The Sounds of Spring

What do you do on a rainy spring day?

A cold, cold wet day

when it's too wet to go out and play?

You could sit in the house waiting for The Cat In The Hat to appear, or you can make the most out of your time inside with this fun alphabet game that teaches phonemic awareness. I adapted it from something I saw in an Usborne Reading Game Book. I used this in preschool last year and all of the kids (age 4) loved it. This year, my 5-year-old twins had a great time helping their 3-year-old little sis with the activity.

Step 1: Start with a long sheet of butcher paper, print out large letters to spell a seasonal word. We used "Spring" this time, but have also done it other words like "Santa."
Step 2: Fold back the flap of an envelope and wet the glue strip to attach it to the butcher paper.You may also need to to reinforce it with a little bit of clear tape.
Step 3: Fold the envelop back down over the flap.
Step 4: Make list of words that relate to the seasonal word and start with the same letters. For example:

• S: Soccer, sun
• P: Picnic, puddle
• R: Rainbow, red breasted robin
• I: Iris
• N: Nest
• G: Grass, galoshes

Step 5: Use a clip art program to print out pictures of the words. You could also cut out pictures from catalogs or magazines.

Step 6: Hide pictures around the house and let the kids hunt for them.

Step 7: Once a child finds a picture, he or she needs to identify the object, decide what letter it starts with and place it in the correct envelope. (The picture of the picnic table will be placed in the "P" envelope and so on.)

Step 8: When all of the pictures are placed in the envelopes, go through them together and make sure they are all in the right place. This is also a good time to present fun facts about the items.

Step 9: Repeat and have fun! You can mix it up by letting kids take turns hiding different pictures, etc.