Curriculum Review: Jumbo Fun with the Alphabet

Jumbo Fun with the Alphabet by Evan Moor Publishing is my favorite resource for teaching children letter sounds and other basic pre-school to kindergarten skills. Each letter is a complete unit study containing the components of:

Read It - A complete bibliography of children's books for each letter of the alphabet. Among the selections are both alphabet books as well as stories containing words with the target letter. for the letter K, we find titles such as:

Alphabet Books:

Anno's Alphabet by Mitsumasa Anno
Kangaroo's Adventure in Alphabet Town by Janet McDonnell

Books about Kangaroos:

Joey Runs Away
Kararoo by Paula Hogan
Kangaroo by Caroline Arnold
Katy No Pocket by Emmy Payne
Kangaroos (Baby Animal Series) by Kate Petty

Books About Kites:

Curious George Flies a Kite by Margaret Rey
Dragon Kite by Valerie Reddix
The Kite (My First Reader Series) by Mary Packard
One Windy Day by Jane Caraway

*I have not read all of these titles and do not endorse each title. (But I love Curious George and Katy No Pocket!)

Eat It - Each letter has a snack that supports it's sound. The letter K suggests Kiwi Kabobs! Most of the snacks are both easy and fun to make. They certainly lend themselves to tiny hands!

Draw It - This is all about following directions. The child is directed to fold a standard piece of paper into four sections. The parent draws on a chalkboard as they give their child oral directions. In the Letter K section, the child draws:

An orange kite
A blue kite with a purple tail
A big red kite and a little blue kite
A Kite with polka dots of many colors

I found most of the drawing activities fun, but I discovered that Gracie was able to draw much more effectively closer to her fifth birthday and even better afterwards. We really couldn't get the hang of this activity in her fourth year.

Write It - The write it section is a nicely illustrated worksheet with letters to trace and a word to write. It might be too much for the average pre-schooler, but fits well into any kindergarten program.

Make It - This is great fun! Using cutting and pasting skills, a craft is created by the child. For the letter K the child makes a Kangaroo puppet which has a baby kangaroo that jump out of the pouch via a popsicle stick. These make for WONDERFUL portfolio content.

Letter Sound Reproducible - This is a simple worksheet which gives a child the opportunity to cut out the pictures that begin with the sound of the target letter. For the letter K, the child cuts out pictures of keys, kangaroos, koalas, and kites and pastes them onto a kettle at the top of the page.

Reproducible Storybook - This is the last activity of the week. Here we have a tiny foldable book in which the child colors the illustrations as Mom or Dad reads the story.

In the back of this resource, there is a listing of alphabet games to play with your child, along with a section entitled, "Alphabet Centers." All of these activities can be accomplished in the homeschool setting with ease. They cover the gamut from writing in sand to matching letter cards, or making words from alphabet cereal.

There are also letter cards with seven matching pictures, so that the child has ample practice in beginning sounds. I used these in many ways. You can either play matching games, or make small alphabet books.

We have had great fun in using this resource with two of our children. We never, "did it all," but simply had fun doing whatever most appealed to us. I highly recommend it for ages three to six.

But like all other resources, use it wisely. Don't stress out if your three year old doesn't have the fine motor skills to write letters, or draw kites! Those skills will come with time.

Blessings,

©2008 Y.M.F.