If you’re just joining us you may want to read the “How to set up a co-op preschool” post.  Each week I’ll be sharing ideas for introducing your preschoolers to the letters of the alphabet.   Not all of these ideas will work for everyone.  As the year goes on, you’ll figure out what works for your group of kids.  To start the alphabet, check out ideas for the letters A and B or just bookmark this page for all my preschool ideas.

C is for COOKIE

Music:
Here We Are Together
The Alphabet Song
C is for Cookie by Cookie Monster

Books
Gingerbread Man or this version or this one (explain to the kids that gingerbread is a kind of cookie)
If you Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Joffe Numeroff  (great circular story)

Activity

  • Make Cookies — from scratch.  Have ingredients ready and let the kids take turns pouring in ingredients and stirring. Bake 1 tray and have for snack.  If possible, let each kid take home dough to make more at home.
  • Decorate Cookies on paper – have the kids draw cookies, or have pre-drawn basic cookie shapes on a paper for each kid.   Let the kids decorate the cookies.   You can use crayon, colored pencils, stickers.
  • Make Gingerbread Man — cut out gingerbread man shapes out of brown construction paper and have buttons, stickers, crayons and colored pencils available for kids to make their own gingerbread man.

And this week is a 2 for 1…..

2nd idea for the letter C

C is for CARS

Songs:

The Alphabet Song
Here We Are Together
Car Song – kids love the noisy parts at the end.  If you have musical instruments let the kids play them as the noisy car (anyone know who I can attribute this to?  I sang it at camp as a youth, but don’t know where it originated)

I’m a little hunk of tin
Nobody knows where I have been
Got four wheels and a runnin’ board
I’m a Ford, a Ford, a Ford
Honk, honk, rattle, rattle, crash, beep, beep
Honk, honk, rattle, rattle, crash, beep, beep

Books:
If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen about a boy who wants to make a fabulous car.  Illustrations are great.
Cars and Trucks and Things that Go by Richard Scarry — I love Richard Scarry books and this is no exception.  Check out all the little people on each page.
Old, New, Red, Blue by RH Disney (This is one of several Step Into Reading Books  with a tie in to the movie Cars.)

Activity Ideas
Coloring Pages from the movie Cars featuring Lightning McQueen, Sally, Mater, etc
Old VW Bug
Variety of cars from LetMeColor

Game: Car Colors

  • Let each child pick a color.
  • Give each child a piece of paper with their color on it.  Either scribble the color on the top, or give them a piece of colored paper.
  • Give each kid a strip of small stickers like these <<<LINK>>>.
  • Explain that each time they see a car that is their color they are to put a sticker on their paper.
  • After the designated time, (a kitchen timer works well for setting an ending time) compare the colors of the cars.  Warning — this can get to be a competitive game especially if there was only 1 white car but 4 red cars.   Try your best to downplay the competitive nature of the youngsters.

Where to play:

  • Living Room Window — if you live on a busy street, or can see a busy street from home, just park the kids in front of the window and let them safely watch the traffic going by.  If the flow of traffic isn’t constant, you might want to have some music going in the background or they are likely to get bored quickly.
  • Field Trip — travel to a well populated area like a park, gas station, park ‘n ride, etc.  Keep the kids strapped into their car seats for safety but set the timer and start noticing colors of cars.
  • Take A Walk — if you live in an area where cars are often parked on the street or in driveways go for a walk.  You’ll probably want to make it a short trip, like down to the end of the block and back.  Stop at each driveway or collection of cars and let the kids notice what color each car is and then make a note of it on their papers.  While walking remind the children not to leave stray papers on the ground or let them fly away.  Tuck extra scraps in your pocket to take home.

Snack Idea:
Road Trip Snacks: grapes, baby carrots, nuts (if no allergies), fun fruits and sippy cups (to keep the car clean)

  • Share/Bookmark