Thanks for spending the summer with Supermom! I hope you’ll enjoy Day 3 of the Summer with Supermom series! Each day I will be providing you with an idea you can do with your kids! Today’s idea can be adapted to almost any location. This is a great game to play on the road, at home, or while running errands. I love that it allows you to make the most of ANY situation. I love turning an ordinary experience into learning time with my kids! I hope you will too. Have fun!!
Day Three
Activity: Letter Hunt
Suitable For: 2+
Skills: Letter recognition
How To: Take your child on a letter hunt! Whether you are at home, at the grocery store, or in the car, have your child search for the letters in the alphabet. You can have your child find them sequentially, or at random. Today with my three year old, I just told him to look for letters and shout them out as he saw them. He pointed out the big letters on the wall, the small letters on packaging…If I saw a letter nearby, I would ask him to try to find it. Getting your child to simply be aware of the letters around them, not only builds their interest, but helps them learn multiple letters in context…a print rich environment is critical to early reading skills! (Point out letters and words whenever you can! Getting off my teacher soap-box now!) In the car, have your child look at license plates, signs, passing buildings, etc. The home is an excellent place to play this game as well, as your child may not initially be aware of all the places he/she can find letters at home.
Extensions: For older children, have them search for items that start with the letter, rather than simply the letter itself. (Ie-ant, baseball, catcher, dugout, etc.)You can also have kids look for things that END with the letter (ending sounds tends to be a trickier concept for most kids, so this would be great to work on!) (Ie-bananA, coB, plastiC, etc.)
Examples: You can print out this handy-dandy letter hunt sheet to use in the car or at the store! Letter Hunt Have your child cross off each letter as they find it. If you want to re-use the sheet, simply slip it into a plastic page protector, and use a dry-erase marker.
