Letter of the Week Seasonal Themes A to Z
Updated: I’ve been asked to create a printable calendar for mamas and other caregivers who want to follow this seasonal plan of exposing preschoolers to the alphabet. At the bottom of the post you’ll see a preview of the calendar and you’ll find instructions on how to access it.
There are many different philosophies on how to introduce the alphabet to preschoolers. Some say start with the letters of your child's name (which works if you're only teaching one child). Some say go in alphabetical order, Some say introduce the letters that we use most frequently first. Some even suggest using lowercase letters first since that's what the child sees more examples of in print. All of these ideas have good reasoning behind them. Choose a method that will work with you and the children you're teaching, and start having fun with it.
Pooky's ABC book
I strongly believe that if you're doing a letter of the week, it should be taught alongside the alphabet in its entirety. So while we may focus on a letter theme for the week, we also do lots of songs and activities that reinforce the whole alphabet during that same week, each and every week, all through the school year.
I chose to work with Pooky with a letter of the week that relates to something in the season we're currently going through. I feel she is able to really relate to the theme this way. (This means we are not working with the letters in alphabetical order.)The important thing is to be consistent and be sure to make it through all the letters of the alphabet...which can be tricky.
That's why I want to share the A-Z letter of the week seasonal themes plan that we created for our preschool co-op. This seasonal plan is designed to begin in the fall in North America and worked through the seasons of the school year.
Here are the themes our co-op preschool used with each letter.
I listed them first in Alphabetical order.
Below that, I list them in the order we taught them: by season
ABC Order
K is for Kite
F is for Farm
B is for Bear
T is for Turkey
G is for Gift
J is for Jingle/Jesus
O is for Owl
Q is for Quilt
X is for Fox
C is for Clover
D is for Dinosaur
U is for Umbrella
V is for Vase
Y is for Yo-yo
W is for Watermelon
Seasonal Order
I only listed two or three themes for each month in order to leave realistic time for review and holiday breaks. We only did letter of the week activities in the fall, winter, and spring. The summer can be used for reviewing the alphabet as a whole.
Fall
August: A is for Apple
September: Z is for Zoo, K is for Kite*, F is for Farm
October: L is for Leaves, P is for Pumpkin, B is for Bear*
November: N is for Nut, T is for Turkey
Winter
December: G is for Gift, J is for Jingle/Jesus
January: S is for Snowman, O is for Owl*, M is for Mitten
February: I is for Ice, H is for Hearts, Q is for Quilt
Spring
March: X is for Fox*, C is for Clover, D is for Dinosaur*
April: R is for Rainbow, U is for Umbrella, E is for Eggs
May: V is for Vase/Violet, Y is for Yo-yo*, W is for Watermelon.
* Indicates letter themes that can be moved around to another season
If you follow this plan, you should get through the entire alphabet during a school year with ample time for review and holiday breaks sprinkled throughout the year.
To get a printable calendar version of the seasonal A-Z Themes, simply subscribe to my newsletter. (I promise not to spam your inbox. Email subscribers receive the password to the Free Resource Library where you will find the Seasonal Themes Letter of the Week calendar as well as many other great printables.
Use the subscribe box at the very bottom of this post to sign up.
Already have the password? Click the button to enter the Resource Library.
This post is a landing page where I will continue to link activities for each theme. You may want to bookmark or pin this page in order to come back to it periodically for more ideas.
Email subscribers will be notified when new activities related to these themes are posted.
Be sure to save this article so you have it for later. The image below is pinnable.
Thanks!
Tiffiny
If you're curious about how we're doing preschool at home, I encourage you to poke around the website under “Teaching Tips.”
