Pink and Purple Letter Pp

Here is the lesson I have been looking forward to--pink, purple, letter Pp!!! Why am I so excited about this lesson? Well friends, it is because I have the perfect (nice P word) books, worksheet, song, snack and activity for this one. Here we go....

Welcome songs: Here We Are Together, Days of the Week (tune of "Oh, Susanna") and the Pledge of Allegiance

Introduce the color of the day with color show-and-tell, review previous colors, select colored items out of a bag, find the right colored block, etc. Are you ready for this? There is a worksheet at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolcolors.htm called Pretty Pink and Purple Pigs. Awesome, I know. So let the kiddos color one of those very awesome worksheets.

Letter of the day time! Pp!!!! Sing ABC's with children while pointing to each letter on a chart (this is especially helpful for children to see each letter during LMNO). Review previous letters and sounds, and introduce Pp with "p" sound (NOT "puh"). It's just a puff of air, no uh at the end. To see if you are pronouncing "p" correctly, put your fingers on your throat while you say it. You shouldn't feel any vibrations because it's not created with the vocal cords. Introduce words that start with Pp: pink, purple, pig, popcorn, pancake, princess, party. Practice writing letter Pp http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm .

Here is the part I am absolutely excited about--THE STORIES OF THE DAY!!! I have the perfect book!!! "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" and "If you Give a Pig a Party," both by Laura Numeroff. Very fun.

Snack: POPCORN!!!! I love it!

Song: "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"

Activity: Make a paper bag puppet. There is a wide selection at http://www.dltk-kids.com/type/paper_bag.htm . We will be making the pig paper bag puppet, and then using them to act out "This Little Piggy Went to Market." It's going to be so much fun! Making pig noses with paper cups would also be an awesome craft for this lesson.

Color Red and Letter Rr Lesson Ideas

Welcome songs: "Here We Are Together" and the Days of the Week (sing days of the week to the tune of "Oh Susannah"

Color of the day show-and-tell or pick items out of a bag that are the color of the day. Children can also show off their color of the day outfits if they dressed in the color of the day. As you add more colors, you can review each week by having each child pick a certain color of block out of a box of building blocks or similar items for each color you review.

Have each child find their red crayon and hold it up, then pass out the color of the day worksheet. For our lesson we did the What Do Animals Eat worksheet at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolthinkingskills.htm . While the worksheet doesn't go with the color of the day specifically, it does have a rabbit, which does go with the letter of the day. The kids had a great time matching the animals to the food they eat. You could find a worksheet that goes specifically with red, I just thought this was a fun worksheet.

Letter of the day: Rr. Sing ABC's with children while pointing to each letter on a poster, or let the children point to each letter as they sing. Discuss the "r" sound. One important thing to note when teaching letter sounds is to not add "uh" at the end of letter sounds. Don't teach "r" as "ruh". We don't read "ruh"abbit for rabbit nor "ruh"ed for red. It's simply rabbit and red. Adding the "uh" will confuse children when they begin reading. Teaching proper letter pronunciation is key. Here's a website link that explains this as well http://www.succeedtoread.com/improve.html . Remember, the goal of teaching letter sounds is to prepare your child to read! Introduce words that start with Rr: rabbit, red, run, raccoon, rainbow, rock. Books: "The Runaway Bunny" by Margret Wise Brown and "The Big Red Barn" by Margret Wise Brown.

Song: "Old McDonald Had a Farm" to go with "The Big Red Barn." You can either point at animals in the book and make the sounds for the song, or hold up animals. I used a magnetic farm scene and let the children place animals on the scene as we sang the animal sounds.

Letter Practice: Print the letter Rr worksheet from http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm . Place it in a sheet protector and let children practice with crayons or dry erase markers.

Snack: I would have served red licorice, but I forgot to pick some up. Red apples or watermelon would also have been great. We ate rainbow colored popsicles (okay, a bit of a stretch, but it's what I had on hand). They were delicious and the kids were happy. Improvising is great.

Activity: Paint rocks red, add black spots and googly eyes to create a lady bug rock pet! This was so much fun. The kids loved it. They ended up preferring black smears over spots, but hey, that's why it's their creation.

Have a happy Red Rr lesson! By the way, if anyone wants to post some of their own ideas in comments, other favorite books, craft suggestions, etc., please go for it! The more free ideas we can gather, the more fun we can have (just make sure you don't infringe on any copy write laws please!).

Green Letter Gg Lesson Ideas

Each child brings something green for show and tell, and dresses in the color of the day if they want to. You can also provide a bag of things that are the color of the day and let the children choose things out of the bag to place on a table. Have each child select their green crayon and color an activity page. I used the Match the Frogs worksheet in the Preschool Thinking Skills worksheets at http://www.tlsbooks.com/preschoolthinkingskills.htm . The kids matched the frogs with their green crayons, and then they colored their frogs whatever color they wanted.

After colors move on to the letter Gg. Show the capital letter G and the small letter g. I have letter strips with the letters written out on handwriting lines from Dollar Tree. You can find some great posters and things at Honks and Dollar Tree. Sing the alphabet song together and point at each letter while singing. Talk about words that start with Gg, and hold up examples of each if you want to. We talked about green, goat, grass, girl. Read a couple of books to go along with the color and/or letter of the day. We read "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "Green Eggs and Ham."

Snack time: Green Apples

Handwriting practice--print the tracing page for Gg http://www.dltk-teach.com/alphabuddies/trace.htm and put it in a page protector. The kids can use crayons, washable markers, or dry erase markers to practice writing over and over.

Song and activity: I taught the kids the song "Five Little Speckled Frogs" (you can refresh yourself on the words at http://www.diglyrics.com/en/lyrics/Tweenies/-/Speckled+frogs.html
For the activity I found a frog I liked on clip art and pasted five of the frog onto a Word document. I then printed the frogs, let each child color the frogs, and then I helped them cut our the frogs and glue them onto craft sticks. Viola! Five speckled frog puppets to go along with the song. Lots of fun!

Preschool!

I've heard a lot about preschool for little ones, and some people think you have to spend a lot of money to do preschool. There is no need to spend more than a few dollars on supplies and you can have a really great time teaching your own child preschool. The first time I did preschool with my oldest daughter, I taught with other moms. The kids met each Wednesday at one of the houses of the kids in the class, and that class member's mom would teach the lesson. At the beginning of the semester we each picked which week and which letter we wanted to teach, and then we created our own lessons based on the letter and any upcoming holidays. It was a lot of fun, little stress, and very inexpensive.

This year I am teaching preschool to one of my girls and a few friends and cousins. It's an hour and a half each Wednesday, and we do a color and letter themed lesson each week. I get most of my resources for free online. I thought I'd share some of my favorite resources as well as lesson ideas on my blog. Then anyone who wants to replicate my preschool can. Remember, you don't have to spend a lot to teach. You just have to be creative (or find good free online resources!)

Just a couple of links to get you started: http://www.tlsbooks.com/ http://www.abcteach.com/
http://www.dltk-kids.com/