This week's preschool lesson looked different without doing it alongside our friends, but we still had fun learning about the letter "R." We're definitely all going a little crazy being indoors with all playdates canceled, but pressing forward with some learning has been really good for our family. Aaron loved the focused one-on-one time with me, and he really enjoyed the structure after so much free play lately!
Tracing the Letter with Stickers: I picked up a pack of rainbow stickers at the local dollar store (thankfully before outings were so hard! But you can use whatever you have on hand), wrote out a capital R and lowercase r, and had him "trace" using his stickers. I'll take any chance to change up how we're tracing our letters!
Rainbow Color Sorting: Using the rainbow stickers led us straight into reviewing our colors! I gave him colored popsicle sticks and used the toilet paper roll tubes and cups that were already set up. Click here to see my full post on the tube activity. I had him say his colors as he was sorting them, and he was so satisfied once all of the popsicles were in their matching cups.
Hunting for R's: This was was so fun! I went through his toys to find small things that started with the letter R. I found Rey, R2-D2, a card with Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh, a red robot, and a red rectangle. I hid those little toys in the rice (and yes, I chose rice because it starts with "R"!), and had him dig to find them. As he pulled out each one, I asked him what it was, and then repeated it saying, "R-r-Rey," "R-r-Rabbit," and so on. By the end of our preschool time he was saying the R-sound to himself, "R-r-red!" and "R-r-robot!"
R is for Rice: This one felt really magical, and I'm so glad that it worked! Once he found all of the toys, I pulled out a red (yes, R-r-red!) piece of construction paper, and used a glue stick to write the letter R. I handed him a small scoop and told him to "trace" the R with rice. This took some skill to not just dump the rice all over the paper but to slowly pour it out so that it still looked like an R when he was done. Then, I picked up the paper, held it over the rice bin, and let the extra rice fall back into the bin. It felt like magic as the extra rice fell away and a really clear R appeared!
R is for Red: Next up, I set him up at the table with a piece of large drawing paper and every type of red writing utensils: a red marker, a red colored pencil, a red crayon, and a red paint stick. I had written his name in highlighter and had him trace the letters of his name with whichever writing utensil he wanted. He chose the red paint stick (he is loving those!!), and he did really well tracing his whole name by himself. Then, I let him color however he wanted using all the different types of red. We ended up drawing together as he asked me to draw the robot and Rabbit.
R is for Race Car: He was loving the activities, so we did one last one! On another large drawing paper, I sketched out a race car track and handed him race car stickers. I use the Melissa & Doug stickers, which are nice and big! He had so much fun acting out a whole racing scene with his stickers and drawing lines showing where the cars had driven. Honestly, I let him do his own thing while I cleaned up and heard him chatting away for at least 10 minutes. It was a perfect way to end our lesson!
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