As the preschoolers begin to get ready for school they start to have more of an interest in writing and learning their letters. In the preschool one room we have been focusing on this interest, creating activities where the preschoolers have been learning their letters and using their fine motor skills to start writing.
We started this journey on a rainy day when we were stuck inside and Christine was trying to find a fun activity to do. She gathered some toys and hid them around the classroom and the preschoolers went searching for them, this made Christine wonder if the preschoolers could find all the letters of the alphabet if they were hidden around the classroom. Christine set out on her task to hide each letter, and Jayden quickly joined in to assist. Jayden was able to find some good hiding spots that Christine didn’t think of. Once all the letters were hidden everyone gathered around and Christine wrote one letter at a time on a chalk board and the preschoolers worked as a team to find that letter. As they searched they would announce what words started with each letter “a for alligator” “N for Norah” they would chant until they found the letter. Chris and Jayden even helped Christine hold up the letter while assisting the preschoolers in their hide and seek adventure.
After we found all the letters Christine wondered what else the preschoolers could do with letters, and since the preschoolers also have a big interest in loose parts, she decided to incorporate the two. Christine set out some gems and wrote out all the letters, then invited the preschoolers over to see what they would do with the loose parts, would they make patterns? Would they trace the letters? One of the loose parts that Christine set out were marker lids, and Jackson had taken the marker lids and placed them on his fingers, then he tried to pick up the gems with the markers on his fingers. Christine would ask Jackson to find the first letter of his name and place the gems on the letter, once he found the J Christine asked him to find the first letter of his brother’s name, he very quickly identified the C. Next Christine asked Jackson if he could find the letters of his mom and dad’s names, Jackson immediately found the S and the T and placed some gems on those letters as well. Rory took the marker lids and placed them around the letters, making the shapes of the letters. Asal collected all the gems and made patterns on the letters.
Next, we got out the water table and placed all the letters in some soapy water. We wrote out each letter on a tray and the preschoolers had to go fishing to catch each letter. Once they found a letter they searched on the tray for it and placed it down. Some of the preschoolers couldn’t find the letters, so they would help each other as they searched on the tray. Nasir would hold up each letter and when we announced what letter it was, Nasir would repeat it. Penny F would find all the letters, and once the tray was full she would clear it and start again.
Around the classroom we often hear Toby spelling out his name, or Penny F and Penny B picking out their names on the tags, or Carina asking for us to spell everyone’s names. Christine decided to write out the preschooler’s names and have the preschoolers trace the letters. Norah traced out her name, and then wrote the letters out on her own. Carina traced her name, and changed the colour of each letter, while Finley traced his name by putting dots on the paper.
Through all of these experiences the preschoolers were able to work on their team work skills as they all helped each other, they were able to use their fine motor skills as they practiced their writing and they were able to learn their letters and begin to start understanding how putting letters together creates words or names.
