ABC Fun Z is for Zebra: Marble Painting w/the Letter Z

We have had lots of fun with our Zoo Theme this past week. 

We read many fabulous stories, enjoyed lots of great crafts & activities that we will be sharing with you and even took a trip to the zoo! so much FUN!

Today we are sharing our ABC Letter Z craft with you.

This is going to be part of the ABC Book that I am creating with my 4yr. old.

It turned out so cute that even my soon-to-be Kindergartener wanted in on the fun.

Z is for Zebra

Isn't our Zebra Z cute?

Ready to make your own?

Here's What You Need:

white cardstock

blue construction paper

black foam

wiggly eye

black & red permanent marker

glue

Here's What We Did:

1. Using the white card stock I made a large Z template

2. I taped it onto a large tray and added a few drops of black paint and marbles (the Lil Diva used 4 to match her age!)

3. Then the Lil Diva had fun rolling the marbles to create stripes on the Z. After they were satisfied with their stripes we let the Z's dry.

Here's what they looked like after rolling. 

 

 To Turn the Z into a Zebra:

sorry about the lack of photos for this part - dead camera battery :(

4. I cut a mane out of black foam. The Lil Diva glued it under the Z and then cut strips to make it look like hair.

5. I cut out a tail & she cut it into strips to look like hair as well and we attached it to the lower part of the Z.

6. Add wiggly eye and draw smile & nostril (make side profile of face)

7. I had the Lil Diva copy Z is for Zebra onto the paper.

 

Didn't she do a great job? :)

We also practiced making the letter Z using our foam puzzles

and writing in a plastic baggie filled with black paint -

the Lil Divas LOVED writing this way.

Books:

Bern

Preschool Learning: Tactile Alphabet Ideas - Touch & Feel the ABC's

I have been working on some preschool related posts that I am excited to share with you. Learning ABC's is a huge part of the preschool experience. It is also a fundamental foundation of later learning experiences (i.e. reading & writing).

Gone are the days of just drilling a child with flashcards and having them memorize letters. That was how my parents taught me.  It was boring & for me traumatic because it led to such frustration for both them and me when I didn't respond (memorize) as quickly as they would have liked. Thankfully, today we know there is a better way to learn! Children learn best when they are fully  immersed in the process.

For a full letter learning experience it would be ideal to let the child:

1. Hear the letter - share the sound, use easy repeateable songs as much as possible

2. Feel the letter - that's what I am going to share with you here (see below for ideas/details)

3. Taste the letter - try to incorporate a fun letter related snack (more on this coming up in another post!)

4. See the letter - expose the child to the letters in books, make a poster board, make an ABC book, etc

5. Write the letter - this is another fun post I have in the works! So many great ideas to make letter writing a fun and memorable hands-on experience (more on this later!)

I thought it would be fun to share with you an easy & handy list for tactile ABC ideas that you could use with your tots and preschoolers to give letter recognition a more hands-on and tactile experience.

**Activity - Touch & Feel ABC Book **
Get a large binder and create your own Touch & Feel ABC Book that your child can read, feel & touch over & over again!

It is my hope to add-in links as we continue to cover the letters throughout the coming year but for now I wanted to share with you my master "idea" list and a few links/photos of some of the things we used to form letters this past year!



Mom to 2 Posh Lil Diva's Tactile ABC Ideas
A - apple prints, aluminum foil, alphabet pasta, apple stickers or stamps, animal stickers or foam shapes
B - beans, beads, bubble wrap, buttons, foam bear stickers
C - cotton balls, corn kernels, cinnamon (ground), coffee (ground), car stickers, construction paper (torn)
D - dirt, dots (stickers or do-a-dot markers), daisy petals, foam dinosaur shapes
E - egg shells, foam egg shapes, envelope strips, eyes (wiggly), earth stickers
F - feathers, foam, puffy fingerpaint, flower petals, froot loops, flower stickers or stamps
G - glitter, grass, glue (dried out glue is raised), gems, ginger (ground)
H - hay, hair (doll hair available in craft stores), heart shaped stickers or stamps
I - ice cube prints, ivy, ice cream stickers
J - jelly beans, jewels
K - kool-aid, kleenex, old or plastic keys, kite stickers
L - leaves, lasagna noodles, lace
M - macaroni, m&m's, mini marshmallows, play money
N - noodles, netting fabric, number stickers/stamps, nickles (play money, stickers or stamps)
O - oatmeal, owl feathers (brown feathers will do) cheerios (o shape)
P - pasta, pom-pom balls, play-doh, popcorn, pipe cleaners, penguin stickers, paper (torn), pumpkin seeds, pennies (play money, stickers or stamps), paper clips, packing peanuts
Q - q-tips, quarters stamped in paint, quilted fabric
R - rainbow colored rice, ribbon
S - seeds, sand, sequins, sprinkles, stickers, stamps, shapes, snowballs (cotton), spaghetti (cooked), string, shells, sponge paint
T - tape, twigs, tissue paper
U - uniform (fabric pieces in a plaid design), umbrella stickers, unicorn stickers
V - vegetable prints, vegetable stickers, velcro, velvet, vehicle stickers
W - wagon wheel pasta, wooden sticks, watermelon seeds
X - x's from alphabet pasta, bones stamped in white paint (x-ray) dirt or tape (for x marks the spot)
Y - yellow yarn
Z - zeros (cheerios), zippers (fabric), zig zags (cut from paper) zebra stripes (paint, black construction paper or tape)

Other great tactile ABC ideas:
1. Have block letters for children to manipulate


2. Have magnetic letters readily available for play
  

3. Sand Paper Letters - these would be easy to cut out (use block letter templates) and attach to cardstock

4. ABC puzzles - I have made these with foam pieces and using block style letter templates that I colored, laminated and cut into puzzle peices. Plus, of course there are the actual wooden puzzles kids love playing with that you can purchase.


5. ABC floor mat (see our in photo above)


6. Alphabet lacing cards - you can easily make these using a laminated block letter template, a hole puncher & some shoe laces or string!


Do you have any other tactile items or learning ideas that I missed? Please share your ideas by commenting below.

Hope you enjoy our list! Be sure to let me know if you use any of these ideas - I'd love to hear how it went for you.

Bern

ABC Fun: W is for Whale Spouting Water - Hands-on Learning & Crafts

It's been awhile since I've blogged one of our ABC Crafts
(summer has been so busy)

but this one was too cute not to share with you!

The Lil Divas really got a kick out of how it turned out.

First, we spent some time on the letter Ww.

Hands-on Letter Play:
I had the Little Divas construct the letter out of our: 

Wikki Stix Alphabet Fun Cards

our foam shapes from the fun intercative book:

How to Build an A

Note: The girls have loved working from this book since we bought it in December-
if you have a toddler and/or preschooler I highly recommend it!

and even some craft sticks at the Oldest Diva's insistance

Letter Recognition Fun:
We use these super & simple letter finding sheets from BeginningReading.com.
The Lil Divas find the target letter (W&w)
and stamp them with our Do-A-Dot Rainbow Markers


Handwriting Practice:
Then, the Lil Divas worked on writing the letters W and w.

I had them finger write the letters W & w in water -
actually it was blue paint in a ziploc bag but they seriously LOVED this activity
and I did not get pictures :( my camera battery was dead!

We also used this simple handwriting sheet from First-School
to practice writing the letters. It coordinated with our theme perfectly.

Phonics Fun:

The Lil Divas sorted picture cards into Ww and Not Ww.
I found them on SuperTeacherWorksheets.com.

The Craft: W is for Whale Spouting Water

This was a hybrid of our Ocean & Water Themed Fun the past few weeks.


What You Need:
white and blue cardstock or heavyweight construction paper
blue tissue paper strips
gray paint (we mixed black & white)
wiggly eyes
glue

What We Did:
I used a block W template I had -
 I've had it forever so the original source is long forgotten but these are easily found online

Then I made a whale head & tale to fit the letter.
This is also easily done
(mine is far from perfect but if you need the template just ask & I will gladly share it)

The Lil Divas painted the W and the whale parts using gray paint & sponges

After allowing ample drying time -

cute out all pieces and glue to form a whale.

Note: ours painted papers did roll up a bit so

I put them between some heavy books and they were good as new

I let the Lil Divas decide where they wanted to put the head & tale pieces.

For the souting water I used blue tissue paper and we cut a few strips and glued it under the head so it looks like water was shooting out from the top of the spout. Cute!



Book:

Hope you enjoyed our Letter W craft!
Bern

L is for Ladybug: Fun Hands-on Learning Activities

We really had a wonderful time exploring and learning with Ladybugs!

We have shared some of our favorite  ladybug themed crafts with you (if you missed any just click the link for all the fun ideas) so today I wanted to share some of the fun, hands-on learning activities we worked on the last two weeks as well.

Ladybug Math

The Littlest Diva worked on number recognition and writing of #'s 1-10. I used the printable from Early Learning Activities but we used magnets for the spots instead of their dot cards - the Lil Divas LOVED using the magnets!

The Oldest Diva worked on some basic addition. I used the ladybug printable from Mathwire and we incorporated some small dry erase boards and dry erase markers into our math fun to write our simple addition problems. The Lil Diva got her math problem by turning over two number cards (we used #'s 1-10) and placing the corresponding number of magnets on each side of the ladybug and then adding them (counting) together to find her answer. She LOVED this.

Letter Recognition & Writing

For our ABC craft we made Thumbprint Ladybug Ll's

 What You Need:
1. Washable Stamp Pad -
we have the Melissa & Doug Washable Rainbow Stamp Pad - it comes off fingers and surfaces easily



2. Markers in choice colors (for drawing spots, legs & antenna)
3. White Paper

What To Do:

1. Have child use thumbprints to make the letters L and l - be sure to leave some space in between thumbprints so there is room to add legs and antenna.

2. Using markers add spots, legs and antenna to turn thumbprints into ladyubugs

Then, behold your cute Ladybug Ll's

They also practiced writing the letter L using handwriting sheets from First-School and Confessions of a Homeschooler who also has lots of other great L is for Ladybug printables you can check out.


We also worked on the Letter Ll Hunt from Beginning Reading - the Lil Divas used our Do-A-Dot Rainbow Markers to stamp the letter L and l on the sheet after they found them.

Phonemic Awareness - Words Beginning with /l/ Sound

We used these phonics sheets from Super Teacher Worksheets and Worksheet Place but we did not color the pictures - I had the Lil Divas put colored Bingo chips on any picture/word that started with the /l/ sound.

Then on a different day I used the same pictures but I had colored, laminated and cut them out and had the Lil Divas put them into 2 categories using our pocket chart. Word beginning with /l/ and words beginning with other sounds.

Science: We observed ladybug larvae turn into pink ladybugs (see full post here) using Insect Lore's Ladybug Land

Just for Fun: Ladybug Races (wind-up toys from $1 Spot at Target)

Up next, look for our Learning to Read Week #4 post and some great Eric Carle inspired art and activities this week.

Bern