Letter F: Letter of the Week (age 3)

Here's what our week looked like for Letter F: 

Read, Read, Read. I love reading to my kids on a daily basis. My three has always loved being read to, but my one is pretty hit and miss. Most days, I'll read to both of them while they're eating breakfast. I checked out our Letter F Booklist at the library a week in advance. The picture above were our very favorite books, but you view more great Letter F books by clicking on the booklist link.

Read Letter F Book. We also love to read these Little Letter Books from The Measured Mom. There are only eight or so pictures in each booklet. I pointed out the uppercase and lowercase F's (since we are focusing on both this year) and we talked about the pictures. 

Letter E Songs & Rhymes. This year, I'm putting together an interactive set of songs & rhymes for each letter of the alphabet. I know this series is focused on my almost three, but my one year old had so much fun doing the Letter F Songs & Rhymes with us this week. These were extra fun this week! If you're looking for something more simple without props, take a look at this printable set of songs and rhymes from The Measured Mom.

Writing Practice. Every child is different, but my three loves writing letters! We practiced writing the Letter F's with "F's of All Sizes" from The Measured Mom. I decided to laminate them, so we can use them over and over again. Because my barely three loves writing so much, we practiced more with our ABC Write & Wipe (picture above). I've tried teaching pencil grip, but my three isn't up for it. 

Craft #1: F is for Frog from Crystal & Co. My three painted a block letter F with a sponge brush, used a green dot marker to make spots, and glued on eyes and a red tongue (yarn) to make our frog. Of course our frog was hungry, so my three stuck on black office stickers cut in half for flies. 

Craft #2: Rainbow Fish Craft: After we read "The Rainbow Fish" from our Letter F Booklist, we made a simple Rainbow Fish. I drew a fish on a piece of blue paper (water) and my three glued on foam circles (I cut out the circles from a foam sheet) for the scales. We couldn't leave out the silver shiny scale, so my three glued on a silver scale (a circle cut out of aluminum foil).

Craft #3: Feathery F from The Measured Mom. My three glued on feathers to a block Letter F. I was thinking he'd want to do more feathers, but he only wanted to do the "turquoise" ones, which we only had four of. I found the feathers at the dollar tree.  

Color Review - Fish Color Match from Child Care Land. My three loved this color matching activity! He simply drew a "scale" and matched it to the same color of fish. We even learned about the color tan today. 

Math - Frog Shape Cards from Making Learning Fun. My three drew a card and placed a plastic bingo chip on the matching shape. We talked a lot about the names of shapes and colors.

Math - Fish Bubble Counting Mats from The Measured Mom. Boy does my three love playing with play dough! After playing for a while, I brought out these adorable fish bubble counting mats. I tried to teach my three how to roll balls or "bubbles" out of the dough, but he wasn't quite getting it. So, I rolled a bunch of bubbles for him and he placed the correct amount on the counting mats. My three has all of a sudden loved counting activities, which were his least favorite last year.

Sensory Play - Farm in a Box from The Measured Mom. My three (and my one) absolutely love sensory play! I filled a bin full of rice and beans (green and black) and brought out a bunch of toy animals. My three helped me sort out the farm animals, which were the only ones that belonged in the bin. "Does the pig belong on the farm? Yes. Put him in the bin! Does the alligator belong on the farm? No. Put him back in the bag." We added stacking cups to enhance our farm play. My three loved filling up the cups and pretending to feed the animals. Since it's getting cold outside, I have loved doing sensory play in the tub. It contains any mess, which is inevitable with this type of sensory bin, and is so simple to clean up.   

Letter Ff Activity #1 - Fish Bowl Sorting. I printed a set of blank fish cards from Mom Inspired Life and drew two fishbowls on a piece of paper. My three drew and sorted the "little f fish" into the fishbowl with a little f and the "big F fish" into the fishbowl with a big F.

Letter Ff Activity #2 - Roll & Spray the Flames. My three got to be a fireman and spray the fire out! My three rolled our letter die and sprayed a little f or Big F with a squirt bottle.  

Beginning Sounds Cover from The Measured Mom. Out of the few beginning sound activities we've done so far, this one is our favorite! I'll point to a picture, have my three identify it and we'll figure out if it starts with the letter F. "/F/ /F/ /F/ feather. Does feather start with letter F?" My three used gold fish to cover the pictures that start with letter F.

Letter F Science - Hatch a Frog. My three loved hatching a "frog egg" this week! I didn't want to hatch a real frog, so we used this life cycle of a frog kit I found on Amazon. My three helped decorate a cage with blue glass gems. I placed the frog eggs into the container and each morning the frog would grow. One day it was an egg, then a tadpole, then a tadpole with legs, and finally a frog! My three put these frog life cycle cards in order at the end of the week.

Alphabet as a Whole - Fishing for the Alphabet from Mom Inspired Life. My three loved fishing for letters this week. He'd identify the letter and put the fish in his bucket. You can print a set of alphabet fish from the link provided and view a tutorial. 

Name Review - Nuudle Name. Have you ever heard of Nuudles? My three dipped them one at a time in water, making the nuudle become sticky, and stuck them onto the letters of his name.


And that's it!