Letter Bb

Reese is 3 years 5 months (3y 2m corrected)

We are taking it slow and easy!! I think we've spread the letter B out over 2 1/2 weeks!! But Reese definitely is getting it! We were watching Word World today. They asked what makes the "buh" sound? They were looking for "the letter B" which he did not say but he shouted Buzz! Butterfly! so I think he got the point these are B words! Hooray! Somehow it doesn't really seem to be making his speech therapy words any easier, but he's at least chattering away now...I just can't decipher a lot of it.
I intended to have Reese color the letter B first but when I asked if he wanted to color he responded by excitedly exclaiming "dot dot dot!" and making a frantic jabbing motion...so we started with the Do-A-Dot letter B and b instead. You can see them drying in the high chair in the background after he moved on to other art.

Reese colored in his B with several different shades of blue crayon. I had to cut it out before he finished because he was concentrating his coloring on the part that was to be cut away for some reason. The he glued on his B words. These are from the Letter B set I bought from Me & Marie Learning. (She's having Saturday sales, so go sign up for the newsletter.) B has lots of frequently used words for kid stuff, so I think he really got that these words all start with the same sound right away. With "A" I think he saw no rhyme or reason to the words I was giving him.

Reese loves the do-a-dot markers so we used these to make a coffee filter butterfly. I got this idea from a blog, but when I went back to look at how they did it I couldn't figure out where I had seen it?! Of course now I see it! I found it referenced here under butterfly crafts, but here are the actual instructions.

Reese practiced writing in the lines. We haven't really been practicing this, but the last time he did this months ago he did not even grasp the concept of what I was asking of him, so I was shocked that he totally got it and stayed in the lines this time!

Then he practiced cutting. These printables are from Me & Marie's Brown Bear, Brown Bear story unit. Reese really likes this story. It is the first book he's ever told me what is coming next. Finally the light bulb!!! Okay so maybe not exactly what's next...he is very excited about the blue horse and always chooses blue horse. But it's progress!

We had Bug shaped Eating Right pasta at lunch. Reese was really into the concept and both he and Gus ate it. Normally Reese won't touch colored pasta...he picks out the normal colored ones and leaves the rest. But flavor wise I wasn't too excited. We normally get Safeway Organics whole wheat pastas and I think the flavor is much better. But for the fun factor the bugs were great. I took a close up but I couldn't get focused correctly so you'll just have to trust me that the pasta looks like bugs. The brown lumps are cut up meatballs because Reese won't eat if there's no meat!

Reese used clothes pins (still finding it difficult to pinch open because he can't remember to hold it at the end) to choose which is the letter B or b. He gets it right every time, so really we are using this to work out the pincher muscles. (This is also from Me and Marie's Letter B pack).

He worked on the letter sort separating uppercase from lowercase. The only one he missed was a very scrolly font. So we worked on remembering to count the bumps to decide if it's upper or lower. I don't think he really will remember...he seemed a little confused about the idea.

Whenever the camera is out he wants to hold up his project and say "cheese!" You can see his little laptop in the background. He likes to sit between Mommy and Daddy on the couch to do his laptop. It is too cute. It has several setting, one of which is saying the letters and sounds they make and a sample word.

Since the sheep says "Baa" we made a cotton ball sheep. Reese loved the regular glue instead of the stick, probably because I never let him use this kind. The sheep picture is from the Me and Marie Brown Bear pack.

We made a foam Bumble Bee ever so slightly modified from Totally Tots. I ran out of wax paper so our wings were black construction paper. I am thinking they photograph a sample made by a much bigger kid or even an adult. Take a look at their letter crafts...super cute, but way more coordinated looking than ours!

After I cut this B out of the foam I realized this would be the perfect time to use those scissors from Stampin Up. I think it would be a little less ragged.

Reese very halfheartedly worked on a Letter B and b "puzzle"...not sure if he was not understanding it or just didn't like it.

We used play-doh mats to form the letter out of blue play doh. Reese thought this was very cool!
We also made hand print butterlies. We used Crayola washable kid's paint. It is not really fingerpaint, but it washes super well and he loved it! (In the backgrorund you can see his potty chart...woo hoo...he's doing great!)

It is very hard for me to let him glue it all himself...I want it placed just so, but I held back and he did a pretty good job!

We hang all his completed projects on his bedroom door. When Daddy gets home from work Reese eagerly shows him everything he did. We also started a sticker reward sheet "Obey Right Away" to work on FIRST time listening and doing as he's told. I found this idea on a blog. The mom is a psychologist and was using this with her preschooler successfully...I have no idea who it was now. I didn't think to keep a link to the idea.

We also did the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree like we did here, but I never took a photo. Gus has discovered the magnet letters are tasty so I keep finding the A and B scattered around. I'm disappointed we never got to this you tube video for Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. But we'll do it for C. I found it on this blog...go to photo #19 and read the blurb...she linked to me! It's kind of exciting...my first link. Maybe by the time we're through with this I'll have made up some of my own ideas to share.

These are the letter B books we read:

I am linking to Tot School, go check it out for other people's awesome ideas!
So I'm also going to link to Preschool Corner, even though she probably has all the same readers!! When we go on vacation next week and there will be 4 grandparents and 2 great grandparents around I may actually have a chance to look through what EVERYONE is doing instead of only looking a couple of links.