Brainstorm in Bloom: eXcellent Letter X (Alphabet Wall)

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

eXcellent Letter X (Alphabet Wall)

When you try and think of X-words there really are not that many out there and certainly not ones that 3-5 year olds understand. We had many X ideas that we did though that were quite fun! We really focused on X-rays and xylophones. I was thinking it would be fun to do some sort of X marks the spot game and tie in some pirate treasure hunt activities but we didn’t fit it in.

For the rest of the Alphabet, go HERE!

Enjoy this
eXcellent X for
(Seedlings ~ preschool age)...

What we did for the eXcellent Letter X?...

Alphabet Wall:
*X-Ray Fish ~ The boys cut out fish shapes that I drew on black paper. They then took white chalk (white crayon would work too) and drew the bones on the x-ray fish. They then glued them on the X.
We first made water color x-ray fish (see below) for our X but then decided we liked the chalk on black better.

Our first x-ray fish with white crayon and water color crayon resist

Books:

*Read A Xylophone for X-Ray Fish (Alpha Tales book) and The XYZ Book (Bob Book Pre-Reader)

*Read some X-ray (skeleton/bones) books ~ This was as good as we could get for x-rays books for kids. We did check out some x-ray books but there were terrible (let me know if you find a good one for kids). Bones by Steve Jenkins, I Spy a Skeleton by Jean Marzallo, The Skeleton Inside You by Philip Balestrino and My Mom Has X-Ray Vision by Angela McAllister

Art/Crafts:

*Watercolor Resist X-Ray Painting~ I printed off fish outlines (could be anything with bones). The kids drew white crayon lines on them for bones. They then water colored over them for a crayon resist. When they were dry they cut them out (they could also cut them out to start with).

*Play dough Animal X-Rays ~ I saw these on Fantastic Fun and Learning. The boys rolled out play dough and then used animal cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. They then put on q-tips (that I had precut) to make their bones for their x-rays. The boys love play dough and this was a fun addition!

Activities:

*Pin the Bones on the X-Ray~ I printed off this skeleton printable from Kids Activities Blog. I then cut out the bones (not all the little ones, just the arms, legs, body and head) and then the kids played the fun game of Pin the Bones (just like pin the tail)! We loved this although I think there was some peeking!

*Operation ~ This game is pretty difficult for little ones so we just turn it off so they don’t get buzzed while taking out the bones. My littlest enjoyed this. It might be a bit of a stretch for an x-ray game but preschoolers aren’t too judgmental!

*Tic Tac Toe ~ I played this with my youngest but we made the board bigger and didn’t really have too many rules except that we took turns putting X’s down (we didn’t do O’s). I planned to teach him the real game but this was more fun!

Letter Formation:
*X with play dough (and the whiteboards as shown above too!)

*X with arms and bodies

Music and Movement:

*Water Xylophone~ I have wanted to make this for a while so it was a perfect time during X-week! It is simple just fill glasses to different levels and color them if you want. It took attentive ears to hear the differences between the glasses. Very cool!

*X-Ray Man song~ We also sang the X-Ray Man from DLTK! Check it out!

Snack:

*Make X’s with food and X-Ray Cookies ~ We used veggie straws, string cheese and salami in slices to make X’s. I also saw these super cute Gingerbread Skeletons (X-ray cookies) from Food.com that looked adorable. I cheated and bought a gingerbread mix to make them. We all can cheat once in a while, right? I made icing in a ziplock and cut the corner. I iced a couple with their bone x-rays and then Roly Poly took over. He did a great job - you just have to make them!