Letters, Letters, Letters!

     Wow!  I can't believe it is almost December and my little will be one in 2 weeks.  Time sure flies by!  We have been doing a lot of work with letters in my classroom.  Most of the students had no idea what they were, which leaves a lot of room for growth.  I have been trying to do a lot of hands on materials.  I do have some great things from good ole Lakeshore Learning that was with the class materials as well as some things the I have purchased as well.  I expanded my literacy center with a small table to include the leap frog letters (discovered at my daughters day care, they match perfectly with the letter factory), the alphabet mystery box game from Lakeshore, some letter cards, and the letter books from Lakeshore.  The center has been full!  The kids freaked over the leap frog letters, which is great.  I love that they can independently hear the letters and I got it at Target for $15.99!  I thought it was well worth it!

 
      We have also been using these alphabet play dough mats that I created.  I like them, because they use the Zaner- Blosen font, which I wasn't able to find.  Each letter has their own mat and the colored version has pictures with it.  I also made play dough mats without pictures if a colored printer isn't easy to access.  I have been there!  I thought a fun way to use the ones with out pictures would be to allow students to draw their own pictures for the letter.  You could also provide pictures or stickers and allow the children to decorate each letter.  My kiddos LOVED these mats.  I introduced them in a small group and they bugged me for a week, asking me when the play dough center is going to be open.  I think the pumpkin pie and apple pie play dough that I used helped out too!  Whatever get's them excited about letters is fine with me!  Below is an example of one of the letter mats.
   

These mats will be available on Teachers pay Teachers on Monday.  I need to use my work computer to combine the files. 

    I also do a letter small group with the kiddos each week.  In my small group I have them say objects that start with the letter, draw a picture of something that starts with the letter, find the letter, and practice writing the letter.  I am in the middle of creating all of these sheets.  I have about half done and have been working on them on a as need basis.  I am hoping to finish them soon.  

    Along with the letter group pages, I am working on a Winter Unit.  I love doing seasonal topics.  I am working on doing so activities with counting, one to one correspondence, sorting, sorting by groups, rhyming, alliteration, patterns, letter identification, letter sounds, number identification, etc.  I will have activities that go a long with The Mitten, The Gingerbread Man, The Snowy Day, and Ten on the Sled.  All of the activities will not be affiliated with any Holiday.  I work for a district that doesn't allow us to do anything for the Holidays.  It's a bummer since I love Christmas, but totally makes sense for some of the students in the district.  I'm not sure if it will be one big unit or a bunch of little units.  I will keep you posted as I develop more things.