Letter B Week

At the beginning of Letter B week, Natalie told me she already knew B.  And, for the most part, she was right.  Watching all those alphabet songs worked.  We still studied it though.  But, we all got sick this week and we didn't do as much with the letter B as we had A.  In the end, I learned that Natalie likes the tactile / sensory activities more and we are going to offer fewer of the writing / tracing activities.  

With all the books I choose each week, we look for the letter of the week on the cover or I point it out to her.  To gather our letter of the week books, I look through my list of books we've already read and make a list of the ones we like featuring the letter.  I also check out our to-read list.  I also check all the bookcases in the house (living room, both kids rooms, kitchen).  In bold is the the best book of the week. 

Books:
Alligator Bear Crab by Lesley Wynne Pechter
Bumblebee, Bumblebee, Do You Know Me by Anne Rockwell
Bob the Builder: Scoop Saves the Day (and any other Bob the Builder books I see next time at the library)
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr
Bear Feels Scared by Karma Wilson (might pick another one in the series, too)
Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear? by Nancy White Carlstorm
Olivia Makes a Band by Ian Falconer
The Wheels on the Bus
Angelina Ballerina (good use of A and B)
But Excuse Me That is My Book by Lauren Child (Charlie and Lola)
Belinda the Ballerina by Amy Young
Ballet Kitty by Bernette Ford
Bea at Ballet by Rachel Isadora


This week's best book was a happy accident.  I took it out on a whim since it had a B for book.  Well, turns out that the book in question is titled Butterflies, Beetles, and Bugs.  Lots and lots of use of the letter B and an overall great Charlie and Lola book. 

The Letter B bin was the best activity of the week.  Natalie had a good time inspecting all the objects.  But by far the best was Saturday night when she held up the B cookie cutter and each item in turn saying "B is for block, B is for banana, B is for Bert, etc."  Mike witnessed it; bummed I missed it while putting William to bed.  

 We started out using the circle magnets on these printables, but then I saw someone use pom poms for the same activity.  Natalie liked the variation. 

Then a different night, I thought we'd use her buttons (also starts with B!) to outline the letters on a different printable.  She already loves playing with the buttons, so this went over well.  

Mike made this week's letter with her one night after bath.  He says that she did everything except draw the stripes.  She even ripped the wings!  the two beads in the middle were supposed to top the antenna, but she made them nostrils instead. 

Natalie decided to pull out all the magnet letters one afternoon and without any prompting she went looking for the A's and B's. 

Other activities:
Watching alphabet song playlist
Lacing cards
 Alphabet puzzel
Big Bird coloring sheet
Tracing with dry erase markers
Cookie cutter B and playdoh

Letter B Playlist