A is for Animals

• Sing SILLY “Old Macdonald Had a Farm” … a silly spin on the traditional song.
  1. Sing a few verses of the regular “Old Macdonald” song.
  2. Open “My Little Animal Book” and let the kids choose any animal for Old Macdonald’s farm. Repeat several times. My kids thought this was hilarious Book available here.
     • You might growl for a lion
     • Make fins for a fish
     • Hop for a kangaroo
     • Chomp for an alligator

• Read “Fifteen Animals!” by Sandra Boynton … this is a fun, quick and catchy animal book. Available here.

• Read “Animal Opposites” by Petr Horacek … I LOVE this new book. It is creative and simple and colorful. Most of the pages have a fold-out or pop-up and every page illustrates an opposite. Available here.
  1. Point out the letters on the cover. Name the letters.
  2. If you’re working on colors, ask the kids to name or point to certain colors.
  3. Can the kids name the animals on the cover?
  4. ACT OUT the opposite pages as you read! My kids were giggling and having so much fun with this. It’s especially fun when Mom gets up to do it with them
     • S-L-O-W snail … FAST cheetah
     • STILL sloth … bOuNcY kangaroo
     • quiet rabbit … LOUD LION!

• Do ‘A’ journal page … we use a primary composition book.
  1. Write ‘Aa’ on a new page. Practice a few more AAA’s and aaa’s.
  2. I show my 4-year-old the word “ANIMAL” on the cover of one of our books and she copies the letters onto her journal page.
  3. Add animal stickers (or draw pictures).

• Animal Hunt & Write … this was probably my 4-year-old’s favorite activity. We played it four times, taking turns hiding and finding.
  1. I used the “baby animal match” game available for FREE from 1+1+1=1. Just download and print here.
  2. Leave the adult animal attached to the animal name.
  3. Cut apart the animal babies and have your preschooler glue them to a piece of paper. Clip the paper onto a clipboard.
  4. Hide the adult animal & animal names together around the house. We hid the animals all over our backyard!
  5. Have your preschooler find each animal and copy the animal name next to the matching animal on their paper.
  6. The thrill of the hunt and the fun of copying the letters made this a very fun activity … over and over

• Animal photo matching game … this was a great game matching our toy animals to real-life photos.
• Use “My Big Animal Book” and “My Little Animal Book”. Available here and here. These books contain wonderful real-life animal photos.
• TIP: You could also print out several real-life photos or save them from magazines.
• Match several TOOB-type animals to the real-life photos in the book.

  Wild Animals

  Ocean Animals

  Pets

  Farm Animals

• Play with animals in model magic
1. We used green and brown model magic. I got ours at Michaels. Available here in a variety of colors.
2. Make prints with the animals.
3. Pretend the animals are climbing green model magic trees or sleeping in brown model magic caves.
4. Or squish as many animals as you can into one big lump.
5. We ended up getting the googly eyes out and making snakes and monsters with 100 eyeballs

• Animal Graphing Game
1. Print the “Baby Animal Graphing” game and dice from the Baby Animals Printable Pack from 1+1+1=1.
2. Cut out the dice, fold and glue together.
3. Roll the animal dice and mark the graph.
4. My 4-year-old wants to write her numbers, so she practiced those. You could also mark with an ‘X’ or color in the box.

• Animals Cracker Snack
1. Open a box of animal crackers.
2. Name the animals, make the animal sounds or act them out.
3. Sort the animals into piles.
4. Enjoy an animal cracker snack!

A is for Alphabet

 It’s so exciting to start a new Preschool year. I love it! There is a big difference between two and three-year-old preschoolers and 4-year-old preschoolers ready for kindergarten next year. This year, I have my 4-year-old. She knows her upper-case letters (by name and can write them) and a lot of her numbers. She knows animals and shapes. We’ll be working on lower-case letters, writing numbers and just playing and having fun doing the things that she loves … princesses, drawing, moving, and pretending. That’s what I love about preschool at home: I can customize it to fit each of my kids.

• Color Letter A Hat … This is a great FREE printable from Beth at 123 Homeschool 4 Me. There is a hat for every letter A-Z! 
  1. Download and print the letter A hat here.
  2. I cut out the hat and taped it ahead of time.
  3. Color!
  4. Trace the letters and talk about the pictures.
  5. Tape to fit head and wear!

• Introduce Alphabet Strip
  1. Put an ABC strip somewhere in your house where the kids can see it. Our last strip was this one. This year, we are using this one.
  2. Let the kids look at the ABCs and tell you the ones they know.
  3. Sing the ABCs as you point to each one.
  4. Find letter A!

• Learn ‘A’ sign language … I love doing this with my kids. I think it’s great for them to learn some sign language to go along with the letters.
  1. It’s come in really helpful when my kids want to know how to spell something and I don’t want to add to the noise (noisy house, quiet church) I just sign the letters to them!
  2. “The Handmade Alphabet” by Laura Rankin is a great book to learn sign language A-Z. Available here.

• Read “ABC: A Child's First Alphabet Book” by Alison Jay … I love this book! The pictures are so interesting. We have fun looking for items that start with each letter in the pictures. Available here. 
  1. Look at the cover and point out A, B, and C.
  2. What else do the kids see on the cover?
  3. My daughter wanted to “help me read”. So I would say “A is for…” and she finished by looking at the picture. Sometimes it was right and sometimes it was close enough
  4. Have fun looking at the little details.

 

• Do ‘A’ Journal Page
  1. We are using a simple primary composition notebook this year. Like this one.
  2. Write ‘Aa’ and “Alphabet” on the page.
  3. Practice writing big A’s and little a’s.
  4. Stick ABC stickers all over the page. Tons of choices here.
  5. My pictures show the difference between a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old

• Watch “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” video (or read the book) … I’m always a fan of the book, but sometimes it’s fun to switch it up and watch a video version. Book available here.

 

• Chicka Boom Boom tree
  1. PREP:
     • Clean 3 tin cans and hot glue them together.
     • Spray paint brown.
     • Draw a simple leaf shape on green paper.
  2. Have the kids cut out the leaf shapes. Add small snips to make a palm-type leaf. My 4-year-old can do this herself. I cut out the leaf for my 2-year-old and he added the snips
  3. Let the kids tape the leaves to the tree.
  4. We added a few pom-pom coconuts to the top.
  5. Watch or read “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” again. Have the kids add magnetic letters to the tree.
  6. Of course, the fun part is tipping the tree over (“BOOM! BOOM!”) and starting all over again.

• Play ABC Find & Stick
  1. Write A-Z on a piece of paper.
  2. Give your preschooler a sheet of ABC stickers.
  3. Have them cover up the letters on the page with the matching ABC sticker.
  4. TIP: For a challenge, write lower-case letters on the paper and use upper-case stickers to match. Or vice versa!

 

• Make Alphabet Bead Necklaces … a simple activity, great for fine-motor practice.
  1. Tie one bead to the end of a length of elastic thread. ABC beads here. Elastic thread here.
  2. Let the kids string ABC beads! Of course, my 4-year-old would rather go fancy. She skipped the ABC beads and make a bracelet with our fancy beads. We’re flexible
  3. TIP: The wiggly elastic thread is too hard for my 2-year-old. He did great threading those itty bitty beads onto a pipe cleaner!