oletters

Share your ideas too. E-mail me at stormie@preschoolbystormie.com
From Stormie:
Bb
Math/Fine Motor Activity: "B Is For Beans and Buttons"
Two friends can play this game together in the small motor or math area. Provide a mixture of buttons and beans and an empty, slender necked bottle having a very small opening. The two children decide who will be buttons and who will be beans. They then sit down together, one dropping buttons and the other dropping beans into the bottle. They're sorting and exercising small muscles at the same time.
Let children go barefoot for Bb during free choice play.
Provide bracelets for Free Choice Play
During Bb week, instruct children to try and find time to build something with a friend using blocks. Have them come get you to see it. Give lots of praise.
Gross Motor: Toss beanbags
Bounce balloons to music.
Snack: Bananas & Blueberries
Take-Home Textured B: Children paste brown beans on a black B cutout.
Here are a couple ideas I picked up at a conference one year. Although they fit in with other themes too, I tend to always use them first with the letter Bb:

Boom Chica Boom
(I say each line below and the children repeat it after me)

I said a boom chica boom
I said a boom chica boom
I said a boom chica boom
I said a boom chica roca chica roca chica boom.
Uh huh! Oh yeah! One more time!

Second time: Say the baby version (baby talk with fingers in your mouth).
Third time: Prissy version: Say it with great sophistication.
Fourth time: Underwater version: Place forefinger between lips and gently move up and down.
Note: Children absolutely love this, especially when you do the prissy version. So, really get into it. As silly as it is, it's an excellent way for children to learn about speech.

Friend In the Bag Game: Children sit in a circle. One child leaves the group where he can't see the others. Choose a child from the group to sit in the center of the circle with a large brown grocery bag over his head (a bag that has a friendly face drawn on it and a breathing hole). The group then chants "Friend in the bag, friend in the bag; Who is that friend in the bag?" The absent child returns and tries to guess who is in the bag.

Block Play: Tell children that, in celebration of the letter Bb, during free choice playtime, if they would like to build something with blocks, you will take a picture of them and their masterpiece for the bulletin board. (Offer this several days in a row so that all who are interested will get a turn.)

Body B's: Using the bodies of four children, help them make the letter B, or make the letter b using three bodies. Allow the rest of the children to stand and observe the B or b. Make the letter several times so that all can be a B or b and all can observe the B or b.

Place a book about "birds" in your science center.

What a great idea from Ola Coker, Kilgore, Texas:
Balloons Language Activity: Blow up a balloon for each child at the first of the month. On differing days, during Group Time (or individually), ask the children a question (what they did today, what they learned, what they enjoyed, etc). Print their words on the balloon. Only do a few at a time, so it won't take too long. Send the balloons home at the end of the month at which time you will probably have many responses on each balloon. If one goes down, just replace it. You will be surprised with the hands that go up in order to get their words written down. (I got this idea from my church.)
Here's a perfectly healthy "Bb" snack idea from Jenny J that the children themselves can make:
Favorite Books:
From Stormie:
*The Busy Building Book, by Sue Tarsky; illustrated by Alex Ayliffe: The author takes children through each step of building a high rise building. Make a note that this book is also good for reading when doing a unit on the community helper of "Construction Worker" or "Builder."
*Bugs! Bugs! Bugs! by Bob Barner: A book full of "bugs" in bright illustrations. I have this one listed under the theme of "bugs" too, of course but it's a great way to reinforce "Bb" (even the author's name has B's in it).

Cc
*Small Motor Activity (hard Cc sound): "Clothes On the Clothesline":
In advance, cut pictures of clothing from catalogs. Print a letter on each piece of clothing, mostly upper and lower-case C's, but a few other letters as well. During free choice play, children hang all the Cc clothes on a small clothesline with snap clothespins. If possible, include pictures of clothing from more than one culture.
*Read "Scaredy Cat" by Joan Rankin: Mama Meow's kitten is afraid of everything!
*Game: Play Copy Cats >^..^< Children choose a partner. They take turns imitating each other's actions.
*Cotton Ball Activities:
1. Fine Motor: Children can transfer colored cotton balls from one bowl to another using salad tongs.
2. Creative Art: Let children dip cotton balls into dry tempera and rub designs on paper.
*Snack: Celery and/or carrots
*Science Center: Here's a neat book for your October Science Center: Where's That Cat, by Barbara Brenner and Bernice Chardiet; illustrated by Carol Schwartz: Children will enjoy finding the hidden cats (wild and domestic) in each picture.
*Take-Home Textured C (soft C sound): If you hold a stalk of cut celery in an upright vertical position and print with it, the prints kinda' look like the shape of a C. So, the children can make celery prints on C cutouts, using thick paint.

Gross Motor: Can you roll your body into a C? Now, roll it into a c.

Pre-Math Learning Center: Candy Corn Cookies: Line up large paper cookies on a table and tape a number under them (1-5 or 10). Children look at the number and then place that many candy corns on the cookies. (When I do activities using real candies, I like to first make a rule that the children are not to eat the candies -- explaining why, but I also tell them that, after they play the game, I will give them a candy corn to eat.

Gross Motor: Throw a ball to each child for him/her to catch. (By the way, if you're using some of my October curriculum themes, you know that "catch" is one of the gross motor skill suggestions for the month, so it fits right in with Cc.)
Making a Multi-Cultural Connection With the Letter Cc:
Cc For Cookies: As a cooking project (science/math), how about baking cookies for the letter Cc? Here's a Bermuda-style sugar cookie recipe sent to me from Kennita Perry (in Bermuda) who says these are very good, very addictive, and you can't eat just one!:
Dd
*Group Time Game: "The Donut Shop":
Put all colors of donut shapes in the center of the floor. Repeat the following rhyme with the class. The highlighted words will change with each repeat:
Down around the corner in the donut shop,
There were ten little donuts with sugar on the top,
Along came Alice with the dime to pay,
Alice took the green one away.
For the next verse, choose a different child and donut color from now nine donuts ( ....nine little donuts....Joey takes red one away....). Keep repeating the rhyme till all children have had a turn getting a donut and returning to their places. This game requires children to listen for their name and a donut color. Use a real dime for added drama. When you play the game another time, and if the children are ready, use words like strawberry instead of red, chocolate instead of brown, lemon instead of yellow, blueberry instead of blue, etc.
*Let children dust furniture for the letter Dd.
*Snack: Donut holes
*Play drums at Group Time
* Gross Motor: Using the bodies of four children, help them make the letter D, or make the letter d using three bodies. Allow the rest of the children to stand and observe the D or d. Make the letter several times so that all can be a D or d and all can observe the D or d.
*Take-Home Textured D: For this project, children place a variety of dots on D cutouts. First of all, introduce the use of a hole puncher and let each child punch several dots to paste on their D's. Additionally, they can place sticker dots on their D's, and then they can print dots using any round object dipped in thick paint.
From this point on, keep hole punchers in the classroom. Throughout the year during free choice play, children can punch holes (from scrap paper) for use in the art center. Sometimes, when a child is bored or he needs a diversional activity, ask him to help you out by punching some dots for the "dot box." Usually, this is very popular, so expect to have a steady supply of dots for creative collages.

*New Fun With Old Rhymes: Here's a fun rhyme for focusing on the sound of Dd:
DIDDLE, DIDDLE, DUMPLING
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John,
He went to bed with his stockings on;
One shoe off, and one shoe on,
Diddle, diddle, dumpling, my son John.

Ee
*Language/Art Activity: "Making E's":
Give each child four craft sticks to color, then paste on paper in the shape of an E.
*Snacks:
1. Eggs, scrambled or boiled (as a cooking project)
2. Make an E with carrot/celery sticks and then use one of the sticks to draw an E in some veggie dip on paper plates before eating them.
*Take-Home Textured E: Children glue crushed egg shells on E cutouts. The shells will go on easier if children apply the pieces using Q-tips.
*Language: Show pictures of and talk about the life of eagles
*Creative Art: Have everyone paint at the easel
*Fine Motor/Gross Motor: Provide elastic straps for children to practice stretching
*Gross Motor (arms): Before school starts, chalk scribble the entire chalkboard at children's eye level then have children take turns erasing it all with an eraser
*Group Project: Build An E: During Group Time, have children take turns going to the block center to get a block for building a giant letter E.
*Group Time: Make an E: Using the bodies of five children, help them make the letter E. Have the rest of the children stand and observe the letter E. Make the letter several times so that all will get to be an E and all will get to observe the E.

CONTINUE ON

OR
REVIEW OCT CURRICULUM CURRICULUMS INDEX WEBSITE INDEX HOME

My website address: http://www.preschoolbystormie.com