Letters N and I

Over the last few days, we've continued our adventure of letter learning with N and I, two more letters in my daughter's name.  Once I told her it was letter learning time, she enthusiastically shared, "Yay!  I love my letters."  I'd love to give myself a pat on the back for this this one, but I know better.  It's novel, at least that's what I suspect.  I hope that I'm wrong, but focusing on the glass behind half full, maybe it's exciting, fun, and engaging!

We started with our letter book, then the animal alphabet letter activity, and then made the letters with marshmallows and toothpicks.  I saw this somewhere on Pinterest a while back, and given my daughter's love of marshmallows, I figured it'd be a win-win. I was right.  She loved it!  I can only wish that I was that motivated by marshmallows!

Next we began our letter activities:

• Nail polish for a pedicure!  I'm not sure how, but my daughter talked me in to painting flowers on her toes.  (I gave it my best effort, but I'm pretty sure that there is no talent there!  Notice there is no picture posted?)  
• Noodle Necklaces...as if she doesn't already have enough necklaces.  It was a great motor skill for her, and I think the only way it could have been better was if I had pink noodles!  I couldn't complain about it either because all we needed was string and noodles.  Simple yet entertaining!
• Ice letters, well, actually, letters frozen in ice.  I placed the letters we have worked on so far (B, N, and I) in ice cube trays.  (I used smaller foam letters that I had kept at work for years but never used.  They worked perfectly!  I'm guessing that you can find similar letters at any craft store, or else you could cut your own out foam.)  Being that the letters were so light, they floated to the top.  After about two hours of freezing (after the ice started to form), I was able to push the letters down so they were not at the top of each cube.  We placed them in a bowl and then added water to speed up the melting process.  Once they started melting, she was able to peel the letters off of the ice.  This activity was a huge success! She asked to do it again tomorrow, so the letters are currently freezing again!

• We couldn't possibly work on the letter I without making Ice cream!  Several weeks ago, I made ice cream in a bag with a social skills group during the last week of school.  I used the same recipe, which you can find here.

After only one letter, she already knew what to do as soon as I mentioned it was time to read.  She grabbed her magnifying glass and we were off.  We read The Nose Book by Al Perkins, which obviously had no shortage of the upper and lower-case N!  Quite frankly, I wasn't sure we were going to finish the book with my daughter's dedication to find each and every N.  I can't help but love her persistence!  (There is also a free activity that you can download here if you'd like an extension activity to go with this book while still focusing on the letter N.) We also read If I Could Keep You Little by Marianne Richmond for the letter I.   This book always gets me but is such a great reminder to savor each moment spent with my daughter. 

 

To wrap things up, we took the BumBleBee and ladyBug cupcakes and delivered them to our Neighbors!  My favorite part?  My little helper's fingerprints all over the boxes!