Letter Ll: Music

We study each letter for two weeks.

Here is the music we had for the
Letter Ll

The first song we did was a favorite classic of mine. I LOVE it because it teaches how to spell the word LOVE while introducing my kiddos to Jazz & Blues :) Of course I'm talking about Nat King Cole's L-O-V-E song!!

My Little Shortcake LOVED dancing to Nat King Cole!!





Part of our Bible time is also music time. I just love Steve Green's music! It is such a great way to have little one's learn bible verses!

This week we are learning Deuteronomy 6:5a NIV. "Love the LORD your God with all your heart." Steve Green's song "You Shall Love the Lord" is set to Matthew 22:37 but it was still a perfect match!!


During our first L week, we learned that Ll is for ladybug. I found this really cute video/song from Little Fingers that Play: Little Ladybug. This ladybug loses her spots and collects them counting from 1-10. This went perfect with learning ten this week! If I had ambition, I could totally see this with a felt ladybug with black felt spots to do as we sang this song!




During our second L week, we focused on Ll is for leaf. I found this song from Great Worship Songs for Kids 4 called "Autumn's A Song".

It talks about the seasons and how God has blessed us with Harvest time. The Autumn colors remind us that God is the giver of beautiful things. "Autumn's a song creation sings".







Since we are talking about Ll is a ladybug and the colors of fall, we are talking about the color red for these 2 weeks.

When I taught First Grade, I loved using Frog Street's Colors books and songs! We sang "I Can Spell Red". It talks about how firetrucks and stop signs are red!



I Can Spell Red
(tune of Are You Sleeping)

R-E-D red, R-E-D red,
I can spell red.
I can spell red.
Firetrucks are red.
Stop signs are red too.
R-E-D, R-E-D


(I wish they had this in MP3 format though so I could have them right on my MP3 player!)

Hope you find this to be helpful while teaching your little ones! Feel free to leave a link or comment if you have other suggestions for other readers.

Now I Know My ABC's

Getting started with letters is a little more tricky. There is no time like "potty time" to get started. When you are making those billion 5-10 minute trips to the potty, it's a perfect time to have some learning time.

As soon as my daughter was introduced to the potty I put an ABC strip up on the wall. Any time we sat down I would quiz her. We started with the letters in her name. We also pointed to the letters while we sang the ABC songs.

There are several alphabet songs you can choose from. We kept it interesting and used all of them.
     Alphabet song---traditional
     Super Why's ABC song
     Jesus ABCs
     Christian ABCs
     Elmo's ABCs
     Elmo's ABC rap

As soon as she learned the 5 letters of her name, we started adding more letters until she knew all 26. About every 1-3 days we added a new letter.

Driving is a perfect time to get your little one practicing their letters. The McDonald's arches, letters on highway signs, and of course you can't miss the car brand letters: H for Honda, F for Ford and V for Volkswagen!


Searching cereal boxes and magazines are great ways to practice letters. We love the Zoobies and Zootles magazines from Zoobooks. We learn about animals and have fun with letters too!

We love our alphabet cookie cutters too. We use them with cookies and play dough. I believe I found my set at Goodwill for $1.

My daughter also loves Starfall. It's a website full of ABC learning. Not only is she getting experience with letters and beginning sounds, but she is also getting computer learning in too!



One of my other favorites are the LeapFrog Alphabet movies. They are cute, fun and educational!!! I LOVE the farm one!!

 


Some great toys from LeapFrog that encourage independent practice:


 You can find other ideas on my Pinterest board: Now I know my ABCs.

     

Starting with Phonics

My daughter is 4 now so we are starting to home school a little more intentionally. The nice thing is that she knows all of her alphabet and sounds, so there is less pressure for us to move through a curriculum...which is really nice since I am nearly 7 mos. pregnant with number 3.

Here is where we were last year:
Our Starting Point

When I taught Kindergarten and First Grade, our school used a curriculum called Saxon Phonics. Many of you may have heard of Saxon Math curriculum which is known for its repetition. I had experience with the First Grade Saxon Math and I was not a real fan. It seemed that many of the kids did not think critically going through the curriculum which is so important for Mathematics. However, I LOVE the Saxon Phonics program.

When I was growing up I learned to read with the whole word method, so phonics was never a part of my "tool box". Luckily I was good at memorizing, but I hated to read and I always struggled with new words. I had no idea how to sound them out. When I started teaching this curriculum I really learned a lot.  I like how simple this curriculum is for the teacher too :)

Here is the Saxon Phonics & Spelling classroom package

I LOVE their readers, decoding, and progression through material. My kindergartners would start reading by week 3 of the curriculum!!!! All of my students were so successful with this curriculum. The only down side for me are their worksheets. I'm not a big worksheet fan anyways, especially since we can just do some board work while homeschooling. I will be using a pre-cursive handwriting system with her and adding some creative writing as we get further along.

I purchased the Homeschooling version K-2 off of eBay as I found deals and I have to say I wasn't as impressed. It needs a little updating. I think my versions might just be older. So...I've searched Amazon and eBay for their classroom readers and some of their flash cards to use with my homeschooling curriculum.

Decodable reader

This is a first grade decodable reader from  the teacher/school version of Saxon. These are available for each grade. They are great because the go along with what you are learning each week including any sight words and letter/ digraph/ dipthong/combination. I also love that it includes all the things they have learned up until that point too. It really gives kids confidence when they know they can pick up the book and tackle it. These black and white copies are great for allowing them to highlight sight words or find letters in the story too! LOVE LOVE LOVE THESE!


Here is another homeschooling Mom's review of Saxon.

This is the homeschooling version of Saxon Phonics K.

We just moved into our new house, so I am hoping to have our homeschooling area set up by this weekend, but I may be pushing it :)

We will be starting with the letter Ll (when we are settled) and focusing on each letter for 2 weeks. You may be wondering why we are starting with the letter Ll. I know many may think, wouldn't you just start with A and work through Z? Saxon Phonics starts with Ll, Oo and Gg. Ll and Oo are a great place to start because they make up the basic parts of all the letters with the straight line and the circle. Also, it is great because the first word you read is "log". Then, when you add Hh, you have "log" and "hog".

We are spending 2 weeks on each letter because I want to have time to be able to plan and have lots of fun with letter activities. As I find letter activities, I will be updating my Pinterest board "Now I Know My ABC's" so feel free to look around. I will also post some of my favorites for each letter!!

So...here's to getting started with a true homeschooling year!