J-jo likes working on the same thing week after week, so I don't change up his shelves much. One shelf I do change weekly is his "language shelf" where I keep a color basket (that Bear puts together for him) and his "letter sound of the week."
I never focused on just one sound at a time with Bear, but I discovered these great books at the library that gave me the idea to feature one sound basket for him each week. The books are from the My Sound Box series by Jane Belk Moncure and she has one for every letter. I've been signing them out of the library and putting one on his shelf behind his sound basket. We then read the book and sing a song for the objects in the basket.
The song goes to the tune of The Farmer in the Dell and is very similar to the Leapfrog Letter Factory song but does not use any letter names. As I sing "this is..." I show him or point to the letter, upper and lower case examples.
This is "a"
This is "a"
Every letter has a sound
This is "a".
"a" "a" apple, "a" "a" astronaut, "a" "a" alligator
"a" "a" "a"
We're currently at d. I also use Maureen's book suggestions from her Now I Know My ABC's posts at Totally Tots. I also try to tie in the Before Five in A Row books. For the letter C, I used The Carrot Seed and we used The Yellow Ball to go behind the basket of yellow items.
I was just thinking to myself that I've never touched on letter sounds with Henry yet. And about 10 seconds later, I happened upon your post :) Thanks! Those books look like a great way to start (I really have no idea how to introduce sounds). So, off we go to the library to see if they have those!
ReplyDeleteJamie @ hands on : as we grow
http://handsonhouse.blogspot.com
We've been doing a letter at a time too! I only change my shelves every two to three weeks though. I'm starting with the letter sounds that he says correctly instead of doing them alphabetically. I'm not sure if he recognizes the letter-sound combo, but at least he is learning new vocab words :)
ReplyDeleteDo you have a list of the before five in a row books?
My tots loved holding the sandpaper letter with the basket of items, too. I think it made them feel 'big' like Bean. They use them regularly now, but when they were one- it was a real treat :)
ReplyDeleteSo sweet! I love little hands working!
You can find the list of BFIAR and the FIAR books on the FIAR website. Can't find the link I found before but if you go into the purchasing section and click on the book package it lists them. http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/Before+Five+in+a+Row+Literature+Package/BFRFIR/1299257521-973079 Those are BFIAR
ReplyDeleteI love this! I'm going to have to look for these books at the library next time. Although my kids are older, I think the letter sound baskets are a great idea - plus it never hurts to emphasize sounds even though they talk a mile-a-minute now. Still, we've got to work on sounding out letters better. My daughter pronounces "d's" like "t's" - it's cute, but we've got to work on that... :)
ReplyDeleteWe use the sound box books too!! LOVE them!! I think they have really helped E! Kerri
ReplyDeleteI was at a consignment sale today and found a whole collection of 'My 'a' Book' by the same author and picked them up for $13.50! What a steal! They are stories about the letter filling a box with things that start with that letter. I wonder if they are the same, when the titles were changes.
ReplyDeletewe recently started checking out the sound box books at the library and both I and my son love them! I hadn't thought about making a sound box of our own, though, thats a great idea. thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete