Toddler Lessons for Thursday - Letters

Today is LETTERS day.

Today's toddler activities are all about the alphabet. We are so close to being able to sing the whole alphabet song all the way through - still need a bit more practice! One place we practice is when we wash our hands - the experts say you should wash your hands with soap for as long as it takes to sing the alphabet song all the way through, to help get rid of the germs. Talk about multi-tasking.


Craft for Kids
Alphabet Book for Kids
We are going to start our alphabet book (it will be an ongoing exercise as we continue to revisit this theme). The idea is to have one page per letter. I will write the upper case and lower case letter onto the page and then have my 3yr old copy them. We will also look through old magazines and cut out pictures that start with that corresponding letter (e.g. apples for "A", a car for "C", etc)

We are using:

• construction paper (8 pages)
  
• crayons and pens
• single hole punch
• yarn
• old magazines (for pictures relating to our letters)
• scissors
• glue

We construct our book first. I am folding the construction paper in half, hole punching along the spine and tying the yarn through the holes to hold our book together.




Now we can start to work on our alphabet





This was a great rainy-day exercise for my toddler. I know we need the rain here in Fort Worth, Texas, but a whole week's worth?? Please share it around, we really want to go to the park. :)


Game/Activity for Toddlers
Magnetic School


We have this awesome Magnetic School from Parents (it was a gift so not sure of the $). It consists of cards, with a picture and the first letter outlined on them, and magnetic letters. The idea is to match the letter to the correct card.






We talk about each letter, the picture on the card and how the letter relates to the word on the card. It is great for letter recognition, and learning words.



Books for Kids and Babies
The books on our bear chair today are all about LETTERS - "Baby Animal abc's" illustrated by Shelley Dieterich (WJ Fantasy, Inc), "baby, look, abc" illustrated by Charlotte Stowell (Parragon), and "Do Your ABC's, Little Brown Bear" by Jonathan London (Weekly Reader Publishing).




Video
Goes with the song of the day! (US - I know they sing "Zed" - that's Australian! just sub in your "Zee")




Toddler Songs
What better song than the "Alphabet Song"

A B C D
E F G
H I J K
L M N O P
Q R S
T U V
W X
Y & Z
Now you know your ABC's,
next time won't you sing with me.

Remember, teaching your baby or toddler should be fun for both of you - it is a rewarding, enriching experience to be able to spend time together and help them learn something new. Have fun!