The Letter 'L'

The past week we have been working on the letter 'L' - L for 'Levi'!

We are not doing the letter of the week in any order, just going with what Levi is interested in. Next up is the letter 'v' which we started today and will probably finish tomorow (Valentines day is why we chose this one), its not a common letter and there arent a whole lot of words that start with 'v'!

L is for:
Levi
leaf
ladybug
lizzard
lion
lamb
lacing
lemon/lemonaid




This isnt an 'l' activity, but it has been done many many times over the past few days!



Hole punching - Levi loves this activity. We have two hole punches, this one takes some effort to push down, and the other is easier to push, but harder to get the paper into. This activity works on fine and gross motor skills. The holes that come out of the hole punch are great for collages, like the one at the bottom of this post (sorry I still dont know how to get pictures right on blogger!)

Leaf rubbings:

We went on a nature walk (in the cold!), and collected leaves. We talked about size (small, big, medium, tiny!), and color (yellow, brown, green, red), and then brought them inside!

I showed Levi the veins on the leaves and explained that water and 'leaf food' goes into the veins to make the leaf grow. Then I had him arrange them (vein side up) on his desk. Taped a peice of paper down and let him rub with chunky recycled crayons I had made. This made the veins show up better on the paper!

Here is Levi lacing his letter 'L', which he punched holes in. Because the holes are in random places, I let him lace through whichever hole he chose. For valentines day he got a little gift from his Great grandparents, and he used it to buy a lacing card set, so we are working on lacing in a neater way.... more on that in a later post.

We made lemonaid! Yum!

Levi squeezed (he says 'queesed') all of the lemons on his own (this electric juicer really helps).

Recipie:

1 part lemon juice to 1 part water and 1 part ice. Squeese lemons, strain if desired (we didnt), make sure their are no seads in it! Add an equal amount of water, and then ice. Sweeten until it tastes good! (we used Agave nector, but you could use honey, or simple syrup)

Simple Syrup-

1 cup water + 1 cup sugar, mix in saucepan over medium heat until sugar is fully disolved. Cook for 5 more min and let cool before adding to lemonaid.

Lamb collage:

We used the holes from the hole punch to make this little lamb!

1. trace child's hand and have them color it black OR use black paint to make a handprint

2. cut out, you can cut the thumb part off, glue to another peice of paper.

3. cut a 'wool' shaped peice, and have child glue 'holes' all over it (you could also use cotton balls)

4. glue onto sheep legs

5. cut head and ear shapes from black/white paper. Glue onto body. Add face. (we used google eyes)

More activites for the Letter L that we did

Sensory tray filled with lentils (great for pouring activites)

lion books, practice roaring like a lion

play leap frog

read lizzard book, 'walk' plastic and beanie baby lizards on the letter L (tape on floor)

practice writing the letter 'l' (lower case one is easy!)

used an ink pad w/one finger to make 'lady bugs', add details w/pen

looked at photos of Levi!

made a collage with Levi photos (on top of a letter L shape)

more lacing cards

Clothes pegs

Here is another fine motor activity, this one is great for young toddlers as well.

Put the clothes-pegs around the outside of a box/basket, and let the child pinch them to put them into the basket. Then have them try and put them back on the edge!

Knife skills

Here is Levi practicing using a knife... he is obsessed with cutting stuff up!

I told him he actually has to eat what he cuts, so one day he ate 2 whole bananas.

Pom Poms

This activity is great for fine motor skills, and sorting. In this example we sorted 'big' and 'small' but you could also add 'medium' or sort by color. There are all kinds of things you could use for this activity, just whatever you have around! (we have used paper clips, buttons, toys...)
The tongs are optional, but Levi loves to use them. I marked each bowl with a 'big' dot and a 'small' dot and let Levi sort the pom pom's into the right bowls.

The set up

Levi in action

The letter A

A fork stuck into a cut apple peice makes it easy for toddlers to use it as a stamp, Levi at the other parts of the apple!

Here is Levi tracing the A with an airplane

Very excited with his apple printing! (sorry these pics arent in order)

This is our 'A' shelf set up, Levi learned to read all of these words this week

Levi is gluing teeth/googly eyes on the letter A to make it into an alligator. This is a yoga mat from target ($2.50), it wipes of easily, and even glitter shakes off of it! Great for small projects like this on the floor.

Last week, we focused on the letter A

Here are some of the activites we did:
- outline of 'A' on the floor to trace/drive airplane on/walk on,
- outline of 'a' on the wall as well
- checked out our amarylis more
- dropped Buddy and Nai Nai at the airport (where airplanes are)
- played with wooden airplane, alligator beanie
- set up an ant farm
- made an 'ant farm' w/moonsand/plastic ants in sensory tray
- looked at alligators at the zoo
- did apple lacing
- ate apples
- made apple prints
- made an 'a' into an apple
- made an 'A' into an alligator
- went on a walk to find sticks, made a 'ants go marching' pic
- sang and acted out 'ants go marching' song