Posted by on Mar 21, 2013 in Literacy Activities, Preschool Letter Activities, Spring Crafts and Activities, Tactile Alphabet | 0 comments

Animal Safari (Starring the Letter G)

Today M and I focused on the letter G. I wanted to work with him on hearing the /g/ sound at the beginning and ending of words. To do this, I incorporated two things M loves: his toy animals, and a game of seek-and-find!

For this activity we used:

  • homemade binoculars (made from two toilet paper rolls stapled together, and string)
  • a variety of different toy animals (some that started with letter g, some that ended with the letter g, and some that didn’t start or end with the letter g just to make M think a bit more!)  If you don’t have toy animals just click on the link Animal Safari pictures, print off the pictures, and tape/place the animal pictures around the house for your little one to find.
  • a copy of the chart:  Animals that start and end with the letter G
  • a basket or bag to collect the animals/ animal pictures in.
  • a paint dabber, pencil, or crayon to check off the boxes on the chart.

To start this activity, I hid some of M’s animals all round the main floor of the house. I told M he was only supposed to collect the animals that BEGIN with the letter g. Then I gave him his homemade binoculars, and a basket, and sent him out exploring on his animal safari.

animal safari  animal safari

 animal safari  animal safari

Once M had finished collecting all of the animals that started with the letter g, he came to the table with this basket and we went through the chart together to make sure he had caught them all.

animal safari  animal safari

For his second safari hunt, I told M that this time he was only supposed to collect the animals that END in the letter g. This was a bit more challenging, but M still did really well!

animal safari  animal safari

When he was finished, he came back to the table and started checking off the animals he collected from the second chart.

animal safari

M really enjoyed this game! When he was finished, I hid all of the animals again and, as he collected them, I could hear him saying the name of the letters each animal started or ended with. Success!!

G is for Green Grass!

Yesterday was the first day of spring, and it was a beautiful day in Calgary! The sun was shining, the warm chinook winds were blowing, the snow was melting, and the birds were chirping, I was certain spring was here to stay… unfortunately I was wrong. This morning the boys and I woke up to more snow and a really brisk wind. Oh well, winter has to end sometime, hopefully sooner than later!!

In honor of spring, M used faux green grass to create his tactile letter G.

tactile letter G

This activity reminded me of the song, The Green Grass Grew All Around, so I decided to teach the song to M while he was decorating his letter G. Here’s a fun animated  YouTube version of the song here:

We also found the book And the Spring Grass Grew All Around, by Emily Bolam, at our public library. The pictures in the story are good for beginning readers. Both the song and the book work great to teach about order and sequence of events.

And that’s how I kept my oldest bug busy today!

Thanks for visiting 🙂

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