Here we are in October, looking at the letter Gg - which is GREAT because gourds, goblins, ghosts and googly eyes are all over the place in the weeks before Halloween! Shall we get going?!
Let's start with one of my all time favorite letter G activities: reading Go Away, Big Green Monster by Ed Emberly, and making our own Big Green Monsters. I've blogged about it here before, but in case you missed it, Big Green Monster disappears one feature at a time as you turn the pages of the book. I love to have my students paint a big green blob face, and add the features on as we reread the book in a small group. Not only are we rereading the book, the children really learn the sequence of the story, and can retell it with me (and without me)! There are lots of color words, and plenty of chances for expressive reading!
Another favorite letter G activity is our Googly Eye pictures and class book!
This next idea is one I haven't talked about before: making shoe box guitars. A quick YouTube search found this really cool video, and clearly I'm not going to do it better than PlayKids did! Check it out!
My area to shine is singing silly songs, and this is one my grandmother sang to me:
Do YOU know any little girls like this? ;-)
Want to play games to practice listening for the letter Gg? Check this hands on activity pack out in my TeachersPayTeachers store!
Making hand prints for each letter is a tradition at my preschool, so here are some fun ideas: ghosts, gorillas, and giraffes! Notice that the g in giraffe makes a different sound than it does in the other pictures, and talk about it with your little one. This is the 'soft g' sound, which sounds more like J. Sometimes letters are tricky!
How about cooking? Are you and your little ones enjoying time in the kitchen each week? Cooking involves lots of math concepts like measuring, counting, temperatures and time, so it's a natural way to include math in your days - and even more importantly, as your child learns to cook they are developing life skills! Consider making grilled cheese sandwiches for the letter Gg: your child can spread butter on the bread, and stack the bread and cheese ready to cook. You'll want to do the cooking part until your little ones are old enough to avoid getting burned - but while you're doing that, they can put grapes (another great G food) on the plates, and set the table with the right number of napkins for everyone who is eating.
Not a grilled cheese fan? Do you like Green Eggs and Ham?
A little green food coloring can change a meal into a book adventure! Add it to your eggs before cooking, and if you fry up some ham, add green food coloring in a little water, and cook it off - the ham will stay green!
It wouldn't be letter Gg week without getting out the glitter glue! Does your little prefer green or gold? Is it goopy? Or gooey? Either way, it sure is great!
Finally, I'll leave you with a simple craft project that will have your child talking about primary colors (red, yellow, blue), shapes (circles, squares, rectangles) and counting (gumballs).
Have a good, great, gorgeous week! See you next week for the letter Hh!
