Tot School Letter A Theme {18-24 months old)

I'm so excited about starting tot school! We started with the letter A and I plan to continue through the rest of the alphabet over the next six months. I'll be using the letter theme as a jumping-off point for the various activities we'll do each week but be assured we'll be learning about a lot more than just the alphabet!


Below I've listed the books and activities we used for our first week of tot school. We didn't quite manage to do everything I had planned, but I wanted to have plenty of ideas to choose from, so I'm not sorry for aiming high. Depending on the age of your child, you may want to do more--or fewer--activities with them. Many of the links below include crafts and activities geared toward older children; you could certainly include them if your child is ready for them. For more information about what tot school is and why we're doing it check out my post about our Tot School Plans for 18-24 Months Old.

Goals for the Week

• learning to identify lowercase and uppercase "A"
• learning the sounds of long and short "A"
• learning new signs
• connecting signs with objects
• using markers/crayons
• fine motor skills 
• learning about colors - sorting different colored apples
• counting - the apples as we sort

I certainly didn't expect Little Buddy to master all of these skills in one week, but having some goals gives us a focus for our tot school activities. Of course the most important goal of all is: to have fun learning!

Activities

Sign Language/Verbal Skills

We forcused on learning a few new signs for words that start with "A":

Again
Apple
Airplane

I ended up deciding to leave "again" to learn later (it's very similar to the sign for more and even I was getting confused by this lol.) He showed zero interest in learning apple but he did seem to pick up airplane!

Books

We like to let our son choose two to three books to have us read to him before his nap and at bedtime, so the books on our weekly book lists won't be the only books we read each week. I will be pulling the books in this list and keeping them separate and handy to read throughout the day as part of our tot school. Books with an * are books we own, the rest we'll be borrowing from the library.

Eating the Alphabet by Lois Ehlert
The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall
I Want to be an Astronaut by Byron Barton
*Planes by Byron Barton
Amazing Airplanes by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker
*Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Lois Ehlert
My First ABC from DK books
*The Amazing Alphabet by
Touch and Feel My First Alphabet from Priddy Books
*Elmo's Learning Adventure Animal Alphabet by Kara McMahon
*Animals Near the Pond
Noisy Baby Animals from Tiger Tales

Skill Building Activities

Use Magnetic Letters

I separated out all of the uppercase and lowercase "A" magnets from this set and we practiced putting them on the magnetic board and taking them off. He seemed more interested later in the week when I put them on the fridge for him to play with as he chose.

Use Three-Part Cards/Flash Cards

I'll be using the three-part cards from the free Letter A Printables set from Simple Learning. (note: This site is so gorgeous and so helpful! I will be using as many of the printables available here as I can in future but for now I'm just using the ones that work best for my son's age and skill set.) At this point he didn't show much interest in matching, but he liked me using them as flash cards.

Apple Sorting and Matching

I printed out the last page of the Letter A Printables set from Simply Learning, laminated it, and cut the apples out individually so that we could sort and match all the red apples and green apples. (In reality, I did all the sorting myself while Little Buddy watched, which I pretty much anticipated.)

Lacing/Fine Motor Skills

I printed letter A lacing pages from the Learning the Alphabet Letter A Printable Pack from thisreadingmama.com. Little Buddy unfortunately showed zero interest in this, but I'm hoping it's just because it was a new concept to him and plan on continuing to give it a try.

Crafts/Snacks/Indoor Fun

Apple Cutting and Snack
We washed, cut and peeled an apple together and then enjoyed it as our afternoon snack. I think Little Buddy really enjoyed this one!

Make and Fly a Paper Airplane
Believe it or not, I don't think I've ever made a paper airplane myself. (Is that really possible??? Maybe I just don't remember...) I planned on using this tutorial to give it a shot, but this was one of the activities that we didn't get to and will save for the future.

Making Almond Butter
I skipped this one because my son gets spooked by the food processor, but I think it will be a fun future project. Here's a great recipe for those of you who would like to try it.

Scavenger Hunt at Home
Look for and point out "A" items around the house. Oops, forgot about this one.

Outdoors

Find an Anthill

My son is fascinated by ants but didn't show much interest when I showed him some anthills. Oh well.

Listen for Airplanes

Anytime we heard an airplane, I showed Little Buddy the sign for airplane and a couple of times he imitated me. He gets really excited when he hears planes going by so his natural interest made this a hit.

Hunt for Acorns

We don't have any oak trees in our yard, so we looked for acorns at a nearby park. Little Buddy wasn't impressed and was more interested in making a dash for the swings. Oh well again.

Field Trips

Visit an Apple Orchard
We stopped at a local orchard and looked at some of the early apples they had along with other goodies.

Scavenger Hunt at the Store
Little Buddy goes with me to the grocery store each week, so I plan on looking for items that start with our current letter, plus different looks for that letter on signage. Unfortunately, I was so rushed at the store this week that this one fell by the wayside.

Resources/Supplies

Here are the free printables we'll be using this week, as well as others that you may find useful. There are also links to the supplies we're using this week in case you'd like to give them a try.

Free Printables

Letter A Printables set from Simple Learning
Apple Color Sorting Mats from totschooling.net
A is for Airplane Printables set from teachingmama.org
Learning the Alphabet Letter A Printable Pack from thisreadingmama.com
My Letter A Book from themeasuredmom.com

You can also find more Letter A activity ideas and links to free printables on my Tot School Letter A Pinterest page. (And feel free to follow me because I'll be creating boards for our future themes as well!)

Supplies

magnetic letter set
twist-up crayons
laminator
laminating sheets

So what do you think of our plan (and reality)? Do you have any fun Letter A activities to share? I'd love to hear your thoughts and suggestions down below.