ABC Dog Food

When I was teaching elementary school, I attended a conference by Dr. Jean Feldman. One of the activities that I especially loved (as does my toddler) is Who Let The Letters Out?

This is a great way to teach letter recognition, to review letters that your child knows, and to teach letter sounds.

Materials:

*Bowl (I used a plastic bowl that resembles a dog food bowl)

*Stuffed animal (dog works well)

*Magnetic letters/numbers

Prep:

*Glue a magnet or magnetic tape to the nose of any stuffed animal.

*Pour desired letters/numbers into the food bowl

Activity:

*Let the dog "sniff" and dig his nose around in the bowl. His nose will grab the magnet on the back of a letter.

*Pull his nose out, with a letter stuck to his nose.

*If an "s" comes out, sing "Who let the S out? /s/ /s/ /s/ /s/(make /s/ sound)" to the tune of Who Let the Dogs Out? "M" would be "Who let the M out? /m/ /m/ /m/ /m/!!"

*Repeat for each letter.

*After we finished, my daughter enjoyed having the letters dive back into the bowl, yelling their name or sound. "Here comes O! O! O! Here is the T! /t/t/t/t/"

Extension:

*This can be done with anything you are teaching. Just find a picture of that skill (colors, numbers, shapes, animal names, foods, family members) and put a magnet on the back of it. "Who let Aunt ___ out? Who? Who? Who? Who?"

*For older children, you can extend it and have them sort. For example, if you are working on letters, sort vowels and consonants or capital and lower case letters. Animals, sort by covering (fur, scales, feathers). Family members, sort by side of the family or male and female. The list could go on and on!