WEEK OF THE LETTER M Make a list of "m" words. Print it and hang it in a prominent spot. Look up at the sky. Do you see a full moon? Move like a monkey. Drink you milk, please. Count the coins in mommy's purse. March to your favorite music. GENERAL LITERACY ACTIVITIES: Ask your child to name the letters in traffic or store signs. Have your child point to a particular letter in a story; on the page you are reading. Use magnetic letters on the refrigerator to review the alphabet and its sounds. Write letters with paint, chalk, shaving cream, grits, or sand. Read and discuss alphabet books with your chld. Play games with alphabet cards or magnetic letters. Invite your child to find a particular letter in the headlines of the newspaper. Help your child build letters with playdough. Invite your child to locate letters on food labels, cereal boxes, etc. PERSONAL INFORMATON: Your child is responsible for their personal information: Birthday Telephone number Street Address, Town, State & Country. You can help your child memorize these important facts as you drive around town. MATH: 1-20: You can help your child develop an awareness of numbers all around them. Play games identifying numbers 0 - 20 in your home, at the store, driving around town, etc. They can create numerals using playdough, yarn, toothpicks, etc. Skip Counting: Children are learning to skip count by 2 (to 12), by 5 (to 50), by 10 (to 100). Number Stories: You can help your child create number stories using household items; for example, 3 buttons and 2 legos equals 5 toys. When they can create a number story and tell you about it, encourage them to write it out 3+2=5. You can also do this with subtraction. They are responsible for number facts through 10. Patterns: Help them find patterns in their environment and/or create patterns with household items. Begin with an AB pattern then increase number and design: ABC, ABB, ABA, etc. LANGUAGE ARTS: Play games identifying the letters of the week and/or the letters in their names in your home, at the store, driving around town. Help them identify beginning sounds as we acquire more letter friends by playing games, for example, "I spy something that begins with..." Make a list of words that begin with each week's letter friend. Count the words and save the list. Repeat this activity each week and see which letter friend wins! Find items that end with a particular letter sound. Make letters (& numbers) out of playdough, yarn, cereal bits... Make up rhyming pairs - even nonsense words work as long as they rhyme! FINE MOTOR DEVELOPMENT: Acitivities done on a vertical plane will help develop fine motor muscles (refrigerator, easel). Play with playdough, legos, string beads or cereal, use tweezers or clasping clothespins to pick up cotton balls and fill a jar. GAMES: Play board games and/or card games with them. Teach them checkers, chess, battleship, etc., games that require a higher level of thinking. Above all, make this all fun and interesting for them. And last but not least--READ TOGETHER--Get in the habit of reading together every night.