Week 1

Letter A

Lesson Instructions

Printable Worksheets

Additional Resources

Introduction

This guide will take you through your first literacy lesson with your child! Or if you’ve already tried introducing reading lessons and your child resisted the process, try this!

You want your child to LOVE to read! So this lesson presents learning beginning reading through activities that are typically fun for preschoolers and kindergarteners.

A foundation of love for reading is the beginning of a lifelong journey of self-directed learning for your child! Once they know how to read, they can learn about almost anything!

Lesson Prep

Print the letter A instructions and worksheets digital downloads, linked above.

Materials needed: Glue, scissors, crayons, yarn, sequins(optional), wiggle eyes(optional), background page to glue craft onto.

For some younger children, depending on their ability to cut, you may want to cut out all the letters and shapes beforehand.

Practice beforehand how you will explain and demonstrate to your child how to complete the craft.

Keep in mind that the goal is not for the child’s craft to be perfect, and it is not wrong if they choose to do it differently than I have it pictured in my example!

Adult supervision is required to ensure the child is able to safely handle the materials and is given help when needed.

Folding the paper to cut a hole for sticking the scissors through is one technique for cutting the center of the letter out.

Fold the upper and lower-case A sheet in the middle dotted line so that thecapital appears on one side and the lower case appears on the other side.

Day 1 Lesson Plan:

Letter A Alphabet Craft

Skills practiced:

Child practices recognizing letter A by spending time cutting it out, holding it, gluing it (fine motor skills), and transforming it into a memorable animal, an alligator! Child hears and practices the sound of letter A.

Step One:

Introduce the Letter A to your child by showing them the capital letter and saying: this is letter A

Step Two:

Introduce the sound letter A makes by saying: A says a, a-a-a. Say it with me, a-a-a.

Step Three:

Show your child the picture of the alligator and ask them: what animal is this? …Yes this is an alligator. AAAAlligator, a-a-a alligator has letter a in it. AAA-aaalligator (point to the A at the beginning of the word and run your finger under the word as you say it). Ask your child to say it with you again as you run your finger under it. (If your child doesn’t want to say it with you, no big deal.)

Step Four:

Your child cuts out letter A (unless you already did). Give them as much help as they need. Practice the sounds of Letter A again with the paper letter they have cut out.

Step Five:

Tell your child they will get to decorate the letter A as an alligator. Show them the picture of the finished project and explain to them what the pieces are that they need to cut out. Help them cut out the pieces and show them where to glue them and assist them as needed.

Step Six:

Celebrate the completed craft and practice AAAligator starts with A, a-a-aalligator.

Step Seven:

Let the craft dry and find a prominent place to hang/display it!

Day 2 Lesson Plan:

Lower Case A

Skills practiced:

Child practices recognizing upper and lower case letter a by seeing a display of the upper and lower case letter and practices the sound of letter A. Child colors a picture of apple (fine motor skill).

Step One: Review the alligator craft on display. Asking the child what animal it is and what sound we hear at the beginning of its same. Indicate that the alligator may be hungry and wants to eat something that starts with letter A.

Step Two: Take out the upper case letter A side of the folded paper and practice the sound of the letter and ask the child to think of something that starts with A that the alligator could eat.

Step Three: Reveal the lower case side of the folded sheet and ask what picture is on it and what sound does it start with. This is what the alligator is hungry for! Tell the child in order to feed it to the alligator they need to color it in.

Step Four: While your child is coloring in the apple, help them to notice the letter on the page and tell them that that is also letter A. It is lower case A. Or sometimes with small children I call it little A. It also says ‘a’ like capital(big) A.

Step Five: Practice A says a, a-a-a. Apple starts with ‘a’, a-a-apple.

Step Six: Cut out the colored in apple and have the child bring the colored in sheet to be displayed next to the alligator so that the alligator can eat it when he gets hungry.

Day 3 Lesson Plan:

Writing Letter A

Skills Practiced: Child practices the writing strokes that create the upper and lower case letter by tracing with various materials (for this lesson it is yarn but you can glue a different material or trace with finger if you don’t have yarn).

Step One: With the Writing Letter A print out, have your child apply glue to the first stroke line of capital A and stick a piece of yarn of the same length onto it. Repeat with all strokes on capital A and then do the same with lower case A.

Step Two: Ask your child what letter this is and which is the capital/lower, as well as what sound they make. Ask them what words they can think of that start with A. Remind them of alligator and apple if they need help and assist them in finding other words that start with the same sound.

Step Three: Come back to paper when it is dry and practice tracing the yarn with pointer finger.

Step Four: Other fun ways to practice writing is in the sand, with chalk, molding with

playdough, etc. If your child is ready, have them practice tracing or writing the

letters with a marker, crayon or pencil. A couple resources with larger letters

to start with can be found below.

Handwriting Resource with Larger Letters

A great resource with larger letters to start with can be found here:

Free lowercase handwriting pages

Free uppercase handwriting pages

Bonus: Math Activity

Materials: Two dice, white board and dry erase markers (or paper and markers).

1) Roll both dice

2) Copy the dots for each amount onto white board and place the addition sign in between.

3) Write the numerals for each amount below the dots

4) Draw a circle around all the dots(the whole equation) and count them all up together

5) Draw an equal sign to the right of the circle and write the numeral for the sum total Repeat!

Watch it in this video:

Additional Resources

Want the animal letter craft materials mailed to you? Check it out here: https://animallettercrafts.etsy.com/listing/1226439630

I use playdough letter mats (affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4gZ7Vsi) along with this program, the letter mat that matches the letter of the week.

I have used foam letters like these (affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3DIIIUC) since my daughters were one and a half years old. When they were able to identify names of animals and animal sounds I saw they could do the same with letters.

I purchased these cut/paste/color books (affiliate link: https://amzn.to/3Pod95a) and when I began offering the pages to my daughter, she could do them if I helped her and as she got older she began asking to do them and completing them on her own.

I also printed some free line tracing worksheets(or you can make your own) from an online source like this one, https://www.mathworksheets4kids.com/tracing-lines.php, that my daughter worked on before being able to do any letter writing, she was just getting interested in coloring at the time.

Here is a resource for scissors skills: https://amzn.to/40lPk4j

Thank you for your effort to provide a quality education for your child! I am so happy to be supporting parents like you!

Please feel free to email me with any of your questions, feedback and success stories!

[email protected]

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Hey, I am Jolene,

Although I am a new homeschool mom. I do have ten years of teaching experience in various settings. I have been licensed in the areas of Spanish, English as a Second Language and Elementary Education. I have learned through my teaching experience that while there can be a lot of great things happening at mainstream schools, there are also many aspects of the mainstream school experience that are not necessary or are not effective. I am excited to embark on a homeschool journey with my children where I get to craft an experience for them that truly assists them in developing the skills that allow who they are to impact the world around them.