Keep your kiddos busy and engaged this summer with the ABCs of Summer daily activities, snacks, art, and science. Each day focuses on one letter of the alphabet with snacks. art or science, and a physical activity to go along with it.
This post may contain affiliate links for products that I think may be helpful for your summer planning and fun with your little ones.
I was trying to think of a way to keep the kiddos busy this summer as well as help them work on their letter sounds, vocabulary, following directions, and physical activity. So, to give us a bit of inspiration and a jumping off point, I decided to go with a new letter of the alphabet each day. In addition to learning the sounds, practicing writing, and identifying new words, we have an art or science activity, a physical activity, and a snack revolving around the letter of the day.
ABCs of Summer: Letter A
Lesson Plan
Art / Science: Ant Stamps
Physical Activity: The Ants Go Marching
Snack: Applesauce {with an Ant on top}
Additional Activities: Write the letter A with sidewalk chalk, and find A Words in our books
Ant Stamps
This art activity involves coloring a picnic blanked and stamping cute little ants with a pencil eraser. If the child is older, help them write the word “ant” at the top of the picnic blanket
Supplies:
- Construction Paper
- Crayons
- Ink Pad
- Pencil with Eraser
- Ruler
- Pen or Marker
Directions
- Either prepare half sheets of construction paper with the grid for the picnic blanket by using a ruler and a pencil – It’s easiest to use the thickness of the ruler – or, if the child is older, he or she can do this themselves
- With crayons, color the picnic blanket
- With the eraser of a pencil and an ink pad, stamp three dots close together all over the paper
- After allowing the ink to dry, add legs with a pen or marker
- At the top of the page write the letter A and the word Ant. If the child is able, they can write it themselves or you can help them to write the letters.
If you don’t have your supplied ready in time for this art project, see the additional activities below. I used the time I needed to prep the grids for the picnic blankets and had the kids draw the letter ‘A’ in sidewalk chalk.
The Ants Go Marching
This is a popular children’s song that lends itself easily to movement and action. It involved counting and different actions that the kids can act out. (If you are unfamiliar with the song, you can get The Ants Go Marching song on this album from Amazon)
The kids march to the beat of the song around the yard and act out each of the different actions. Also, squat “down to the ground” and march back up during the “boom boom boom” portion of each verse.
Snack: Applesauce with an ant inside
There are so many different options for A snacks. Sticking with the ant theme, Ants on a Log are a kid favorite. We didn’t have celery in the house, so I was going to substitute a “rock” with an apple slice, but we were out of those as well!
The kids had some apple sauce with a surprise ant inside. Turns out, they loved this unconventional pairing and asked for even more “ants” in their applesauce!
Additional Activities
Writing the Letter ‘A’ in Sidewalk Chalk
Tailoring it to your little one’s ability, its nice to incorporate not only letter recognition and sounds, but writing as well. An easy way to make this fun is to use sidewalk chalk.
Give them an example to follow. It also helps greatly to demonstrate one or two in front of them. If needed, creating dots to connect, lines to trace, or even lines like paper to give a guide will help. Always, always, always be encouraging and find strengths to praise along the way, especially if it is a new or difficult task for them!
I have a 4 year old who is doing pretty well with writing letters, and a 3 year old who is a little newer to it. Both needed an example drawn in front of them and some direction, but I also used dots and tracing to help out my 3yo.
Finding ‘A’ Words in Books
Any book will do, but books with recognizable pictures and objects will help a lot. Go through them with the kiddos and find words that begin with the letter ‘A.’ Make it fun and talk about the words and write them on a sheet of paper. Again, make sure to praise every attempt.
We found a book, “My Fun with Words” that we looked through to find ‘A’ words. We wrote them on a piece of construction paper with a capital and lowercase ‘A.’ It would also be great to use a children’s encyclopedia.
What are you doing to stay busy with the kids this summer? Do you have any ideas for me?
Stay tuned for the letter B!
More Like This
Only registered users can comment.