I found these awesome rolls of paper a few weeks ago–cheap!–so I picked up a bunch, and I’m having a blast using them in fun ways with Maddy, Owen, and Cora. Last week before our several straight days of rain hit, I spread out the rolls on our back porch, and we went on a large-scale Alphabet Hunt in our very own back yard. Gone are the days of our teeny-tiny “On-the-Road-Alphabet Hunts“. (Until we’re back on the road, I suppose!)
We’re starting summer in a big way over here. . .
- Backyard Alphabet Hunt: All I did was roll out a huuuuge part of the paper, and I wrote the first half of the alphabet on it, with a line between each letter. Then I wrote the second half of the alphabet on a second sheet and put it under the first. I secured each end of paper with a bucket, and said,
Preschool’s out, and I want to see if my smart kiddos can still remember the alphabet! Let’s go on an Alphabet Hunt right here in our backyard for things that begin with each letter.
Look what I have here–a ‘leaf’. What sound do you hear at the beginning of ‘leaf’? Lllleaf? Right–/l/. What letter makes that sound? You got it! ‘L’! So I’m going to put this leaf under ‘L’. Do you think we can find something in our backyard for every letter?
We found tons of stuff at first–glove and grass for ‘G’, a (gulp!) rubber duck in the sandbox for ‘D’, a plate (not sure why or where it was, exactly) for ‘P’, some (gulp, again. . .it sounds like we live in a junkyard) trash for ‘T’.After a while, everyone lost steam–Owen started riding around the porch on his big wheel, Maddy got stuck building castles in the sandbox, and Cora wouldn’t stop twirling on the swings. I let them go–I didn’t want to push it if they weren’t into it, so I just kept our hunt papers out for a day, and the very next morning at breakfast, Maddy said, We forgot about our hunt!
So we quickly finished eating and ran out to work on it.
We got close–we couldn’t find things for some letters, but everyone had a good time, and that’s what counts. I think we’ll try it again, maybe with numbers like our Backyard Number Boxes a while back. Any time we can mix fun learning with a sunny day is a bonus in my book.
And I’m keeping my eyes open for other uses of these ginormous rolls of paper. I’ll see what I can come up with–any ideas, send them my way!
Great idea! Don't think my kids are quite old enough yet (or maybe "mature" would be the better word). It's on mental file now though.
Good idea! Aiden would love this!
My favorite blogs have been tagged and you are one of them here in my blog 🙂
http://storytime-storytime.blogspot.com/
That is so creative. I bet it was so much fun that they didn't even realize they were learning! You are very creative in your teaching ways and I love it! Thanks for sharing.
(Nanny here) I've done your backyard letter boxes with my 4 year old charge, and she had SO much fun with it! I read your blog daily to see what new games I can bring with me to work. Thank you so much!
Oops, I wrote letter boxes when I meant number boxes. 🙂
Great idea!