House Letter "B"

It was kind of hard for me to choose what letter to pick for this theme. I try to choose letters based on our vocabulary words, so it helps when there are a lot of vocabulary words that start with the same sound! For our house theme, we looked at the letter B.

Targets
Vocabulary-- bed, bathtub, brush/brushing, broom
Letter recognition
Sound-Symbol relationship ("B" says /b/)

First, we gathered our materials. We cut out our letter B and the pictures from abcteach.com or are just clip art I found. And, of course, glue.

Next, we looked at the pictures to give the students a chance to identify and label the vocabulary items. We also emphasized the /b/ sound in each word and talked about how the "B" makes a /b/ sound.

Then, the kids requested each picture (I want a bed, etc) and glued them on!

 

The letter "B" was also a good choice for some of our students who aren't making many sounds yet, or who have trouble with multiple sounds. It was helpful just to give them the practice of saying "buh buh buh."

 

.

Valentine's Day Letter H

Each theme, we look at the vocabulary words and take one or more that have similar beginning sounds and focus on that letter for one of our bulletin boards. We do this to both teach vocabulary, but also to introduce the concept of the sound-symbol relationship (that is to teach that the speech sound can be represented by a written letter).
For Valentine's Day, we focused on H and used it in a small group activity.

Targets:
Vocabulary- hearts
Letter Recognition - H
Requesting ("I want a heart")
Fine Motor skills

Before starting, we talked about the "H" sound. We gave a visual cue of putting our hand in front of our mouth and made the /h/ sound.
Then, we looked at the letter "H" and matched it to the sound we had been making. "H" says /hhh/!
And, do you know what starts with the /h/ sound? Hearts!

The students then requested their letter "H" and then their stamps and stickers with hearts. They used their little muscles to put their hearts on their "H."

I think they came out pretty cute!

 

Happy Hearts and Hugs!

Winter Letter "S"

Another activity we did this week was also inspired by No Time for Flash Cards. She has a weekly Letter of the Week craft where she takes an upper case or lower case letter and makes a craft with words that begin with that letter.
This craft inspired me to make a special bulletin board in my classroom that displays similar Letter of the Week activities. Once per theme, we choose a different letter to focus on from vocabulary words in the unit. The purpose of this activity is to increase alphabet awareness, as well as to increase sound/symbol relationship (in other words, knowing that "R" says /rrrrr/). Hooray for phonemic awareness!

For our Winter theme, I chose the letter S, using the vocabulary items snowflake, snowman, scarf and skates.

Targets:
Learning Vocabulary
Pre-academic skills- letter recognition; sound-symbol relationship
Articulation- /s/ blends

We started by reviewing the vocabulary and having the students try to label the items. We also were sure to over-emphasize the /s/ sound, as many of our students leave of the /s/ when it's with another sound in a word, like saying "no" for "snow."

Next, they needed to request a letter "S" that was already cut out of construction paper and they had to request each of the items they wanted put on their "S." They were able to put whatever pictures, stickers or stamps of the vocabulary words onto the "S" wherever they wanted to, which is also nice for developing fine motor skills, too. Throughout the activity, we talked about how "S" makes the /sss/ sound and all the words started with the /sss/ sound.

The kids enjoy looking at their "S" on the bulletin board while they eat breakfast and lunch. They especially like to find thier own letter, which helps us reinforce their ability to recognize their name.

Happy SSSStamping!