ideas I’m using come from Pinterest and you can find them on my Pinterest Boards.  Most of the weekly ideas are my own and can also be found on my Pinterest Boards.* P.s. If you are wondering why certain words are bolded certain day, it’s because each day of the week that is our daily theme that relates to our weekly theme.  I hope that makes sense. :)

Just fyi, I may not follow my weekly plans exactly.  Sometime this year we will do a potty training week and I also combined TV shows and Movies into one week.  I also want to do Colors and Shapes again this year, so there may be minor changes, but you will know about them if you follow my blog. :)  For example Ocean/Beach week just moved to March 30th.

Letters G-L

Monday:  I think we’ll go to the library class, but probably not get anymore books because we already have 4 from the library that we can use.  Plus we have the picture dictionary.  Plus, I think the repetition of the books will help him learn better.  G will be our focus.

How it Went:

The library class went well, we learned about the letter E.  We picked up at book about numbers.  I don’t really love the ABC books we have right now.  I think I might request some new ones.  We have much better counting books.  Despite that, my little guy is still learning the ABC’s and saying them really well.  Monday was a busy day, we didn’t really focus on G.

Tuesday: I think we’ll do the ABC song again.  Maybe we’ll try the other one we didn’t do last week, which is the pic that just has ABCD on it, not the animal one.  H will be our focus.

How it Went:

We didn’t really focus on H.  I had 4 hrs of sleep the night before and my head felt fuzzy all day.  We did sing the ABC’s, but didn’t get to the other song.  Tomorrow or Thursday we should have time.

Wednesday: I is our focus today.  We’re going to do the same coloring page as last week, but for I instead of C.

  

How it Went:  

I couldn’t find the coloring page, so I need to print again. :(  We’ll plan to do it tomorrow.

Thursday: Our focus is J.  I think we’ll play with our blocks letters G to L and then maybe get them all out to build with, for our activity.  He started to like to build more.  Our blocks also have pictures on them that we can talk about, not just letters.  We may also talk about jumping because he loves it at least in his bed, on our bed, and on the couch.

How it Went:

We got a lot done this day.  We listened to the other ABC song from Tuesday.  He really liked it, we watched the whole thing through one and a half times.  That’s about 7 times of the song.  We also colored his I picture.  We practiced saying each of the words as well.  It was almost his bedtime, so he wasn’t so into coloring.  Not to mention he colored the day before.  We also played with the blocks.  I showed his the letters and the pictures that started with the same letter, ie. D = Dolphins.  We built them up a little, but again he was tired, so not really in the mood.

Friday: K will be our focus.  Last week we played with the letters A-F often on a magnet board, we may do that for our sensory again or go to the park and point out all the words we can see that start with K.  I don’t think there are too many words that start with K, so we’ll probably just do the magnet board activity again.

How it Went:

We didn’t do this yet, maybe on Monday.

Saturday:  L is our focus today.  For food, I’m planning to make the lion head with the carrots for the mane.  I found soo many cute ideas for food lions, but that one is the easiest for me to adapt to my son’s allergies.

How it Went:

I totally forgot about this since my husband and I went on a night away vacation on Friday, we may do this next week or we may not.  We’ll have to see how it goes since next week I’ve added extra activities because of St. Patrick’s Day.  If we don’t get to, we can always do it for zoo week! :)