*Disclaimer: This post was written before we started our Montessori Journey, see our current Montessori approach to language.*
This week we got back into letters after our break for Valentine's Day. I was hoping our return to letters at tot school would be a little better than it was, but Morgan came down with the stomach flu and Henry had a lot of no nap days which meant I didn't get much time to prepare for this week. So, I'll admit the work was pretty uninspiring, but Henry still seemed to have a lot of fun.
When we started the week, Henry was able to identify the capital letter E and say E. By the end of the week, Hen has also started to identify the lower case e. This was also the first week Henry said {unprompted} "J is for John" which shocked me since we haven't gotten to J and we never talked about how to spell John {who is one of his best friends}. Following that he has said "E for egg" and "H for Henry."
The first tray this week was a wooden puzzle with a several different sized elephants on it. For the first time, Henry really did a good job placing all the elephants in their places and not just the smallest and largest. Although, if I asked him to just try and do it without the board, he couldn't, so he really still needs the visual cue of the puzzle.
The second tray was a laminated sheet with "Henry" printed on it. Then another set of matching letters for Henry to start putting his name together. I made sure to make the letters different colors so that he was actually matching letters and not just colors, which I think was a good change for him. Henry easily matched the letters and recognized that the word was his name. This was his favorite activity all week. We will be trying to do at least some name spelling activity each time we focus on a letter in his name.
The final tray was an alphabet jigsaw puzzle that made the shape of an elephant when completed that I picked up awhile ago at Office Max. Henry had zero patience for this puzzle. I knew it would be difficult for him, but he didn't even want to search for the letters when asked.
We also had a sensory bin this week which Hen really liked. It had an egg, an eggplant, a bunch of elephants, earmuffs, Elmo, and Ernie and a few other e-word things.
We also played with a peg board which Henry really liked! It was great fine motor work and a good practice at sorting colors.
Looking for letter e activities for an older toddler? Check out our Montessori Inspired ideas here.
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