Letter M Activities (ages: 3 & 20 months)

Here's what our Letter M Activities looked like for a three year old and a 20 month old: 

Read, Read, Read. I love reading to my kids on a daily basis. I'll usually alternate reading during a meal time, before naps or randomly in the day. I checked out our Letter M Booklist at the library a week in advance. The picture above were our very favorite books, but you view more great Letter M books by clicking on the booklist link. Add Tickle Monster and There Was an Old Man Who Painted the Sky to the picture above (I remember loving these last year, but our local library doesn't carry them).

Read Letter M Book. We also love to read these Little Letter Books from The Measured Mom. For my three, we focus on the big and little letters at the beginning of each page. My 20 month old especially loves these books! He enjoys looking at the pictures and repeating the words after me on each page. 

Letter M Songs & Rhymes. This year, I'm putting together an interactive set of songs & rhymes for each letter of the alphabet. My three and my 20 mo. old had so much fun doing the Letter M Songs & Rhymes with us 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 M's with "Letters of All Sizes" from The Measured Mom. I printed and slipped ours into a sleeve protector, so my three could erase and write these over again if he wanted. While my three practiced writing M's, my 20 month old used a marker to draw on Letter M's. "Can you draw on this letter M?"

Craft #1: Clean out the Craft Drawer Monsters from The Measured Mom. I'm not sure what's changed in the past few weeks, but my boys have been loving crafts. Way more than usual. They were so excited to make these monsters. I brought out craft items one at a time for them to glue or stick on. I was in charge of the glue and they pointed to where they wanted the items. I also printed monster body parts (mouths, horns, legs, etc.) for them to glue on.

Craft #2: Marshmallow Paint from Child Care Land. We could have used ordinary paint, but instead we made actual marshmallow paint to dip and stamp our marshmallows. All you do is add Jet-Puffed Marshmallow Creme into a muffin tin and stir in warm water (until it's your desired consistency) and food coloring. This was a quick, open ended craft. You can print a block letter M from The Measured Mom. 

Craft #3: Mouse Craft from Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas. This was a really fun tape-resist craft. I placed painter's tape on a piece of white card stock to make a Letter M. My boys used water colors to paint around the Letter M. Water colors were a little tricky for us, so next time I'll mix water and liquid water colors for them to dip their paintbrushes in. Once the paint dried, I removed the tape and we glued on googly eyes, a pom pom nose and triangle ears. Yes, I've been participating in the crafts lately (mine is on bottom).

Color Review - "Little Mouse, Little Mouse Are You Behind The ... House?" This was the most requested activity to do over and over again this week. I pulled this out during lunch one day and it ended up being a lunch activity every day of the week. PREP: Cut out multiple colored houses and a little mouse out of construction paper. Tape the houses onto a cookie sheet. I taped our houses by placing the tape half on roof and half on the cookie sheet, so the house could easily be lifted up and placed back down. I rolled a piece of tape for the mouse to stick on. GAME: Without your kids seeing, hide the mouse under one of the houses. Have your children take turns guessing which house the mouse is under. My three would always use the rhyme "Little mouse, little mouse are you behind the (color) house?" And my 20 month old would point to a color and repeat the color name. If they guessed the correct house, I gave them a marshmallow. 

Math - Shoot the Shape Monster. This was another activity that was so much fun this week. I printed a set of shapes and taped them onto the wall. We talked about the names of the shapes. Then, my boys helped me make these awesome marshmallow shooters. My three would load a marshmallow into his shooter and I would call out a shape for him to shoot. My 20 month old only ate the marshmallows, but loved pointing and going through the shapes throughout the week. 

Math - Numbers Book with Power Magnets. This little book reviews the numbers 1-10. My three identified the number on the page and counted aloud as he placed a power magnet on the circles. My 20-month old put the power magnets on the circles (which was really fun for him) and I counted for him. 

Sensory Play - Magnetic Chart & Sensory Bin. My boys didn't quite get the dot stamping idea with our "Is It Magnetic Chart?" (from The Measured Mom) but they had so much fun testing if the items were magnetic or not with a magnet wand. Afterward I stuck all the objects into a bin along with our Magnetic Kit (this is a GREAT kit!) and let the boys play. This was a lot of fun. They also loved going around the house with their magnet wands to see if things were magnetic. 

Letter Mm Activity #1 - I printed two set of monster cards and wrote big M's on one set and little m's on another set. My three drew a monster and placed the monsters with a "Big M" underneath the "Big M House" and the monsters with a "little m" underneath the "little m house". Afterward both boys loved playing with the monsters, which I wasn't expecting. They pretend played and matched the monsters together. I had my 20 month old point to the big Letter M was on the monsters.

Letter Mm Activity #2 - Monkey Dot Page & Mm Mouse Page from This Reading Mama. Both of the worksheets above are in the same printable pack. I placed these worksheets on a magnetic cookie sheet. Both boys used power magnets to fill in the circles. My three used green power magnets to fill in the little m's and blue power magnets to fill in the big M's. My 20 month old finally got the idea of filling in dots this week! He filled in every single dot. Yay! 

Beginning Sounds: Beginning sounds has been one of my goals I've wanted my three to work on this year. He has really picked up on them, so we started a program for very early readers called "Reading the Alphabet" from This Reading Mama. We're slowly going through it and I've been so impressed by how the program is organized. Click the link to find out more.

Letter M Science - Magic Milk. This science activity was really neat and my kids enjoyed it. I think I was the most impressed watching the food coloring shoot apart, but my kids really loved mixing the food coloring around in the container. View a tutorial and learn the science behind this experiment at Babble Dabble Do.

Alphabet as a Whole - Feed the Monster. I've been saving bottle caps for some time now and finally saved enough to use them! I wrote letters A-Z on them and both boys loved feeding our monster. My three would identify the letter and sound before feeding the monster and my 20-month old would repeat the letter names after me. Such a great fine motor activity as well. We made the monster together by gluing monster body parts together and glued it onto an empty wipes container. I used a knife to cut a hole in the mouth.

Name Review - Bottle Cap Name Review. I wrote my three's name on bottle caps and handed them to him. He put them in a row to spell his name. My 20 month old didn't participate in making his name, but he loved "feeding the monster" with bottle caps earlier in the week (shown above).


And that's it!