Preschool Fun Blog: Letter of the week UVWXYZ

Every week we study a new letter. I try to plan as many activities that start with that letter as possible!
These are some of the activies we do, as well as letter worksheets and letter stories.
Letter U week:

Upside down art! we tape paper to the bottom of our tables and let the children color while upside down! Its a fun twist to our art table!

Unicorn craft - unicorn cut out, glue, yarn and plenty of glitter!!!!

United States Puzzle

Letter V Week:

Valentines- We make valentine cards in our art center and practice writing names on them.
I set up a post office center in our dramatic play area. We use large mail bags, envelopes, stamp pads with stamps, a scale, cash registers, cards and a variety of stationary. I found a few really cute mailboxes in the dollar section at target that we pull out too. I also made a mail box and painted it blue for a more realistic addition. The children love making their own letters to mail out!

Vegetables - I send home a note earlier in the week to request vegetables from the families. We put all of the vegetables in our science area along with our usual science tools (microscopes, plastic knives, tongs....etc.) I allow the children to disect the vegetables in the sensory table and find the seeds. We then plant the seeds outside in our garden.
We also cut up vegetables and put them in our art center to do some vegetable printing. (potatoes work great!)

Vegetable taste test- I make a graph for our circle time and we vote on our favorite vegetables.

Volleyball -This fun and simple game can be set up outside. We do not have a volleyball net but i just tie streamers between our trees in the back play yard.

Volcano
I almost bought one of those make your own volcano kits from Lakeshore Learning but decided i could make one for cheaper...and i was right! They charged $27.00 for the small kit at Lakeshore but i made a much larger one for $15.00. I used a small piece of PVC pipe a small bucket container (for the dollar store), cement and spray paint.

There are many ways to make your volcano "explode" we sometimes use red pop and baking soda or vinegar or alka seltzer.

Letter W

Water!
There are so many awesome activities you can do with water.
We fill up our sensory table and practice pouring with various containers

We use colored water in ice cube trays and mix colors with eye-droppers

Mrs. Wishy Washy
One of our favorite stories!
You can find tons of fun Wishy Washy activities at http://www.makinglearningfun.com We read the story using felt pieces, act out the story in the sensory table using pudding as mud, and we even do a Wishy Washy puppet show!

Another cute idea for Wishy Washy is to make chocolate pudding with your children and add animal crackers that can "jump into the mud!"

We also sing a Wishy Washy song to the tune of Hokey Pokey
You put the cow in
You take the cow out
You put the cow in and you wash it all about
You do the Wishy Washy and you scrub yourself about
Thats what it's all about
(continue with each animal)

Wind
For letter W week we use a variety of tools, nuts and bolts, and old silverwear to make wind chimes. We hang them outside of our window so that we can hear when it's windy.

Letter X

BOX!
My all time favorite thing to play with is a box...the bigger the better. I call ahead to my local grocery story and they are really good about saving boxes for me. They give them to me folded down and all i do is tape them back into a box shape. We cut doors and windows in and i let the children decorate it however they like.

We also play construction with boxes. I give the children tape measures, hammers, goggles and worker dress up outfits and they just love building the towers as high as they can.

X-rays
We set up our usual doctor dramatic play but i add X-rays for the children to view. I also tape x-rays up to our science area window. (you can ask your local doctors office to donate old x-rays)

X marks the spot- treasure hunt!

Y week

Yellow!
Make a variety of shades of yellow with the paint pots
Play a color matching game with paint samples from home depot (you will be suprised how many shades of yellow you can find)

Read little blue and little yellow
Make blue and yellow playdough and use it to act out the story

Yoga
Set up tumble mats and a yoga dvd with a tv in your dramatic play area.
My kids are suprising flexable and could even do some of the complex moves!