Alphabet Snow Hunt

Materials

1. White packaging peanuts
2. Sensory table
3. Avalanche by Michael J. Rosen
4. Plastic alphabet letters
5. Plastic shovel
6. Plastic buckets

Instructions

1. Prepare the sensory table in advance by disinfecting it. After it dries, fill it with packaging peanuts.
2. Read the story Avalanche to prepare the children to hunt for missing letters in the "snow."
3. Empty uppercase and lowercase letters in the sensory table. Cover the letters with packaging peanuts.
4. Encourage the children to shovel out specific letters, such as all the letters of the alphabet, letters of their name, or letters that come before and after certain letters.

Instructions

1. Set up a writing area for two or three children to work together at a time.
Decorate the walls with alphabet posters and a list of all the children in the
class.
2. Encourage the children to use the Writing center by rotating writing tools
and paper frequently. Children are excited to see what's new in the writing
area each week!
3. Encourage children to write their names by pointing to the name list. Add
seasonal writing paper and decorations to the writing area to generate new
interest.
4. Be sure to add a basket of books, including a child-size dictionary, laminated
name cards, and vocabulary word list for that week.
5. Set up mailboxes for the children so they can "mail" each other cards, letters,
and drawings.