Kids can make their own colorful letter book to use with the All About Reading Pre-Reading program or as an independent activity to learn lowercase letters. The cut-and-paste projects only use scissors and glue; however, additional activity suggestions are included. An animal represents each letter and there are four fun facts about each animal.
Lowercase Letter Crafts features 26 colorful cut-and-paste animal crafts from A(ardvark) to Z(ebu). Each craft can be easily completed using only scissors and glue. Along with each craft, you’ll find four fun animal facts and accompanying activity ideas to reinforce important pre-reading skills. It’s 120 pages of full-color alphabet fun and the perfect way to encourage your student’s enthusiasm for learning to read!
Lowercase Letter Crafts is a supplement to the All About Reading Pre-reading program or it can be used independently of the program.
The All About Reading Pre-Reading program covers letter recognition (capitals first, then lowercase) and letter sounds (consonants and short vowels). The author has identified the Big Five Skills which are foundational to the educational mission of this course. Print Awareness (text carries meaning and is related to spoken language specific tips in lessons), Phonological Awareness (the ability to hear and identify parts of words), Letter Knowledge (recognizing the letters and knowing the letter names and sounds), Listening Comprehension (precursor to reading comprehension), and Motivation to Read (no parenthetical clarification needed). We're obviously talking more than simple ABCs here, aren't we? And Ziggy is eager to illustrate the difference.
Ziggy is a personable, strokeable, fun-loving young zebra puppet with a tendency to say the wrong word, drop sounds from words, and distract your child away with game-playing (wink-wink). Lessons are written around Ziggy's participation. I suppose you could do "work arounds" and cover the same material, but Ziggy will win your child's heart and you'll be off and learning before you even know it. In addition to Ziggy's games and antics, lessons include an introduction to the letter or sound, poem-reading from either the Zigzag Zebra or the Lizard Lou book, completion of a craft sheet, additional activities (chosen from a list in the appendix), games, and the read aloud time. The two hardbound books Zigzag Zebra and Lizard Lou (each a collection of poems for letters or letter sounds; also available as optional audio-books) are used daily (one or the other) to introduce or reinforce sounds.
The Pre-reading Activity Book (My Book of Letters) contains the craft sheets for the lessons; each of which have supplies needed and instructions on the back. These perforated activity sheets include coloring, dot-to-dots, mini craft projects involving adding construction or tissue paper accents or various types of sparklies, games like "Circle the Letter t", sound match-ups, and hidden pictures. Common craft materials needed include crayons, markers, scissors, glue, tape, and a miscellaneous assortment of optional craft materials.
This looks like a great way to add a bit of fun learning into our day :)