News with Naylors

At the start of this alphabet series, I made a lot of props to use while singing songs and rhymes. I have learned that my kid's (ages 3 & 1) favorite way to learn is with actions. It's actually a bonus for me too, because actions take no additional prep time for me. Below are three of our favorite Letter N Songs. We used these songs as apart of our Letter N Activities . 1)  N is for Nest   by Jean Warren. Do actions while you sing this song. Two little blue birds in a tree, (hold up two fingers and place them on your other arm) Built a nest for all to see. (put your hands in a bowl shape in front of you) Along came the babies.. one, two three. (rock a baby, hold up fingers one, two three) Now they're a happy family! (point fingers to your mouth and smile) 2)  N is for Nail  from The Measured Mom.  Hammer nails with  hammer toys  or a  kids tool kit  for this activity. This is the way we pound our na...

1) N is for Nuts : Have your child glue nuts onto a letter N. 2) Sort Nuts  from The Measured Mom: We only sorted three different kinds of nuts - peanuts, almonds and walnuts. He didn't last long, but it was a good start on sorting and nut vocabulary. 3) Help the Squirrel : Easton loves to help "feed" animals, so this was a good activity for him. He was 20 months when we did this activity, so we only used numbers 1-3. He identified the number for me, and I helped him count three peanuts to place on the mat. "Look! You just fed the squirrel three nuts..one, two, three." Click the link to print  Free Counting Mats  from The Measured Mom. 4)  Fall Math Game  from the measured mom blog: Again, Easton was very little when we did the Letter N. These cards come in three different levels, so we only did the beginning level.

1) N is for Night Sky  from Funtastic Fun and Learning: This is a beautiful craft and a great way to review the Letter N! Paint sparkly glitter glue onto a Letter N  Stick on star stickers and glue on a paper moon. 2) Night Sky Mirror Painting : This was Easton's favorite activity this week! I've been wanting to try mirror painting for a while, however, large mirrors are expensive! We used a cookie sheet instead. Read "There was an Old Man who Painted the Sky" from our Letter N Booklist. Use a paintbrush to paint the cookie sheet colors of the night sky. We used shades of blue and purple. Optional: We used a  moon and star sponge stamp  to dip and stamp on our canvas 3)  Night Sky Play Dough  from Two-daloo: I've never made home made play dough until now! It was  something I thought seemed like a lot of work, but I was proved wrong. This took no more than ten minutes to make and was ready to be used. Afterward, I put the play d...

Nail the Letter : To review the alphabet as a whole today, I wrote upper case letters with permanent marker on Floral Foam (bought at the dollar store). I also bought a set of "nails" or golf tees online and pulled out our hammer from our kid tool set. I like this activity, because it can be used if toddlers know one letter, multiple letters or the entire alphabet. It could also be used as a shape or number review. As a reminder, don't have high expectations with toddlers. In my mind, I was thinking Easton would use the hammer and hammer the nails into place. However, he liked poking the letters with the golf tee instead. We still accomplished the same goal of reviewing all the letters, but did it his way. 2)  Letter N Book  from The Measured Mom: Read this short book together. Point out the Big Letter N's and talk about the pictures together. (picture to come) 3) Letter N Handprint Art (Nest) : When I asked my husband if he knew what this was, he looked r...