Back to basics. Q is for...

It's been a while since I have shared some of what I am doing with my lovelies for circle time. This weeks letter has been fun, but a little challenging because not much starts with the letter Q. I know there ARE plenty of words, but I mean words that Ruby, Bells and K can understand. I try to use words that the kids can experience or have seen. As beautiful as a Quail probably is, to my kids it just looks like a bird. And bird... does not start with Q. So, I had to get creative with my limited choice of vocabulary. Here is just a little of what I have done.


We always start learning our letters the same way. Looking at it, trying to make our bodies look like it, looking at words in our word book that start with it and usually coloring it. This week was no different so I will spare you that part and get to the things that really connected with the kids. For example, Q is for Queen!

I have a queen cape from a previous Halloween Costume that came in VERY handy this week. Looks like my tendency to hoard worked to my advantage this time. We talked about what a queen was and colored a picture of one. THEN, we played Queen says, also known as Simmon says. It was great. All day long all I had to do was say, "Queen says..." and it got done! It was AWESOME. So, I used it to my advantage with cleaning up the playroom, sitting in their spots at meals, and various other tasks that are usually like pulling teeth to accomplish. It's not rocket science, I know, but in my house... it was mind blowing! I'm keeping that one in my bag of tricks.

The second activity I wanted to share with you is Q is for Quilt! I took construction paper and cut it into squares. Then, I let the kids paint, color, and put stickers on each one of the squares. We practiced taking turns, which is pretty difficult at this age, but the kids were really excited about painting and using stickers, so they followed directions knowing if they didn't they would miss out on the fun.












You can see the complete concentration in their faces. It really was amazing how long this activity held their attention.

Next, I let the kids go play and I put the quilt together. I was planning on having the children help with that part, but they had pretty much used up all of their concentration on making the patches of the quilt. As you can see, Ruby is already taking her apron off.  I was so proud of their hard work. I didn't mind giving them the wiggle and snack break. It also gave me a chance to clean everything up without little people asking me a million questions.


Lastly, we had the big reveal! The kids walked in the room after I had put it on the wall and squealed at how great it was. I heard "Wow!" and
"oh pretty!" and "there's mine!" It was great to see them so proud of our project 'Q is for Quilt!"

I wish I had done this at the beginning of the week so the kids could have looked at it and gotten the reinforcement from the start of our letter Q exploration. However, I have decided to leave it up for a while and I can use it as a review tool instead.  I have also thought about cutting it up when we are done and sending the pieces home for them to enjoy. We'll see! I might like it too much to give it up!