The Home/School Connection

Last night I shared with parents of preschoolers ways that they can connect the learning at school to their homes. Using what I call "homemade learning" (items made with things around the house), we talked about 10 ways Mom and Dad can reinforce learning the alphabet and letter sounds, as well as other preschool concepts like colors, numbers, and shapes.

1) Take 2 empty toilet tissue rolls and wrap with construction paper to make binoculars and look around the room for the letters.

2) Take Milk Caps and write letters on them. If the child can name the letter then they can keep the cap. Also use the pieces to play the memory game.

3) Take an empty food box and cut the front panel off. Cut this panel into 6-8 pieces making a puzzle for the child to put together.

4) Fill an empty water bottle with items to promote conversation with the child. The bottle may contain pieces of colored paper. Ask the child to name a color that he sees and name a food that is the same color. The purpose of this activity is to build conversation with the child. I call these Yakity Yak Bottles.

5) Take round coffee filters and make a Learning Wheel. Write letters around the edge. Ask the child to put his finger on a certain letter.

6) Junk Mail envelopes can be used to hold letters of the alphabet. Write a word on the back of the envelope and let the child match the correct letters from inside the envelope.

7) Use empty food jars to collect words. At the end of the week pull out the strips of paper and discuss the words, their beginning sounds, and meaning.

8) Take a posicle stick and place a star on one end. Call it your Point and Say Stick. Using a book, magazine, or newspaper, point and name things, then ask your child to tell you the beginning sounds of objects in pictures.

9) Make puppets from all kinds of containers. Let the puppet ask the child questions.

10) Write the alphabet on a large piece of paper. Save transparent lids from peanut cans or other food can items. Play a game asking the child to cover the letter that you call out. Remember to ask them to name the sounds too.

Alphabet recognition and sounds are important tasks that every child must master before beginning to read.