Activities That Will Make Your Kids Jump for Joy

Are your children ready to jump for joy for letter Jj?  Let's see if we can wear them out with lots of fun learning activities!

 

I try to make sure our letter Jj learning happens in late October - because this is prime jack-o-lantern time, and we all love Halloween fun!  Here are some of the ways I've used jack-o-lanterns over the years to keep my preschool and kindergarten kiddos learning:

-Make an event out of your jack-o-lantern experience - it doesn't have to be just a quick pumpkin carving activity.  I like to start a couple of weeks before Halloween with a trip to our favorite pumpkin patch to check out all the "gourd-geous" pumpkins during letter Gg week.

Did you know pumpkins aren't all orange?  Sure, that's what we traditionally see in the grocery store every fall, but the children are always fascinated by all the different sizes, shapes and colors (and later flavors) of pumpkins. I always get a lovely variety for a display, and once Halloween is over I cook them all up for pumpkin muffins and pies... read all about that here and here.

 

We bring math into our jack-o-lantern experience by having the children suggest shapes for Jack's features, then voting for each feature, and tallying their responses.  

I do the cutting, but everyone takes turns to come up and help pull out the "guts".  You can call it fibrous strands if you want, but my kiddos LOVE that I call it guts - ewwwww!

Of course we have to pose with Jack - and leave him on the doorstep.  (See how to keep the learning going through the spring in this post)!

 

We keep the talk about shapes going with a simple felt activity, and the children get to create and recreate jack-o-lanterns all week long.

 We work on patterns with pumpkins (not technically jack-o-lanterns, but while we're on the theme let's get in all the math we can!) with a math center I made. Here it's in a pocket chart, but it works on a desk top too.

 

These math activities include jack-o-lanterns, along with lots of other fun Halloween themes, and we LOVE using the mini erasers from the Target Dollar Spot to complete them!

We mix yellow and red paint to make our orange paintings, and get a fine motor workout cutting and pasting features on our creations.

 

One of our hand print options for J is actually more of a fist painting of jack-o-lanterns (the other choices are jellyfish and jaguars).

 

Are your littles jumping for joy yet?  No?  Try digging out all the jewellery you're willing to let them play with (Mardi Gras beads and plastic jewels are great for this), then turn on some jazz and jump for joy to jazz in your jewellery...

...or head to the zoo and look for animals that jump.

 

Since J is also for jelly, and learning to write our letters is on the agenda, I introduce writing J with a little jelly on a plate.  We start by using our pinky fingers - which is sign language for the letter Jj!  They'll practice a lot when it's a matter of writing the J then licking their fingers, then repeating the process.... yum!

We make our upper case J by adding an orange jack-o-lantern on a green letter J, and cover the lower case j with lots of jewels.

 

What are YOUR favorite activities for letter Jj?  Comment here, or tag me in your social media posts: @paulabeckerman2399 on Instagram, and Paula's Primary Classroom on FaceBook.  I can't wait to see all the fun things you do!