The Mom I Want to Be

1. Draw a letter A to show your child.  Introduce the idea that an A makes different sounds when it is in a word.  One sound is the name of the letter — see if your child can come up with any examples of words that start with that sound, such as apron, acorn, April, ace, etc.  Next ask if they know another sound an A can make.  Give examples of the words that start with the short a sound, such as apple, alligator, ambulence, etc.

2. Read Imogene’s Antlers

3. Prepare an “A” bag with items from around the house.  Consider apples, alligator, ambulence, aprone, airplane, ant, acorn, etc

4. Create an “A” collage — search through magazines for words that start with the letter “A” and glue them down.

5. Make apple print A’s.  Provide a pattern cut into the shape of an A (taping it to waxed paper will help with clean up).  Prepare a small amount of yellow, green and red paint in shallow paper plates.  Using a plastic knife, help yourchild cut an apple into thick slices, horizontally, across the core.  Show him how to dip an apple slice into the paint and make a print on the paper.  When the paint dries, glue the A to sheet of 8.5×11″ paper for placing in thier alphabet book.

6. Prepare a worksheet with A’s for tracing across the top and a large apple shape below.  Provide fat pencils or markers so they can practice thier A’s.  Offer bits of red, green and yellow construction paper and a glue stick to create a paper collage apple.  For the youngest children who might have trouble with glue sticks, you can offer colored “dots” from office supply instead.

7. Offer a number of different apple items to try — apple slices, applesauce, apple butter, apple vinegar, apple pie, etc.  Have your kidlet prepare a simple chart to record which they liked and which they did not.

8. Sing “The Ants go Marching”, pretend to be ants crawling around to music.

Apples
Ants on a log Ants on a Log
Apple Bites Apple Bites
Apple Cartwheels Apple Cartwheels
Aquarium Cups Aquarium Cups
Jello Aquariums Jello Aquariums
Applesauce cups
Apple Cheese Bites Apple Cheese Bites
Animal Pawprint Cookies