Last week we weren’t able to meet because my friend’s kids were sick. So, even though this week is Fall Break for the older kids, we got together and had the older kids do some of their own activities and do some activities with the younger kids.
I needed to do some prep work still for the activities, so first the kids all colored the D worksheet I made. Again, this is to introduce the letter for recognition and simple words that start with that letter. For the older kids, we had them also write their names and write uppercase and lowercase Ds. Next, I had gotten some foam pumpkins and various Halloween foam stickers in the dollar section at Target a few weeks back, so I got those out for them all to decorate.
Next, we divided up the older kids and the younger kids. For the older kids, I picked out pipe cleaners in colors the corresponded to the bead colors that I have. Then, I put a piece of tape at the top of each pipe cleaner and put a number. Then, I had them sit and put beads on the pipe cleaners, they had to match the color and put as many beads as the number on the tape. They both did really well with this.
While the older kids did this, the younger kids got to play with a sensory tub. I had purchased some foam puzzles at the dollar store, 2 with numbers 0 – 9, 2 with the uppercase alphabet, and 2 with the lowercase alphabet. I took the numbers out of the puzzle and put them in a plastic bin, then put egg noodles in to bury the numbers. So, they had to dig through the noodles to find the numbers and put them in the puzzle. They had a lot of fun playing with the noodles and finding the numbers. We did work on recognizing the numbers as well.
The younger kids were pretty much done at that point, it was enough activities for them for one day. The older kids wanted to try out the noodles in the tub, so I got out the uppercase and lowercase letter puzzles and hid those letters for them.
Next week, we’ll do the letter E, and I’m on the hunt for some new activities!
My Gems of Parenting 
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