"Aa" is for Apple

Esme and Ellerie have been able to identify all their letters (both upper and lowercase) and letter sounds for quite some time. Their new favorite question is "What does _____ start with?" I'm not one to "push" learning, and I know that isolating the beginning sound in a word takes practice, but I do listen to their interests and go with it. We talk a lot about what we see when we're out an about...even while grocery shopping. It has almost become a fun game to try and listen for the letter sounds we hear in different words. Learning can happen anywhere!

I'm starting to pull out some more projects for the girls. I'm going to try and start sharing some of them here. With over 9 years experience teaching early childhood prior to having the girls, I have a lot of plans in my head.

This morning, we peeked out the window in the playroom (it was pouring rain outside) to take a closer look at the apple tree in our backyard. It's been dropping apples, and we've even tasted a few of them (they are a little sour still, but the girls don't seem to mind). I asked them questions about what the tree looked like...what they saw. Then we came inside and decided to replicate the tree on paper. I had an idea in my head, but I let them "come up with it" through questions I asked.

They wanted me to make a tree and leaves out of paper so that they could glue it on. I let them glue their pieces wherever they wanted (it's the process, not the product), but I was surprised at how straight their trees ended up! To make the apples, we cut a couple apples from our apple tree in half. We dipped the halves in green and red paint (the colors they chose) and stamped them on the tree. While stamping, we talked about the apples...what they look like, how they felt and what sounds we heard in the word "apple." Once their paint is dry (I forgot to write it before), we'll go back and write the word apple on their pictures. For now, they're hanging in the playroom with their other recent artwork.