Monday, February 06, 2012

Craft Fun: Alligator & Apple Paper Craft

Today, we had some craft fun with 'Alligator' and 'Apple' to reinforce the letter A. While I planned for the craft activities beforehand, I didn't follow any lesson plan and let the session progress in an impromptu way.


EV loves painting, so we started off with a Do-A-Dot printable from Homeschool Creations, which has pictures of two words that start with A - alligator and apple. Instead of just using a brush, I got EV to do finger painting with a circular motion of the thumb & pointer fingers. After the sheet was complete, she wanted to continue, so I gave her a large A3 sheet and let her paint at will, while asking her which colour she wanted to use. She could identify the main colours, and blue seemed to be her favourite. Maybe it's because the word is easier to pronounce.




Perhaps the finger printing reminded EV of her previous sessions. She ran to the projects that we did and pointed to it. I took the opportunity to briefly run through the 'a' feely card, which she knows quite well by now. Then asked her to point out the different images. She could identify ant, alligator, ax, anchor and arrow successfully. I was pleasantly surprised because ax, anchor and arrow are new words to her. So this way, I know she's absorbing what she's being taught.


As EV loved music, I played the 'Ants on my ankle' phonics song. The apple and alligator paper craft that followed were all inspired by Homeschool Creations. I used paper for both projects, and the materials needed are simple, just construction paper in red, green and white, and magic pens. I cut out the red circle for the apple, the white apple core, and the green letter A in advance.


For the apple craft, I got EV to rip the red circle in half, but she actually ripped out a smaller section. So we just ripped out what was remaining, and pasted the two smaller sections to make a half. Then we pasted it all together so that the apple appears to be eaten. EV used black magic pen to draw the seeds. I then sang the rhyme 'Way up in the apple tree', and pretended to eat the apple when the rhyme reached 'Hmm... were they good!'. EV got it immediately, and then followed my actions, and pretended to eat.


For the alligator craft, EV helped to draw the eyes. She didn't seem interested in pasting the triangular teeth, and was more interested in 'eating' the apple, so I did it instead. Once the craft was complete, I showed it to her and said 'A for alligator'. This time, she was interested, took out a green pen, and wanted to trace the letter, which we did together.






We read the book 'The ants go marching' together, which is a printed version to complement the song we sang during the 'A for Ant' session. Edited by Ann Owen and illustrated by Sandra D'Antonio, this book brings the song in vivid colours and also teaches counting 1 to 10.




She wanted to write A, which I showed her how. Of course, her A is more like scribbles at the moment. At least I know she's getting an idea of how 'A' and 'a' is formed, and that she seems keen to write it.  EV then requested for the phonics song again, which I played, before she ran off to do more scribbling and doodling on her own. 

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