Letter F Preschool Unit

“Down By The Pond” by A.A. Milne from Now We Are Six

“Gollum’s Song” from Poems from The Lord of the Rings

“June 30” from When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons

“The Days of the Week” by Elsa Beskow from Around the Year

Phonics, play, large motor skills

Supplies:

• Fishing pole: stick + string + magnet
• Cut fish shapes from construction paper
• Paperclips (for the mouth of the fish)
• Letter F 3-Part Cards via Treehouse Schoolhouse

We hid sea creatures in a water bead bin, fished for them and counted as we went (matching numbers to numerals). And: we just played a ton! We all loved these water beads so much — though be warned that they *bounce* around! I put towels down to catch them as they fell.

Supplies:

• Water beads (I have two kids so for two large bins 1/2 cup of dry beads was plenty!)
• Small toy sea creatures (we have a mix of these and these and the goldfish that looks like Otto from “A Fish Out of Water” is from the pets TOOB)
• Learning Resources Handy Scoopers
• Counting cards via The Peaceful Preschool

Fine motor skills, concentration, and strengthening muscles in the mouth (for speech).

I can’t even explain how hilarious we all found this to be! Such a fun and simple game!! Do it immediately.

Phonics, play, fine motor skills

Fish by Walsh is this lovely wordless picture book — I was surprised by how much my son was taken with this story. He loved it so much that *he* had the idea to reenact the story using Duplos. I helped find pieces to create the letters and then he reenacted the story. For the record: Duplos are one of our favorite toys. So many possibilities for imaginative play!

Counting skills & fine motor skills.

Two great books for Fish-themed counting: Ten Little Fish (Wood) and Fish Eyes (Ehlert).

Sensory play, color identification & mixing, science

Note we did end up pouring in just straight warm water to make the fish melt faster towards the end of their play.

Supplies:

• Large sensory bin
• Ice fish from IKEA ice fish mold (in various color)
• Square ice cubes
• Baking soda
• Jars of warm vinegar dyed various colors
• Liquid eyedroppers

Stamp It! Write It! Poke It! via Simply Learning

• F and f sandpaper cards (uppercase and lowercase)
• Foam piece (I got a single piece from a craft store)
• Ink pads
• Uppercase letter F stamps
• Lowercase letter F stamps
• Fish stamps

Stamping Swimmy art piece

Stamping The Rainbow Fish art piece with cut celery pieces (for fish scales). We LOVE this story and read it a ton this week!

I had my son help cut the celery pieces with our Nylon knife set

Paint from IKEA

Idea adapted from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready

I made the three sorting cards which are available as a PDF here if you’d like them.

Supplies:

• 3 plastic bins
• Blue rice for sky + shaving cream clouds
• Dirt bin (black beans, pinto beans, brown rice)
• Water dyed blue (liquid food coloring)
• Small animal figurines (birds, land animals, sea animals) — I placed roughy a dozen of each kind in one tray for my son to sort after we read Fish is Fish and acted out how animals move.

This also brought about a larger conversation about animals that *don’t* fit nicely into these 3 categories: ducks, frogs, flamingos, alligators, etc. So fun!!

Supplies:

• Water beads
• Goldfish toy
• Homemade blue and orange play dough
• Sequins
• Googly eyes
• Fish 3-Part Card via Treehouse Schoolhouse
• F and f sandpaper cards (uppercase and lowercase)

Supplies:

• Reusable dry erase pockets (you could also laminate a sheet or use a sheet protector if you already have those on hand)
• Q-tips to erase (or paper towel)
• Dry erase markers

Supplies:

• Small chalkboard
• F and f sandpaper cards (uppercase and lowercase) — I always demonstrate with the cards first before asking my son to write
• Chalk
• Sponge cut in a small square
• Small bowl of water

I place all of the whole cards in the pocket chart, then supply him with the picture cards and word cards. He then matches the separated words with the pictures on the table (using the whole cards as a guide). This has to be one our favorite ways to work with the 3-Part Cards. I was hesitant at first to buy this Tabletop Pocket Chart, but it’s really been such a huge part of our letter learning that I don’t regret buying it at all!

Supplies:

• Letter F 3-Part Cards via Treehouse Schoolhouse
• Learning Resources Tabletop Pocket Chart

Books used:

• Nature Anatomy pages 196-197
• Golden Guide Pond Life
• Over and Under the Pond