Sharon: 'A' Week

Each week we have a special "letter of the week". During the week, we make crafts that feature the letter of the week and practice the upper and lower cases of the letter.

'A week'

WHAT WE DID
ACTIVITIES: During 'A week', I took Sharon to the Amusement park. Last week end was anyways her bday, she celebrated it at the amusement park.
- Found things that started with the letter A and explained it to her at the park.

BODY: this is for her to exercise and move around.... we chose Arms as the body part for 'A week'. We did some simple exercises with our arms and worked on telling which our right arm was and which our left arm was. She had a lot of fun.

CRAFTS: Sharon painted the Alligator pic and I cut it out so that she could stick it in her alphabet book that we are making. She also made the

A-a template to help reinforce the letter shapes. She stuck the A stickers on the sheet for craft work.

LANGUAGE: Talked to her about the letter Aa. Told her that Alligator starts with the letter A. Then made her spell the word Alligator that I had hung up.
Read her a nice story about Alligator from the following web site:
http://www.storyplace.org/PRESCHOOL/activities/clydesmile.asp?themeid=5

MUSIC / SMALL MUSCLE: Sang the song 5 little monkies sitting in the tree teasing the Alligator c-a-n-'-t catch me. Learnt it from the following website
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QO2gN9NLc2I

SCIENCE /LARGE MUSCLE: Talked about how Alligators have short legs and crawl with their bellies on the ground. Talked about how strong their tail is. We also crawled like the alligators and we had loads of fun catching each other crawling on our bellies hehehe....
SCIENCE: Made shadow pictures on the wall with our hands of an alligators mouth.

FOOD: During "Aa week" I gave her some apple juice, animal crackers, apples.

ACTIVITY WORKSHEETS

Beginning Short Vowel Sounds
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/a.htm

Middle Short Vowels
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/a2.htm

Dynamic Lines Worksheets:
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/t.asp?prek-linetrace.htm

Colors Recognition Practice,Single Color Worksheets
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/colors/colors-green1.htm

Scissor Skills,Cut and Paste - Match the Seasons
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/cutpaste-seasons1.htm
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/cutpaste-seasons2.htm

Shapes Recognition Practice
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/shapes/shapes-circles.htm

Math Readiness and Number Recognition
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/math-readiness/math-sizes1.htm

Apple

BODY: this is for her to exercise and move around.... we chose Arms as the body part for 'A week'. We did some simple exercises with our arms and worked on telling which our right arm was and which our left arm was. She had a lot of fun.

CRAFTS: -Sharon colored the printed apple picture and I cut it out for her. Sharon then stuck them all together.

we cut apples and dipped in paint and printed them on white sheets and stuck the seeds on them.

- Fingerprint Apple Tree
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/fingerprint_appletree.htm

-make apples with dough made at home
What You Need:
One-cup cold water
One-cup salt
Two-teaspoon vegetable oil
Three cups flour
Two tablespoons cornstarch
Tempera paint or food coloring (adjust amount for color desired)

What You Do:
Mix the water, salt, oil and paint together. Gradually work in the flour and cornstarch until you get the consistency of bread dough.

- Created an apple with her palm.

- Had Sharon paint the backsides of two paper plates red. After they dried, we stapled them together and attached green leaves. Then we put in some beans and finished stapling it. They make great apple shakers that we then used when we sang our apple songs!

LANGUAGE: Talked to her about the letter Aa. Told her that Apple starts with the letter A. Then made her spell the word 'Apple' that I had hung up.
Finger and Pencil Tracing:
Find the letter A's: Had Sharon find all the letter A's in upper and lower case on the page using the poster.
http://www.first-school.ws/t/alpha_clowna.htm

Read her a nice story related to apple.
Little Red House Fable
Once there was a little boy who came to visit his grandparents in a Norway. Well, the small child gets bored as their is not a lot of excitement in Norway. The boy asks his grandma what he can do. She said to go out in the town and find a round, red house that has no doors, no windows and has a star inside The little boy ponders the idea but can not figure out what he is supposed to find. She decides to go ask farmer John from next door, as he seems fairly smart. She ask farmer Scott but he can't figure it out but he has an ideal. He says, See that apple tree in my front yard, go sit under it and think lots of great ideas have come under an apple tree. So the little boy goes, sits under the tree and is about to fall asleep when out of no where a huge puff of wind comes. The tree began to sway and an apple fell out of the tree landing right next to the boy.
The boy picks up the apple looks at it, and suddenly it hits him; An apple is round, red, has not windows, no doors, but wait is there a star inside. He runs to his Grandpa and asks him to cut the apple in half and sure enough, there is a star insider the apple (at this point cut an apple in half and show the star)

MUSIC / SMALL MUSCLE:
Listened to you tube song
http://youtube.com/watch?v=f-BBMXvUbnc

Sang the song
Falling Apples
(To the Tune of "London Bridge is Falling Down")
See The Apples Falling Down (Use Arm Motions, Raise hands in air)Falling down, Falling DownSee The Apples Falling DownDown To The GroundPick The Apples And Throw Them UpThrow Them Up, Throw Them UpPick The Apples And Throw Them UpUp To The Sky

SCIENCE /LARGE MUSCLE:
GAME
Bobbing For Apples(We played this game)
Put apples in a large bucket and let your kids try to get them out with their mouths. (Tip: Use real small apples or apple slices for smaller children because their mouths can not pick up a full size apple)

SCIENCE:
-Told her that Apple is a fruit. Told her that bananas, grapes and pears are all fruits.
-Also taught her how an apple grows from a seed to a tree to a fruit and then back.
Videos and pics that help illustrate the growth of an apple tree.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=NBCijsqxwzY&feature=related apple tree video

Colouring pages
http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/apples/viewer.php?file=AppleHalfWholeEatenMy.jpg

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/apples/viewer.php?file=upick.jpg

--Guess My Seeds
After talking about the growth of an apple tree from seed to tree to apple and back to seed show the kids an apple and let them guess the number of seeds in it. Then carefully cut open the apple and find out how many there really are.

FOOD: During "Aa week" gave her some apple juice, animal crackers, apples.

ACTIVITY WORKSHEETS

Beginning Short Vowel Sounds
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/learning-letters/a.htm