You may remember the alphabet drawings we did together last year (I shared some *here* and *here*). Over the last few weeks we have started a new series of alphabet pictures. First, E will paint dots on letters like these, although I have been drawing my own for her. When it's dry (usually the following day) I'll cut around the letters and we'll use them as part of a letter collage like this:
We collect pictures starting with the correct letter from catalogues (junk-mail is good for something) and draw and colour some more of our own. They're all cut out and collected together to make each collage and I write the words on little pieces of paper to be stuck on, too. We use A3 size paper, often that's already been painted, such as this one for the letter C that E painted using a carrot instead of a brush.
Another series that we have started is making animal pictures for each letter. Generally, I'll draw an outline of an animal and E will use some creative method to decorate it. So far we've done an alpaca with a cotton-wool fleece, a manatee with crepe-paper skin (and googly eyes), a tortoise with an egg-shell shell and a cockatoo made of paper pieces with a hand-print crest.
We'll then choose a name for our animal starting with the letter we're working on. I'll write it on a piece of paper to be displayed with the picture, writing the key letter (however many times it occurs) in a different colour for emphasis.
E has also been practising her pre-writing skills with her collection of dry-erase tracing books and had a go at using her finger to write letters in a sand-tray.
There's always her giant, foam alphabet floor puzzle and alphabet fridge magnets to play with, too.
-Polly
