Letter Aa Activities

I was excited to see this apple mask on the paper grocery bags at Whole Foods this week.  I use my own bags, but I always ask for a paper bag for any meats I buy.  I cut the mask out and taped a popsicle stick on the back.  Kate thought it was funny for me to have an apple face, but she wanted no part of trying it herself.

 Kate is a HUGE fan of these peg stacking letters.  We have a few different alphabet toys, but this is her absolute favorite and she plays with them quite a bit.  It's funny to me because Collin and Reagan hardly played with any of the peg stacking toys.  We paid special attention to the letter A this week.

 Kate enjoys using the Do A Dot markers, so I printed this page for her to dot all of the letters.

She really didn't have any interest in this tactile A.  She said it was pink and pretty and that she was "done".

The play dough has been out a lot!  She was very excited about adding toothpicks to her dough!

She put all but one of those toothpicks in by herself.  She would put them in and take them out and put them back in; LOVED it!

Yes, she does have clothes, but NO she does not like to wear any of them!

I made baked apples with a pie crust topping for a treat.  The recipe came from American Girl magazine.  It is really easy:

- core apples
- stuff each apple with a little butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar
- top with pie dough weaved as shown
- bake in foil muffin cups in 400 degree oven for 10-15 minutes

If I make these again, I'll add more brown sugar and cinnamon.  Also, I would like to bake the apples longer.  Maybe if I covered the dough after the fifteen minutes, that would work out.  They were pretty good though.

So far, our letter Aa fun has been a success!

A is for Apple

We are totally immersed in our letter A fun.

I made apple smiles using sliced apples, a tiny bit of peanut butter, and mini marshmallows.  

Kate and Collin loved them.  Reagan ate the apples and peanut butter and left the marshmallows for her siblings.

I also made homemade play dough and added red food coloring and a lot of cinnamon.

 For fun, I stuck in a twig and a leaf to make an "apple".  Kate immediately removed the stick and leaf and threw them to the floor!  She had fun with the play dough though.

The play dough recipe I use is:
1 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
1 T. cooking oil
1 T. cream of tartar
1 c. water
1 t. extract (this varies on the season or whatever I have on hand, but I have used peppermint, vanilla, lemon, coconut, almond, and maple); you can also use spices (for this recipe, I used about 2-3 tsp of cinnamon; I like it to smell good!)
1 t. glitter (optional)
food coloring (optional - I obviously used red today) 

I measure the ingredients into a nonstick pot and stir until well mixed.  It's important to add food coloring before heating the dough, otherwise the color will transfer to hands and surfaces.  Then I cook it over medium heat until the dough pulls away from the sides and forms a ball.  I dump it out onto a cutting board and once it is cool enough, I knead it until smooth.  I love kneading warm play dough - super soothing!

Alphabet Play - The Letter A

I started alphabet play with Kate this morning.  She has been showing an interest in letters in books, on signs, and just around the house lately, so I thought it was time to have fun with those letters.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE toddler/preschool lessons (I should be a preschool teacher), so I am excited to be doing this with her now.  I'm not doing anything too structured or showing her flashcards (BORING); we are just having fun - just as I did with the other kids, it's really about play and incorporating the alphabet into that play.

 This was Kate's first experience with Do A Dot Markers.  She seemed to enjoy using them, and she did really well putting dots in the circles!

 I cut an uppercase A out of a paper grocery bag and let her use the Dot Markers and paint to decorate it.

Next week, I plan on trying a few alphabet activities from No Time for Flashcards.  I'm a huge fan of that site; I used a lot of her ideas when Collin and Reagan were little and I'm very excited to try them with Kate.

Apple Cupcakes

We finished R's week of letter "A" activities with a special treat.  I saw these apple cupcakes in Family Fun magazine and figured they would be fun to make.  We made vanilla cupcakes, frosted them, and sprinkled some red sugar on top.  The "stems" are tootsie rolls cut in half, and I used green icing to make the "leaves".  A few of the "apples" had bites taken out of them; those "bites" revealed the inside of the "apples" with a little help from some white frosting and tiny pieces of tootsie roll "seeds". 

A is for Acorn a.k.a Squirrel School

There is no shortage of acorns around here right now and since R is working on the letter "A", I figured we could use some of those acorns as manipulatives.

R is not always interested in my suggestion that we sit down and work on a concept, but she is very competitive lately and wants to turn everything into a game.  I am more than happy to make learning a game.  This is what we did:

The first person to put ten acorns in a line won the first round.

The first person to make a circle using nine acorns won round two.

To win the third round, the players had to be first to make a rectangle using the entire perimeter of the tray.

The final round could be won by being the first to make a circle in a rectangle.

R also made the letter "A" but for some reason I didn't get a picture of that.  The game ended after this because the acorns were rolling all over the trays and it was getting frustrating for R.  We also spotted a gross little bug in the pile of acorns and I decided that the acorns had to go back outside. 

After returning the acorns to the squirrels and washing the trays and our hands, we snuggled up on the couch and read one of our favorite squirrel books, Nuts to You! by Lois Ehlert.

We enjoy all of Lois Ehlert's books and this is a cute book about a squirrel's antics.  At the end of the book there is a great section with factual information about squirrels.  

A is for Apple

R's preschool uses a letter based curriculum featuring a letter of the week in alphabetical order.  I decided to supplement at home while following along with the letter of the week, so we have been working on the letter "A".  R has done some worksheets, a do-a-dot letter A, and other written work, but she really enjoyed the letter "A" play dough.

I followed my favorite play dough recipe, but added red food coloring and a lot of cinnamon to the dough.  I always add food coloring and spices before heating the dough because it blends better.  I have never had a problem with the food coloring getting on our hands, and I think that is because we mix it in before cooking it.

I gave R a tray with the red play dough, a few tiny twigs from our yard, and some leaves from our yard.  I asked her to form a clump of the dough into a ball shape and then add a twig and leaf.  I never told her to make apples, but she quickly figured it out.  

She also used the dough to make the letter "A".  R really enjoyed this and I am actually considering making play dough to go along with each letter of the alphabet.

*The apple play dough idea came from My Montessori Journey.

A is for apples