Tuesday, May 22, 2007

X week: X marks the spot!


Thanks to my good friend ChyAyn for the X marks the spot idea. She did a treasure hunt for X week in our 2-year-old preschool co-op last year and the kids loved it. My sister and I always planned treasure hunts to find the Family Home Evening treats when we were little too and it was a favorite activity. I should do this more often for Connor because it's easy to plan and so much fun for kids.

The X was by the O-shaped bush in our yard and the "treasure" was a big tic-tac-toe game with big X's and O's to go on it. We played tic-tac-toe for quite a while and now Connor's excited to play with Daddy.

Monday, May 21, 2007

X week: plans

Here are the plans for X week:

The letter X does not come at the beginning of many words. Many children's books use the word xylophone to represent X; but xylophone doesn't start with the /ks/ sound, so it's misleading. The focus this week is the sound /ks/ only. We'll talk about words that have that sound, which means our words do not start with X, but have them in the middle or end.

word cards: taxi, exercise, explore, x-ray, box
poem: (poetry with X was scarce, so this is the one written by the host of Letter of the Week.)

Extra Special X
by Katrina Lybbert

Excellent, exciting letter X!
So extra special is letter X.
Fox, box, mix, wax,
Plox, ox, six, tax.
Always an adventure to explore,
With letter X, which we adore!


Monday (math): Next. What number comes next. I'll quiz Connor on his numbers to see if he knows what comes next. I'll also help him review which day of the week comes next.

Tuesday (science or social studies): X marks the spot. We'll read clues and follow them until we find the X marking the spot where the treasure is.

Wednesday (scriptures/Gospel): Example. Jesus Christ is our ultimate example. We can follow his example and set an example for those around us.

Thursday (movement/music): Tic-tac-toe and Jack-in-the-Box. We'll play tic-tac-toe using X's and O's. Then we'll play Jack-in-the-Box; one of us hides in a box and then jumps out to surprise the other.

Friday (art project): X shapes in play-doh. We'll pull out the play-doh and make as many X shapes as we can, with cookie cutters and by rolling "snakes" and making X's. We'll also have a snack, like stick preztels, that we can make X's with.