• Dress up as a King, with a crown and cape. Put a K on the cloak and eat some kisses
• Wearing the King’s costume Kick some K’s. Set up some empty soda bottles and put K’s on some of them other letters on the remaining bottles and he has to kick over only the one’s with K’s on them.
• Make K’s in Ketchup (like finger-painting).

L

• Make L’s using Legos
• Use a Lite brite and have him make L with the light. Make a couple patterns of Ll using white chalk on black construction paper that he could use to create the L’s. Then he makes his own Ll’s.
• Make L’s with lipstick on paper.

M

• Make a monster face by taping some bulletin board paper over a box, cut out the Mouth of the Monster in the shape of an M, be sure to trace it first and leave some of that tracing so it is more defined. Write M’s all over the box. Toss Marshmallows and M&Ms into the Monster Mouth.
• Use Magical Magic Markers to make M’s. I use the changeable markers for this and just call them magical. Make some M’s on the paper and have him trace them with the marker that will change the color. Then have him make some of his own M’s and then use the appropriate marker to trace and change his own M’s.

N

• Use both straight and curved noodles and have student form them into Nn shapes. Have him put them on a felt placemat so they don’t tend to roll away so much.
• Make a Necklace using N’s cut from foam and the Noodles. Pre-punch or pre-cut tiny holes at the top of the N’s and use one of those big embroidery, kid friendly Needles strung with floss or other clear string (found at Michaels). Make the Necklace by alternately sewing on N’s and Noodles.

O

• Find a light switch with the words Off and On, point it out to him and have him flick lights on and off a few times.
• Make O’s out of paper plates. The plastic or foam disposable plates may work better, you’ll have to test it out (I will be doing just that). You could use laminated paper cut into O’s and I think that they would also work. Student throws O’s (Frisbee style) over the “Ocean”, a piece of blue paper, and onto the O’s. Have a big piece of bulletin board paper with many O’s on it. Experiment with your O’s some to see how far child may have to stand or how close and how big your O’s need to be for the child’s thrown O’s to land on to the O’s.

P

• Make P’s using the straight Pretzels and the circle shaped pretzels. Eat some when done.
• Use pre-made vanilla Pudding with a little red food coloring in it to make it Pink and make P’s on Plastic or Paper Plates (plastic would hold up better). Paint Purple p’s on a large piece of Pink bulletin board Paper.

Q

• Use Q tips and make Q’s with paint.
• Make Quiet Q’s: Have student use a phonics phone and say Q into it “Quietly”. Give student a paper with rows of letters and as they track across the row, each time they come to a Q that’s when they say the letter Q quietly.

R

• Place some large Rocks outside most with Red R’s written on them some with other letters easily confused with R like P and B. Child must Run to each Rock and if it has an R on it, pick it up, run it back, and put it on a rug.
• Have the students use a Red marker and make his or her own R on Rocks.

S

• Make S in Sand that you have put in a tray or a cookie sheet.
• Use a pre-made S cut from Sand paper and mounted onto a piece of cardboard for student to trace with fingers then put a piece of paper over the S and do a crayon rubbing.

T

• Use pre-cut pieces of Tape (masking tape, colored tape is even better) that you have made available and he makes Tt’s with the tape.
• Put shaving cream on the Table and child can make Tt’s on the Table. *Child can Type Tt’s on the computer then print them out.
• Have child make a Tt with his bare Toes using either paint or sand.
• Use Tattoo markers and have the child tattoo Tt’s onto his toes then maybe extend Tatoos to other places like arms, hands, etc.

U

• Child could bring in an Undershirt and use fabric markers or fabric crayons to make u’s on the undershirt.
• Put Uu’s Under chairs and tables and the child has to find and retrieve all the U’s that were Under the furniture.
• Tape paper Underneath a table, child lays down Under table and uses either paint or markers to make (or trace) Uu’s on the paper under the table.

V

• Make some Vv’s. (laminated paper or foam works best then cut 12 V’s). Then make 6 Vampire heads. Put Velcro tabs on each v and have child Velcro the Vampires teeth on. Make sure the teeth aren’t too close. Explain that you are going to make this man into a Vampire by giving him Vampire teeth.
• Velcro Vv’s onto a paper bag Vest.
• Use a Video tape and have the student stick V’s on it.
• Student writes V’s and puts them in the Video box.

W

• Make some very big W’s on the sidewalk with white chalk and student Walks on the Ww’s.
• Have some smaller Ww’s written on the Wall. Using a wide foam paint brush and Water, he traces over the W’s thereby Washing off the White W’s on the Wall with Water.
• Use Window markers and either paint or trace Ww’s onto the window. When done, wash away the Ww’s with water.

X

• Use a pointer and find all the X’s you can. With a tall enough pointer, child may be able to point to the X’s on the exit signs.
• Have a large X (at least 10 inches or bigger) cut out of white paper. Give the student dot markers and just have him slide the dot marker (no dots) to make an X. Child repeats this as many times as it takes to fill in the X with color.

Y

• Paint Yellow Y’s .
• Play a musical Yelling game. This is sort of like a cake walk and should definitely be done outside. Put (or draw) a bunch of circles in a circle arrangement. Write a Yy on most of the circles and a different letter in the other circles. Play some music (portable tape recorder or CD player) and have the child walk around the circle stepping on the lettered circles. When the music stops, the child stops. If he is on a Yy, he yells Y.
• Eat a York Peppermint patty.
• Glue yarn into Yy shaped paper.
• Make some small yarn balls and tape Yy’s onto yogurt cups. Have student throw yarn balls into yogurt cups.

Z

• Make a Z Zoo. Use those clear plastic pages that have about 9 or so pockets for baseball-like cards. Make thin black lines on the pockets for the bars on the cage. Have the child sort through letters that were written onto paper and will fit into the ‘cages’ (or use foam letters) to find the Zz’s. Child puts a Z in each “cage” at the Zoo.
• In another “Z - Zoo” the child could make his own Z’s given paper that will fit into the pockets, to put into the zoo.
• Try making a Z using 3 Zippers. Prepare the Z by using hot glue to attach 3 zippers into the shape of a Z onto a piece of cardboard and the child can open and close the Zippers.

» More Gazette articles...