So how did you go with Tot school lesson 1? Today it is all about learning the difference between letters and numbers. This lesson will require some assistance for children under 3 and a little prctice for older children but it is a skill that will only get stronger and stronger the more you practice. REMEMBER: As you are teaching, talk, talk, talk. The more you repeat each letter or number name the more it is reinforced!
The Letter and Number Machines/Robots/Houses.
This Tissue Box Robot would be perfect! from partselect.com
You can turn the boxes for this lesson into a Machine/Robot/House depending on your child’s interests. Keep the top of the box open for the letters/numbers to go into.
Materials:
A Variety of letters and numbers (we buy a whole bag of assorted letter and number foam stickers for $2 form a dicount store)
Two boxes or bowls.
For Littles and Tots: An alphabet refenrence chart. Anything with the alphabet on it. Even if you just type up the alphabet on a piece of paper and print it out.
The Lesson Plan
Explain that we uses symbols to write. Their are three kinds of symbols (numbers, letters and punctuation) today we are only looking at letters and numbers.
Introduce the story/concept. If you are using Robots – One Robot is the number robot and he only eats numbers, the other robot is the letter robot he only eats letters. You need to feed the robot the right food!
Houses – These houses are sad as their families are missing. One house is the Letter Family’s house one house is the Number family’s house. Can you help put the family’s in the right house?
As the student picks up each symbol you ask them Letter or Number?
If it is a letter it goes in one bowl/box and if it is a number it goes in the other bowl.
As they do each one you can also ask them if they know the name of the symbol? If they don’t you can tell them “This is a LETTER, it’s name is B”
For Littles ask them to find each symbol on a reference card. Can they find it? Is it with the letters or the numbers?
When you are finished (don’t feel like you have to do the whole alphabet in the first lesson!) empty out the boxes and show your child how many letters and numbers they matched!
To be able to decode text and learn to read your child needs to know that letters make words and numbers help us count. To them they all like the same squiggly lines on paper! After a while this activity becomes great independent learning activity! For older children you can do this activity with words. Identifying initial sounds (all the words starting with “s” in one box and starting with “k” in another box. Or vowels and consents or even 2 syllable or 3 syllable words. The opportunities are endless!!!
HAPPY LEARNING!
Don’t forget share your pics on Instagram simply by adding the hashtag #MPPTotSchool
