Tuesday Teachings - The Letter A

Well, I thought we would begin a series with the alphabet. The best way to teach a child is still through repetition so I would not aim to do more than one letter per week. You could start at the beginning of the week by introducing the letter and doing a craft with it and then each day continue to make a focus on that letter.

Many blogs and books are focused on the alphabet and many of the blogs bounce around in the alphabet instead of teaching it in order. If you have several kids, I would go into it in order but if you are just teaching your own child you may want to teach them their name first. If his name is Thomas, start with the T first.

Since I am not focusing solely on one child in this post, I will start with the letter A.

Please print out the page above by  right clicking on it and printing or by clicking here.

This page will be a starting point for us to teach the child things that start with the letter A. You will complete a craft with them of the A item you choose. Here are some options:

Thumbprint Ants - Paint your child's thumb with paint and have them make three prints touching side by side. They will continue to make three touching prints all over the letter A. Once the paint is dry you or the child can go back and draw the 6 legs and 2 antennas to make it look like an ant. As we know ants are usually brown or black but do not hesitate to let your child be creative in choosing the ant color for their art.

Almonds - You can glue slivered almonds onto the A. Please verify that there are no nut allergies prior to doing this project!

Apples - If you know someone that has an apple tree in their yard, get a small apple and cut it in half. Let your kids dip the cut side in paint and stamp it on the A. I like this best with the smaller apples but if you do not have access to small apples from a tree just get the smallest one you can from the store.

Alligators - Let the child color or paint the A. Now turn the A on its side to represent an alligator head. Use some foam triangles or some paper triangles as teeth and glue them into the open mouth. Attach two more foam triangles or a piece of paper with eyes drawn on to the top of the A.If you use foam you can attach googly eyes instead of drawing them on.

Some more ideas to reinforce the letter A.

Food choices:
Apples, Avocado, Asparagus, Angel Hair Pasta, Apricots, Alfalfa Sprouts, Artichokes, Albacore Tuna, Animal Crackers and Apple Jacks Cereal

You can make them "Ants on a Log" by taking celery and cutting in about 3" long pieces. Fill it with peanut butter (again check for nut allergies) or cream cheese then put raisins or dried cranberries on it to represent the ants. You could also make "Safari Logs" by replacing the ants with animal crackers.

You can print out the letter A and put it in a clear sheet protector/report cover or laminate it and give the child a dry erase marker to practice writing the letter A.

You can write the letter A on a chalkboard and give the kid a small amount of water with a paint brush. They can dip the brush in the water and use it to erase/trace your letter.

Find the letter A. Give a child a marker and an old magazine or newspaper. Ask them to go through a few pages and circle the letter A.

Lacing Cards - Print out the letter A and laminate it. Punch a hole every inch or so and let the child lace yarn or a shoestring.

Paint Bag - Squirt some tempura paint of shaving cream in a zipper style bag. Seal the bag, squeezing out as much air as possible. For safety and cleanliness sake, tape the bag closed also. Now put the bag on the desk and allow the child to trace the A.

All images that are easy to save, please hold onto those and put them all in a Alphabet Binder for the child. I will be putting the Thumbprint Ants and the Alligator in a binder. The Almonds would probably not last in a binder sleeve. To make the binders I will put the pictures in sheet protectors and then put them in a 3 ring binder.