The Letter A

It's time to celebrate the letter A! 

For the first few weeks of school, I will do a quick review of each letter of the alphabet.  We learn about and explore two letters and week and then combine both letters on Friday for more practice.

"/a/ /a/ /a/ Abby is sad and /a/ /a/ /a/ is A!"  This is the chant we learned for the letter A from The Phonics Dance. 

"A for Apple, /a/ /a/ /a/!"  This is the beginning of Dr. Jean's "Action Alphabet" song that I use all the time.

I purchased this Letter of the Day Pocket Chart from Lakeshore through a Donor's Choose Grant last year and it is awesome!  It is an alphabet pocket chart.  There are many elements to it: handwriting practice, picture cards, an alliteration poem, and a tracing card.  I have this set up with each letter we study and the children get so excited to come in a see what letter is next.

Snack time is always a great time to integrate more letter practice!  On Monday we had Apple Jacks!  We cut apart the box and taped what we could all read to our "Environmental Print Wall".  On Tuesday, we had apples.

Then, we did a little handwriting practice! 
Look at those Awesome A's!

We were even making A's during cooperative play center time!  Here is an A made out of blocks!

I'm trying something a little new this year in the form of ABC books.  Each child has their own blank book (13 pieces of construction paper bound together).  On the second day of a letter study, we fill the page!  Since we are just starting out, the children only had 4 items to get on the page.  They had to write the letter, find the letter sticker, find the letter in the newspaper, and draw a picture of something that starts with that letter. 



Of course, we found items that start with the letter A and made a list of items that start with the letter A too.  The best part is--we have THREE friends in our class who start with the letter A!!  Abby, Austin, and Audrey really helped me out this week.  There is a lot to be said about the power of the children's names!