Letter of the Week - S

This week is brought to you by the letter S which coincidentally, is for Superbowl! I hope everyone enjoyed themselves yesterday watching the Superbowl! I know I did! But today we are back to learning about letters.

Let's meet our Alphafriend for the week.

Sammy Seal

Technology Connection:

Here is another great week of letters with Starfall. Reinforce your child's learning with this interactive game! Letter S on Starfall

Letter S Printables:

Color Sammy Seal (from Learning Planet) and hang the poster nearby to remember what the letter of the week is!

Practice writing S's on this printable from Worksheetsforkids.net.

Use this Kidzone worksheet to match the Sailboats to the pictures that begin with the letter S.

Letter S Activities:

• Pour Sand, Salt, or Shaving cream into a pan and let your kiddies practice "writing" S's. They can use their fingers or a Stick. They may also draw pictures of things that Start with the letter S.
• Play a Silly I-Spy game! Let your gals and boys put on the Silliest Shirts and/or Skirts that they can find with Sunglasses and play I-Spy. Try to be as Silly as possible, and no taking off the Sunglasses!
• Make Snowflakes with Symmetry. We have not had much Snow this winter in Jersey, so we decided to make our own Snowflakes!

Supplies:
White construction paper

Scissors

Glitter

Glue

*Directions:

Fold a large white construction paper in half. You may also use smaller square size construction paper.

Fold it in half again.

And fold it in half again. You may continue to fold as many times as you like.

Using scissors, cut various shapes on the paper. Try to make it as symmetrical as possible.

Open up the paper, and Ta-Da, you have a Symmetrical Snowflake.

Add glue to the Snowflake as you desire.

Pour glitter over the glue and let dry.

The end result, a beautiful Symmetrical Snowflake!

*We'll be adding pictures later in the afternoon!

Letter S Books:

Groundhog Day Craft & Book Recommendations

Happy Groundhog Day! Or Happy Grandma Day as my two year old says! :)

A groundhog's prediction may not always be accurate, but that does not stop us from celebrating this holiday. Pass on the tradition to your little ones with this Groundhog Pop-up Puppet craft and book selections.

Start the festivities with this adorable Groundhog Day craft and poem we found on Archjr.com.
The poem will help your children remember what happens if the groundhog sees his shadow.

Here's a Little Groundhog

Here's a little groundhog furry and brown

He's coming up to look around.

If he sees his shadow, down he'll go

Then six more weeks of winter, OH NO!

Groundhog Day Pop-Up

Materials:

Paper or Syrofoam Cup

Paintbrush

Green Paint

Scissors

Craft Stick

Brown Crayon

Tape or Glue Stick

Green Easter Grass

Directons:

Paint the cup with the green paint all around and on rim. No need to paint inside.

     While you're waiting for the cup to dry, color the Groundhog on the bottom of the poem

Cut out the groundhog and glue or stape the glue stick on the back.

When the cup is dry, cut a tiny hole on the bottom of the cup. Make sure it is big enough for the craft stick to fit through.

 Place the craft stick through the cup and place the green grass around the grounhog. Make sure to not overfill because then the groundhog will not be able to pop up!

 Recite the poem with your kids as they act it out with their groundhogs!

Groundhog Day book recommendations:

Happy Groundhog Day everyone! 

Letter of the Week - R

I hope you all enjoyed meeting Queenie Queen last week! The letter of the week is R! And for Rocking fun, we bring to you a new Alphafriend, and my five year old's favorite, and maybe one of mine, too!

Drum Roll please . . . . . . . . . . REGGIE ROOSTER!

  

  

Technology Connection:

Starfall is officially one of our favorite websites! They have great resources for readers at any stage of reading! I will have to do a post just on Starfall soon! When your child gets to the "red roses," have them click on the words more than once. They will enjoy a nice surprise! Letter R on Starfall!

Letter R Printables:

Make your own R poster with this Rocket coloring page.

Practice wRiting those R's with this practice sheet from About.com.



Find the R words in this letter Recognition printable from Kids Learning Station.

 

Letter R Activities:

•  Help your child fine tune their gross motor skills by cutting out red rectangles. Make sure to allow them to use scissors that are made for their small hands. Then glue the rectangles onto a rectangular piece of construction paper.
• Read! What better activity of our letter of the week R than Reading? You can start off with one of our reading suggestions below!
• To prepare for this week's letter. My sons and I made Rainbows with Fruit Loops. I had forgotten how delicious Fruit Loops are! This fun activity can also be tied in to mathematics as the kids sort and group the Fruit Loops by color.

Supplies:
Fruit Loops
Blue Construction Paper
Paper Plate
Glue
Black Marker

Directions:

1. First we poured Fruit Loops into a paper plate.

2. We sorted and grouped the Fruit Loops by color

      3. I created a rainbow on a blue construction paper (not the best).

4. My boys and I glue the Fruit Loops on the Rainbow I drew by Rainbow color order: Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

 
5. Eat the leftovers!

If you can, save these rainbows. We will come back to them in March for Saint Patrick's Day!

Letter R Books:

 

Find all of our printables and resources on our Letter R Pinterest Board. While you're there, please feel free to like, comment, and repin!

Have a Rocking Week everyone!

Melissa & Doug Educational Toys

Paula's Reading Chair would like to extend a warm welcome to Melissa and Doug Educational Toys. We have recently been approved for their affiliate program! This is exciting news for us because we are trying to expand our horizons and offer our readers reviews on other products that may be of interest to them.

Melissa and Doug has been a long time favorite of mine and first choice when it comes to purchasing toys for my children. Their reputation and product quality is unsurpassed! Unfortunately, until now, I only was able to purchase them at Target, which is about 30 minutes from me, without traffic. Thankfully, I found their website, signed up as an affiliate, and can now share my love for their toys with all my readers!

Their website offers the convenience to working parents, and yes, that includes stay at home parents that work from home, the availability to shop at home without all the hassle! If you are not familiar with Melissa and Doug toys, you must visit their website. They have over 1,000 colorful, educational, and unique toys that you and your children will fall in love with! Best of all right now they are offering a free shipping promotion! Save yourself gas, save yourself shipping! What could be better than that?

This promotion is good until March 31, 2012, so do not miss out! Use our link below to shop and use the free shipping promotion!

I hope you all enjoy Melissa and Doug as much as I do!
Free Shipping On Any $50 Order - Melissa&Doug.com! Click Here! Good Thru 3/31/12 Code: FREESHIPFIFTY

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links of which Paula's Reading Chair receives a portion of the sales made through this link. The compensation received from the affiliate links is used to pay for this blog and related expenses.

Letter of the Week - Q

Welcome to another week of letters! At Paula's Reading Chair, we love letters, because after all what would books be without letters?!

This week we are trying out a new format for presenting the Letter of the Week. Instead of giving our readers a plan for each day, we will present you with printables, activities, and books. This way you can design your own plan for the Letter of the Week. Hope this format suits your needs better. We are also adding AlphaFriends! AlphaFriends is the format we use at the school where I work. It is a program that has a different AlphaFriend for each letter that children become familar with by signing their songs! Please feel free to leave comments with any suggestions you have!
Drum roll please . . . . . .our Letter of the Week is the letter Q!

AlphaFriend and Song - Queenie Queen

Technology Connection:
Check out this interactive game we found on Starfall! Kids will learn the proper sound and pronunciation of the letter Q as well as learn words that begin with the letter Q.

Letter Q Printables:

Kids can make their own Queenie Queen Poster with this printable from Prek-8.com.

Kids will perfect their Q's with this quite lovely printable from Kidslearningstation.com.

 

We love Kidzone.ws here at Paula's Reading Chair. That is why we are featuring this Q-tastic printable where you have to match the Q Quails with other words that being with Q. This printable will tie in perfectly to one of our activities listed below!

Letter Q Activities:

• Give your little ones paper, paint, and q-tips. Let them use the q-tips as paintbrushes. It may be messy, but loads of fun! Another idea is to drop big blotches of different paint colors on a paper and have the kids spread it out using Q-tips.
• Give each child a 4x4 square of construction paper. have them find Q words or pictures in a magazine to cut out and paste on the construction paper. when the squares are dry, glue them together to make a Q-rrific Quilt!
• Organize of game of tag, but with a Q twist to it. The person that is 'it' is the 'hunter' and everyone else running from the 'hunter' is a quail! Add some more fun to this by having the Quails flap their wings as they fly (run)!

Letter Q Books
Q it up with these Q-riffic books!

       

Please send your pictures of your children completing these activities! 

Have a Q-tastic week!