Literacy
Beginning Sounds and Letter Tracing Worksheets
These printables come from the Education and Kids Learning Station websites, respectively. We like to start off our weekly letter units with these pages. Great introduction to the letter Z!
Creating a Story
Z isn't a very common beginning letter in a preschooler's vocabulary. But I came up with six for this activity, and printed off a clip-art image for each. Then Honey Pot and I took turns creating a story, using all six each time! This actually went on for longer than I expected. She really got creative with these!
Math and Cognitive Skills
Z is for Zigzag - Giant Dot-to-Dot
We went out to the driveway and created a giant dot-to-dot with chalk. The final result was a zigzag shape. Honey Pot loves connect-the-dot activities. I love how this worked more on large motor skills, instead of fine motor skills. And she enjoyed it too!
Z is for Zero - Pennies Game
This fun idea comes from Preschool Alphabet. I printed off the large Z, and filled each circle with numbers from 0-5. Then Honey Pot had to put that number of pennies into each circle. It really emphasized the meaning of the quantity of zero, which turned out to be incredibly beneficial for her. Fun game, and she loved stacking those pennies!
Craft - Z is for Zebra
Then she placed her paper on top and pushed down gently.
While letting the paint set for a minute, Honey Pot asked to put her hands in there. She loves sensory bins! After a few minutes, I scraped the excess shaving cream off of the paper with the back of a butter knife.
Later, once it had dried, I cut out the zebra. Honey Pot practiced her scissor skills and made grass while she waited.
Then she glued it onto a blue background.
And glued her zebra to her landscape. Add a googly eye too!
We stepped over to the refrigerator to sound out and spell the word ZEBRA with her magnets, so she could write it at the top of her paper.
All finished!
Science
Cooking - Z is for Zucchini
Despite the large variety of desserts you can make with zucchini, I wanted to take a break from baking sweets for a moment. Instead we made Cheesy Zucchini from How Does She? Honey Pot helped with the mixing, and the adding of cheese! I took two process photos, but forgot to take a picture of the finished dish. Oops! In any event, the kids liked it enough to take a few bites. It's a vegetable, so I'll take what I can get! Next time, we make the zucchini brownies!
Social Studies and Social Skills
Z is for Zoo - Habitat Game
For our social studies day today, we created our very own zoo, and Honey Pot was the zookeeper! First I printed off four landscapes, and glued them into a shoebox. I used a hole-punch to create holes along each side. Then Honey Pot created the animal cages by threading string through them.
I taped each end of the string so it would stay in place. Then it was time to play! I hid images of animals throughout the room, and told Honey Pot that the animals had escaped from their cages. As zookeeper, it was her job to go find them, and return them to their habitats. She took her brother's safari truck, and went in search of the animals.
Then we came back to the zoo cages, for her to match the animals to their habitats. She identified each one correctly as dessert, jungle, ocean and arctic. And then she put each animal in its cage.
Here they are! Such fun!
She was so pleased, she wanted her picture taken with them!
Z is for Zipper - Skills
Honey Pot has known how to pull zippers up and down for a while now. But when it came to getting them started, she hadn't had much practice. We worked on that today. She put on a sweater and we went over the correct method. She did it without a problem!
Sensory + Music
Sensory - Z's in the Salt Tray
For a quick sensory activity this week, we pulled out Honey Pot's salt tray and she made Z's and zigzags.
Z is for Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!
We learned a new song today, and fun movements to go along with it. It is called Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and here is where I learned it. It goes like this:
Zoom, zoom, zoom! We're going to the moon.
Zoom, zoom, zoom! We're going to the moon.
If you want to take a trip, climb aboard my rocket ship.
Zoom, zoom, zoom! We're going to the moon.
In 5...4...3...2...1...BLAST OFF!
Honey Pot loved it, and learned it very quickly. We did it a few times together.
And we have finally finished our alphabet! Shame on me for allowing it to take so long, but we did get so many other themes throughout that time too. Now we can take our new preschool curriculum and move onto other things!
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