1-2-3 Come Do Some Alphabet Activities With Me

I had a few requests for some black line letter posters, to use as alphabet anchor charts. Woo Hoo! After a lot of work they are finally done!  Click on the various links to grab them.

I made a set of separate uppercase letters and enlarged them to take up the entire page. You can use them as posters or for a variety of other fun activities.

These are perfect for running off your students' initials and then having them decorate however they wish, or reinforce that letter and sound, by having students decorate the letter with words and pictures that begin with that letter. 

Encourage them to use stickers, clip art, pictures cut from magazines, photographs and even drawings.  This idea makes an interesting and fun homework assignment, or something they can work on for their Daily 5 word work.  Click on the link to view/download the Uppercase Letter Posters

If you read the book Chicka Boom, run the letters off on a variety of colors of construction paper, laminate and then cut out.  Scatter them on your classroom Chicka Boom palm tree.

I also made a set of large lowercase letters as well.  To strengthen upper body muscles, run off several sets and have students lie on their tummies and make up words. These too, are great for your Chicka Boom activities.  

I've included a tip list of ideas of all sorts of fun things you can do with these letter sets, including games like a giant Memory Match or "I Have; Who Has?" + a Kaboom game. 

Because the letters are easy to see, choose 4 posters and put one in each corner of your room.  I dangle mine from the ceiling. 

You can then play the game 4-Corners.  Each week choose another 4 letters 'til you have reinforced and reviewed them all.   Click on the link to view/download the Lowercase Letter Posters.

To make an awesome class alphabet book, use the letter posters that show both the upper and lowercase letter together.  Glue them on a variety of colors of construction paper.  

Scatter them on the floor face down and have students pick a letter that they will decorate for your class book.

I made a sample page of the letter Aa, where I used words and pictures that started with that letter.  This is a photo of my completed page. 

I also included this as a non-colored pdf, so that you can easily make a sample of your own to share with your kiddos.  

I've included two covers for you to choose from for your ABC class book as well.  

Click on the link to view/download the Alphabet Book Poster Packet.

Finally, since all of the number puzzles have been such popular downloads, I thought it would be fun to make some alphabet ones.  I purposely made them using both upper & lowercase letters, because I think it's very important for little ones to see both letters together. 

By immersing them with "matches" the light bulbs start going on.

If you want a set in color, have your students help you decorate them, then laminate and trim.  Keep each puzzle in its own Baggie. 

Use them as an independent center, or have students work on them as a whole group activity.

You could also run off the initials of your students and have them make a personal letter puzzle. 

Once they've diddled around with their creation as a puzzle, have them glue it to a sheet of construction paper, leaving a small gap in between the pieces to create an interesting mosaic. 

These look wonderful on a bulletin board. The alphabet number puzzle packet, will be FREE for an entire year, after which time they will become part of Diane's Dollar Deals in my TpT shop. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Feel free to PIN away.  I'm a firm believer in creating, teaching and sharing!

"Don't ever take a fence down, until you know the reason it was put up." - G.K. Chesterton

A favorite book that many teachers read the first few weeks of school is Chicka Boom Boom.  I wanted to dream up some new ideas, as many teachers also make a Welcome bulletin board with that theme, and gear several days around letter activities as well.

The first FREEBIE is entitled Trunk Tricks and has a variety of activities based around the trunk of a coconut tree.

I've seen others make painted handprints for fronds, which is cute, but sometimes messy and difficult, as well as time-consuming to do, especially if you're teaching a bunch of little ones all by yourself.

I decided to trace my handprints to see how they would turn out and I really liked the effect.

Have a room volunteer do the tracing and cutting for you, or send the green paper home and have parents do this step. 

With the handprint portion out of the way, this adorable keepsake artwork can be whipped together in about 10 minutes.

For extra pizzazz, I used brown textured wallpaper for the trunk of my tree.

Brightly-colored foam letters also add that bit of 3-D pop and the student photo on the coconut makes it all the more precious.

 In Trunk Tricks you can also make a Name Tree, a Vowel Tree, a Color Tree and a count by 10's to 100 Tree.

Any of these would make quick and easy bulletin boards: "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Look What The K's Did In Mrs. Henderson's Room!"

Make A Chicka Boom Name Tag:

Students cut out their coconut and can either write their name with a variety of colored markers, or glue their school photo on the tag and write their name with an ink pen.

It's a wonderful project for the beginning of school and a great extension for the book. 

 

Play I Spy A Letter!

• One of the things that I did everyday with my students for table top lessons, was play an I Spy game. 
• I made these up by drawing circles on pictures of whatever theme we were studying and filling them with dashed letters and numbers. 
• I would spy a number and my students circled it and then raised their hand to show they were done.
  

• The first one to raise their hand got to spy the next letter/number. 
• My students really enjoyed playing "I Spy". It's a wonderful whole-group assessment tool as well.  You can see in seconds, who is having difficulty spying letters and numbers, because they aren't able to recognize them. 
• I jotted down a few notes and then worked with these students later, on a one-on-one basis.

 This comparison not only involves various math extensions, but you can toss in some science exploration as well, by having a discussion with your students about what they think is inside the coconut etc.

• Once you break the coconut open, give everyone a taste of the liquid as well as the meat.  Graph whether students like apples or coconuts better. 
  

• Make a Venn diagram to compare the two.  It's surprising how many things you can find that they have in common.  Picka Chicka lists several pages of very interesting facts + a 1/2 page of terrific links and You Tube videos, including how to open a coconut and climb a coconut tree!
  

Chicka Boom Envelope Letter Game:

There's nothing like a game to help students learn lessons.  Children can play with a partner or in a group of 3. 

You can make a class set of Chicka Boom trees, or allow each student to make their own "Chicka Boom Name Tree".  Play the game several times in class and then let children take them home to enjoy with family.

Children glue construction paper to a sealed envelope making a trunk so that they can insert letters into the back of their tree's "pocket".  Students roll a dice to determine how many letters they put in their envelope. 

If they roll a 1 they take 1 letter out; if they roll a 6 they lose their turn. 

Chicka Boom Popsicle Stick Puzzle:

I love making Popsicle stick puzzles.  They are easy and inexpensive and fun for students to put together. 

• Simply find the clip art you want to match whatever theme you're doing and enlarge it to 5 1/2 x 4 1/2.  Print it off and cut it out.
• Number 6 large wooden Popsicle sticks from 1-6 on the back and then arrange them side by side. 
  
• Smooth white glue over the top and then press your picture over the sticks. 
  
• Flip the sticks over onto another sheet of paper, so that you can make a tiny space inbetween the sticks, so that you can cut them apart with an Exacto knife when they dry. 
  
• Making a Popsicle stick puzzle out of your students' first day of school photo makes a nice keepsake as well. 
  
• You can keep these puzzles for your classroom, or send them home with your students as a sweet back-to-school surprise!

Thanks for visiting today. Feel free to PIN anything you think others may find helpful.

"80% of success is showing up!" -Woody Allen