Letter A - What's on the Tray

I am so excited that we are officially starting our new school year this week.  I will be intentionally working with Super Tot this year to introduce him to the alphabet.  

I know there are many theories on order of introduction, but this year we will be starting with A and going straight through to Z.  Once we start working more with phonograms and writing, I do expect to change the order, but not this year.

That being said, this week, we will be starting with the letter

Aa.

Counting Alligator Teeth

There are 8 Alligator Mats with 1-8 teeth.  Place the correctly numbered stone into each alligator's mouth.

~Number Recognition, Counting~

Cutting Out Apples

Cut each strip between the apples.

~Fine Motor, Cutting~

 Counting GREEN APPLES

Place the correct number of foam "apples" in each row.
You can click on the image below the Tot Tray photo to print my Counting Apples document.  The shapes I used are available here. 

~Counting, Number Recognition~

 I SPY the Letter "Aa"

Circle all Uppercase and Lowercase Aa's.

I placed different objects on a table, including several letter A's and took a photo.  Then, I printed it onto standard paper and placed it in a page protector.  I expect to do this with each letter of the alphabet.
You can click on the picture under the photo of the actual Tot Tray to print the document (landscaped) for your own use.

~Letter Recognition, Fine Motor, Pre-Writing~

Apple Tree "A" Hunt

Place an apple sticker of each letter "A".

~Letter Recognition, Fine Motor~

 Apple Color Match

Place the red and green "apples" (dot stickers) onto the corresponding colored x's.

~Color Recognition & Matching, Fine Motor~

 Upper & Lower Case Acorn Match

Place the acorns into the correct dish based on case of letter.

~Letter Recognition~

 Egg Carton Button Sort

Place the buttons into the correctly colored section of the egg carton.

I cut an egg carton in half and painted the cups with poster paint.  This isn't an "Aa" activity, but we will still be working on additional skills each week.

~Color Recognition & Matching~

Super Tot will also be doing the following 2 letter crafts.

A is for Angel and a is for apple  

These are part of a letter book I put together for him, which you can read about and see all of our letter crafts here.

I have a few additional art projects and activities planned that I will change out later in the week.  These include apple printing & dough, as well as some of the activities I have listed previously in some of my What's on the Tray posts.

Linking to:

1+1+1=1

Montessori Monday

Sun Scholars

No Time for Flashcards

Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas

Our Country Road

ABC & 123

Letter Crafts - Uppercase & Lowercase

Monday is officially our first day of the new school year, and I can hardly wait!  This year, I will be working with Super Tot on learning his letters.  We will be doing one new letter each week, and having a review week every 6 weeks.

I have always loved the letter crafts that I have seen on various blogs, and I knew I wanted to incorporate that concept into our lessons.  Some of the crafts I have seen use the letters at different angles, which I thought might confuse Super Tot during the time that he is initially learning them.  I hope to do this type of activity each year, so I know I will use those in the future.  However, my creative side also wanted to create some new crafts that I hadn't seen before.  I was unable to be original with some of the letters, but you might find some new ideas and inspiration here. 

Super Tot will be doing these crafts as he learns the letters, but I have put together an ABC Book for him that shows my examples.  

Here they are:

Cover:

 A is for Angel:

 a is for apple:

B is for Beaver:

 b is for balloon:

 C is for Clown:

 c is for clock:

 D is for Dog:

d is for dinosaur:

 E is for Eagle:

 e is for electric eel:

 F is for Flag:

 f is for flower:

 G is for Goose:

 g is for grapes:

 H is for Hair:
You can't tell in the picture, but the hair is fringed on both the top and bottom.

h is for hive:

 I is for Icicle:

 i is for inch:

J is for Jar of Jelly:

j is for jaguar:

 K is for Kite:

 k is for kangaroo:

L is for Lighthouse:

l is for ladybug:

 M is for Mittens:

 m is for microphone:

 N is for Nails:

 n is for nest:

 O is for Otter:

While I am generally fairly artistic, I botched drawing this otter 3 times.  I ended up finding this one online and printing it onto brown construction paper.

o is for orange:

P is for Peacock:

p is for pumpkin:

Q is for Queen:

q is for quilt:

R is for Raccoon:

r is for rainbow:

S is for Swan:

s is for scarf:

T is for Table:

t is for turtle:

U is for Unicorn:

u is for umbrella:

V is for Vase:

v is for vine:

W is for Watermelon:

w is for worm:

X is for Xylophone:

x is for x-ray:

Y is for Yolk:

y is for yarn:

Z is for Zebra:

z is for zipper:

Now I know my ABC's!

I hope you are inspired!

Linking to:

1+1+1=1

Sun Scholars

No Time for Flashcards

Mom to 2 Posh Little Divas

Preschool Corner

Our Country Road

The Ultimate Alphabet Collection

ABC & 123