Are you looking for education resources that you can use with your preschooler? I am over the moon thrilled to begin sharing a letter of the week activity for preschoolers with you.

I homeschool four of our boys. We use Sonlight’s awesome preschool curriculum which is full of memory making literature experiences. A few years back I became hungry to add more alphabet crafts to our routine for my youngest.  This got me thinking, if I am looking for these activities for kids, you are too!  I just did not have time to create the curriculum or activities from scratch.

It only made sense to reach out to fellow mom blogger Anna who has her MEd in Curriculum & Instruction with a focus on literacy. Her passion is to teach reading. It is absolutely a blessing to have her here!

Anna has created a letter of the week craft for the entire alphabet and in each post she includes books, songs and play ideas that we can incorporate with this craft.

Over the course of the last few years we’ve also added in handprint art, larger book lists, handwriting practice and more! All of these links for letter A are at the end of this post.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Letter A template printed on colored paper
• Alligator teeth template and printed letter A’s – or A’s cut out of magazines or foam letters
• 2 white circles (I used a circle punch)
• green construction paper squares
• black marker
• scissors
• glue stick or bottle

1. Apply glue to the letter A.  I prefer glue sticks because they’re less messy, but my kids did need to reapply the glue as they worked.

2. Attach green “scales” to create your alligator.

3. Cut out the alligator teeth.  Depending on the age/ability of your preschooler, you may need to help with this.  My 2-year-old, 4-year-old, and almost 6-year-old were doing this craft together.  My youngest insisted on doing some cutting himself — but as he cannot cut on lines yet, I did most of the cutting for him.

4. Glue the teeth inside the alligator’s mouth.  This was a bit tough for my 2-year-old, who didn’t quite get how to line the teeth up along the mouth.  I was so busy helping him I forgot to get a picture of this step – whoops!

5. Draw  a black circle or oval inside each white circle for the eyes.

6. Attach eyes to the alligator.

6. Feed letter A’s to the alligator by gluing them inside his mouth.  You can cut these out of magazines, use stickers, or use the printable.

My daughter, who is just finishing kindergarten, drew them herself.  Your preschooler may want to do the same.

7. And here our are finished projects 🙂

Here are just a few ideas to expand your letter A exploration:

Fingerplay for letter A:

Way up high in the apple tree (arms stretched up  high)
Two little apples smiled at me (point to cheeks)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (pretend to shake tree)
Down came the apples (make downward motion with arms)
Mmm, they were good! (rub stomach)

Song for letter A (my  kids love this one):

Oh, I wish I was a marching army ant.
Oh, I wish I was a marching army ant.
Oh, I’d marchy way up high, 
Until I could touch the sky.
Oh, I wish I was a marching army ant.  

(from DLTK-teach.com)

Favorite books for letter A: 

Henry’s Awful Mistake, by Robert Quackenbush

This wonderful story was one of my childhood favorites. I’m afraid that buying it new might be impossible (unless you want to pay waaay too much money), but do check your library!  Henry the duck is having his friend Clara over for dinner, when he sees an ant.  He tries to smash the ant with a frying pan, but it gets away.  In all his efforts to get the ant, he smashes a hole in his wall, breaks a pipe, and floods his house.  A little dramatic, but a great story — and it has a nice ending. 🙂

“I Can’t!” Said the Ant, by Polly Cameron

Here’s another book that’s hard to find new, but your library should carry it.  Younger children might not appreciate this because the pictures are not colorful, but your older preschooler might love the story and all the interesting rhymes.  The teapot falls and needs help getting up… all the items in the kitchen try to help.  “Get a batallion! said the scallion…”  I’m a huge fan of rhyming books for kids.  They are so important for getting your child ready to read.

Ants, by Melvin & Gilda Berger

Please, snatch up any of these little readers from Melvin & Gilda Berger that you can find.  This kind of nonfiction is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.  When I was teaching these types of books made reading nonfiction possible for my earliest readers.

Apples, by Samantha Berger

My 4 1/2 year old is just learning to read, and this was the first book he could read by himself.  He was so proud!  If your child can read numbers, he can read this book.  On each page is a famous work of art featuring apples.  “1 apple…2 apples….3 apples…”

Tools for Teaching Preschool at Home:

Buy all 26 weeks of Letter of the Week Crafts for Preschoolers here.

Love hand print art? Check out our 26 weeks of hand print art that goes with each letter of the alphabet!