Letter O, long vowel sound (OLYMPICS!)

Last year our co-op taught the short vowel sounds and long vowel sounds on different days.  This is my lesson plan for the long O sound--perfect for the winter Olympics!  But in my humble opinion you should teach both sounds, but no need to spend a whole day on just one sound.

Opening Activity

puzzles and shape-O and dupl-Os

Circle time

Welcome Song (Here We Are Together):

Calendar: Today is …, Days of the week song

Find the letter of the day scavenger hunt.

Leap Frog fridge magnet introduce the letter of the day—O.  It’s a vowel so it makes TWO sounds. 

show & tell

          

Activities (10-15 minutes each)

Zingo or Hi Ho Cherry-O board games

singing time…Wheels on the Bus, BINGO, Quickly I Obey, ring around the rosies

Obey game….Mother May I?

Have the kids glue Cheerios on a big letter O.

Counting CheeriOs

Find Ovals game

           

Olympics--skipping, hopping on one foot, walk on a straight line, obstacle course, etc.  Have kids make Olympic flags first coloring each of the rings on a paper and taping it to a straw.  Then they can wave their flags to cheer each other on as they take turns competing.  When they finish give each kid a “gold medal” (a chocolate gold coin taped to a ribbon).  

                       

Snacktime

Oatmeal cookies and Jell-O jiggler cut out in O's

 Playtime

 Wrap-up and stories

Valentine's Day Ideas...

I'm not teaching our co-op preschool this week.  But if I was all the other kids would definitely be feeling the love with this great Valentine's Day math/graphing idea.  Curly loved sorting her candy hearts.

And then we'd make some of these hearts, because it's one of Curly's favorite crafts.  Something about peeling crayons and ironing them really makes her happy.

Fruit Loop Necklaces

This activity is always a hit...use it to teach patterns (red, blue, green, red, blue green; yellow, yellow, purple, yellow, yellow, purple).  Use it for the letter N (for necklaces) or for the letter O since they are O shaped.   Or be creative and adapt it to whatever you're teaching... maybe you could make fruit loop snakes for the letter S?  Or use Apple Jacks for the letter A?  All you need is a pair of scissors, yarn or string, tape, and Fruit Loops.  Just tape off the end of the strings to help make it easier for the kids to thread the cereal.  This takes a few minutes, so it's helpful to do this step ahead of time, but be prepared to re-tape the ends as needed.

Groundhog in his hole

Groundhog in his hole

Need: Brown paper or picture of a small groundhog, Styrofoam cup, straw, tape

Directions: Cut out the shape of a Groundhog on Brown paper or print one out Make sure the picture is small enough to fit in a paper cup. Let the children color the groundhog. Poke a small hole in the bottom of a cup. Tape the groundhog they colored onto a straw (a Popsicle stick or pipe cleaner also will work). Push the straw through the hole in the cup. Now when you move the straw up and down you have a groundhog puppet.

(or if you have way too much time on your hands, here's a tutorial for a similar but fancier and SUPER cute groundhog puppet.)