This week we’ve been working with the letter ‘t,’ and since My Little Man adores trucks, we had to focus our attention on these vehicles.
He has several non-fiction books about trucks and has read every one in the children’s section of our local library, so we didn’t spend too much time learning about their purposes or parts (if I tried that, he would be teaching me). Instead, we worked on fine motor skills, sensory perception, and just using creativity.
My Little Man knows his letters and their sounds – we’re using the letters to drive our theme and do pre-reading activities this year – so first he drove a tractor through some paint and onto his letter ‘T.’ When it dried, he cut it out and glued it to black paper. He made a list of things that start with ‘t’ and I wrote it down.
He liked this activity so much that he wanted to make some more tracks, so we got out the big paper and let him play for a bit.
Of course, then the cars needed a run through the car wash.
It’s been cold, so we decided to see how these trucks would fare in the snow I sprayed some regular men’s shaving cream on our linoleum floor and let My Little Man go to town.
He’s not usually too fond of being messy, so I wasn’t sure how he’d react to this activity – but he loved it! He raced his trucks until they were covered. Of course, then they needed another car wash.
First, however, we rubbed the shaving cream into the floor. The linoleum ‘ate’ most of it, and then while My Little Man stood at the sink and washed his cars, I scrubbed down the floor. The Swiffer wet mop didn’t quite cut it – there was still a bit of residue left – so I scrubbed it quick and we moved on. Well worth a bit of necessary-anyway cleaning to see my man getting dirty!
My Little Man has his own city rug, but he never uses it – instead, he makes up racetracks all over the house. With that in mind, I decided that we should make our own. I got a large piece of wrapping paper left over from Christmas (it was too pretty to throw away and only a bit rumpled) and turned it over. We broke out the crayons and took turns drawing different parts of a town – signs, buildings, roads, parking lots – and then he raced his trucks all over town. Simple, but he loved it!
During our writing time, My Little Man practiced writing his ‘t’s and a few simple words beginning with that letter.
Throw in his large truck collection of books, and this is our ‘T’ unit.
How do you teach your kids about letters?
