Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom

                       
Last week we had our first book club. I must confess that although this was created so I could continue to encourage the "Teacher in Me" I have to say it really is just a great excuse to get together with friends.  Our first time meeting was a bit more chaotic than I had anticipated but in due time my little Knee High Readers will know just what to do when they come! Three year olds require different management magic than my second graders needed! I enjoy this precious group of boys and am so blessed by their mommies who I am so grateful to call my friends. 

Our Magnetic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree

                 

 Nothing says fun like an old overhead projector! Check our our Pattern Block Boom Boom Tree Puzzle! Thank you again to a childhood friend for answering my Facebook request for an unwanted projector! We so appreciate your generosity!

 Saw this idea on Pinterest. The kids  learned how many letters were in their name. I made my letters with stickers on construction paper.

I added the numbers to the back of the letter cards to bring some basic counting into the activity.

 I made a take home activity for the kids to use homemade play dough to create the first letter in their name. I just drew a capital and lower case letter on construction paper.

I wrote the kids names on sentence strips and then wrote the letters in their names on clothespins. I showed them how to use their index finger and their thumbs to work the pins by singing the Shark song and pretending their fingers were little sharks. It seemed to help them understand how to manipulate the pins. 

Zach was watching me make preparations for book club before our friends came over. I thought I would take many pictures during our book club...I must have forgotten how busy I'd be with a room full of three year olds!

 This is our Word Wall Word. The kids all were able to identify which letter their name went under.

Our schedule for the day..though it was a little ambitious for our first book club!

Here is a closer look at our pattern block puzzle that I drew on an overhead transparency.

 Our boys are obsessed with Cars! I thought I would try to use this to help them learn the letters in their name. I ran out of time to do it with the big group but Noah loved it!

 At first I just let him explore the cars and the letters. Then,  I asked him if he could make his name out of it. At first, this is what he did. Then, I reminded him of our name puzzles and asked him if he noticed how the letters in his name were next to one another.

 He figured it out! Then I asked him why the N was on the big McQueen and he said because it is a big letter!

Use your imagination! You could do this activity with any toy that interests your child! I just used little round sticker dots to add the letters to the cars. They were very easy to remove when we finished playing. After he played with the cars for several minutes I asked him to push me cars to spell his name. So he would push N-O-A-H. Then, I would push them back and say the letters outloud. I think we spelled his name 30 times in a matter of minutes by pushing cars back and forth. Try it!