This week I decided to start the Letter of the Week with Virginia. I wanted something fun and educational to do each day with her. Something that we both could enjoy with the TV off. Less TV time this summer is my goal.
My BFF Lisa told me about Confessions of a Homeschooler, a home school blog, that shares tons of printable activities for kids of all ages. Most of the activities are free printable files and some are for sale. Luckily for me most of the Letter of the Week is free.
Tuesday we headed to the library for the books about apples. The library is always a great activity for the summer. Virginia enjoys the puzzles and games. I enjoy getting out of the house and picking out some cute books. Most of the books for the letter A that Confessions of a Homeschooler recommends was checked out. I guess the letter A is coming back into style. The wonderful Kannapolis libarian helped us pick out some new ones. We ended up walking out with Apples to Oregon by Deborah Hopkinson & Nancy Carpenter, The Lady with the Alligator Purse by Nadine Bernard Westcott, Johnny Appleseed by Steven Kellogg, Down the Road by Alice Schertle, and The Apple Pie that Papa Baked by Lauren Thompson. Some of these books are a little long for Virginia so I plan to break them up reading half in the morning and half at night.
So far we have read The Lady with the Alligator Purse which is adapted from the poem. This book is pure silly and Virginia insists on reading the book at least 100 times a day. The poem is about a little baby that gets into lets of trouble taking a bath. This is a cute book and short. We also have read Apples to Oregon. This book is longer and tells the story of a family making their way to Oregon with all of their prized apple trees. They get into all kinds of trouble and adventures. I was amazed that the story kept Virginia's attention til the end.
Wednesday was the first official day of Letter A. The night before I sewed a magnetic apple. The apple was very simple to create.
First take a strip of red fabric. I used red cotton fabric, but you can use any fabric. Next take a mug and fabric marker. You will trace a circle onto the fabric using the mug.
Once you have traced the circle, you will want to fold the fabric up like an ecordian. This way you will only have to cut out the circle once. Also this method will make all the circles the same size.
Next I took two of the circles and placed a square of poly-fil traditional batting between them. I didn't pin the layers together, but it is a good idea to pin. Next take the layers to the sewing machine and sew around the circle. Leave just a small space at the top open so you can sew in the stem. If you don't have a sewing machine you could always use fabric glue or even a glue gun.
Note: After I sewed the layers together I thought about putting in magnetic discs. So I took three magnetic discs and placed them on tape and slid the tape inside the apple. In the future I would tape the magnetic discs to one of the layers before I sewed them together.
Next you will trim very close to the edge of the apple. Then take some brown felt and free hand a stem. I took the stem and placed it in the open space of the apple. I took the lazy route and quickly sewed up the opening along with the stem on the sewing machine. You could also hand stitch the stem into the apple. Next take green felt and cut out a leave. I did hand stitch the leave onto the apple. Now you have your very own magnetic apple. Beware of fish that are looking for a snack.
Every apple needs a tree don't you think. Ok so I went a little over the top and made an apple tree for our fridge. My husband was surprised when he came home Tuesday night. Virginia woke up Wednesday and walked into the kitchen and just froze. Virginia said, " tree mama." She really enjoyed placing the apple on her tree. The tree is very simple to make. I took some left over green fabric and cut out the tree top. I just took a fabric marker and free handed the top of the tree. I took brown felt and cut out the trunk of the tree. Next I took velcro and attached the top and trunk of the tree to the fridge. Simple as 1, 2, 3.
My plan is to create a magnet for each letter of the week. Wednesday we continued with some more apple activities that we found on Confessions of a Homeschooler. There are so many to choose from. All the prints are free. I picked the activities that I felt would be best for Virginia's age. I would recommend downloading all the files and taking it somewhere to print. If you print at home you will use up alot of ink. I plan in the future to print all the activities onto card stock and taking them to get laminated.
Here is Virginia coloring in her A is for Apple coloring page.
Virginia is matching the apple halves together by color. This was her favorite game.
In this game Virginia had to match the upper and lowercase a's to the apples on the tree.
For this game I printed the file and then cut and pasted one half of the apple onto construction paper.
Virginia insisted that her apples be purple. Here is the coloring page and the child can trace the upper and lowercase A's at the top of the page.
Upper and Lowercase Matching Game.
Here is the large floor numbers. I took the magnetic apple and let Virginia place the apple on the correct number that I called out. I hope in the future to make ten apples. That way she can place the correct number of apples on each card. All the activities were lots of fun and kept Virginia's attention. Thursday she woke up and ran into the living room asking for Apple Game. Hope you enjoy and make sure to pay Confessions of a Homeschooler a visit.
