Make or purchase a coconut tree
and make large posters of upper and lower case letters. Assign or
have students choose one letter of the alphabet per kid. Send home
an upper and lower case letter poster and disposable camera.
Ask that one adult family member to hold the upper case letter
while the student holds the lower case letter. Take picture
and return camera and letter to school. After film is
developed, display pictures on tree. This activity and
display will help the students identify the upper case letter as
"mamas, papas, uncles, aunts" and the lower case letter
as the "kid". An easier alternative would be to
have student bring in a picture of an important adult in their
family and a picture of themselves. Pair adult picture and
upper case letter with child picture and lower case letter and add
to tree. Trees can be purchased from
Carson Dellosa |
As letters are introduced or
mastered in the classroom, add them to an on-going bulletin
board. Each time I introduced a letter, we reread (or sang
along with the story--Ray Charles reads it aloud first) Chicka
Chicka Boom Boom. One student matched the upper and lower
case letter; another used descriptive language to tell us where to
staple the letter (top left branch; bottom right leaf in the
middle, etc.)
|
| Make
headbands: Glue pre-made coconut trees into center of green
headband. Have student choose an upper case letter and matching
lower case letter and glue onto headband. Students can then
arrange themselves into alphabetical order (you may have to enlist
more children or other adults to complete the alphabet) and act
out the story with corresponding motions. |
Have
a discussion about how the upper case and lower case letters look.
Do they look the same? How, why? How are they
different? Sort the letters in a Venn diagram:
differently shaped upper and lower case in the outside circles;
same shaped upper and lower case in the center overlap. |
Using magnetic letters,
have students sort and match upper and lower case letters. |
Give each student a different
upper case letter precut from heavy paper. Have them
decorate the letter with corresponding lower case letters (foam,
stickers, paper, etc.). |
Several choices for this
project: 1. students can match colorful circle stickers
pre-printed with upper and lower case letters and place onto tree
(can be made from torn paper, pre-cut shapes, or painted); 2.
upper and lower case letters can be added to tree as student
masters identifying each letter; 3. pre-written circle stickers
can be sorted, then pasted on each side: upper case on left and
lower case on right; |
Match letters on a workmat:
individually bag the letter tiles needed for each workmat.
Students choose a mat and corresponding bag and match the letter
tiles to the printed letters on the mat. Workmats can be
printed from http://thelearningleap.com
just follow the units and themes link at the top to Chicka
Chicka. |
Available from the Oriental Trading Company
http://www.oriental.com/
|
Available from Lakeshore Learning:
http://www.lakeshorelearning.com
 |
My
Parent and Me Handprints:
Paint palms of student and adult. Print upper case letter on
adult print, lower case letter on child's print. Display together. |
Coconut
Match:
Make 52 paper coconuts. Program each coconut with either an
upper case or lower case letter. Students can use the coconuts to
match the upper case and corresponding lower case letters. The
coconuts may also be displayed on a bulletin board in pairs. |
Tree Trunk to Tree Top Match:
Cut brown tree trunks and green tree tops. Program the tops
of the trees with an upper case letter and the tree trunks with
lower case letters. Students can then make complete trees by
matching the correct tree top to tree bottom. Printables
available here:
http://www.kinderhive.net/septextras.html
|
Another
book to read along with this one:
|
Link
to printable upper and lower case alphabet cards for use as flash
cards or in games such as Concentration and Go Fish:
http://www.fastq.com/%7Ejbpratt/
education/theme/phonics/abcgamecolor.pdf
|
Upper
and Lower Case Alphabet Flip Books:
Stack a set of upper case letters (3 inches by 3 inches) one on
top of another. Punch a hole in the top and secure with a
ring. Do the same with a set of lower case letters. Using a
piece of oaktag 3 X 6 inches, punch holes in top to correspond
with the holes in the letter sets. Place upper case letter
set on left side of oaktag; lower case on right. Oaktag is
secured behind, with the two rings going through the holes in the
oaktag. Students can use flip cards/pages to find the
matching upper and lower case letters, then read. |
