H for Horse & House

We have been spending much time with the letter H these two weeks, and EV has had lots of fun learning all about horse, house, hippo, even hungry monkeys! She looks forward to each Tot Club session, and besides the crafts we do, she LOVES pasting the images, no matter which letter we are doing. She's no longer saying 'I do, I do', instead, it's 'I want to glue' now. It's really delightful to see how she has developed in her speech since Tot Club first started.

I think EV especially likes the letter card this round, because it involves sticking 'happy face' stickers all around small letter h. In fact, I think she loved it!

The phonics song of the week is 'Hares and Hunters', and very soon, EV was singing along with me. We also listened to the 'H for Harry Horse' song from Julia Gabriel's Alphabet Zoo, which was a perfect fit. We also did a horse craft. I noticed she always purses her lips when she's in deep concentration. See how EV tried to feed it?

The next session a few days later focused on house. We made a house using cut-out shapes. Halfway, EV was distracted by this house pack which was a free gift from a purchase we made over the weekend. She spent a while trying to figure out how to open it to reach the crayons and long colouring strip inside. Good impromptu activity to test her logical thinking skills.

Next, I made a house for her using a recycled carton box. The biggest box I had was of an electric fan, not big enough to make a house where EV can sit in completely (eg a carton box from a washing machine). So I improvised by cutting the box I had into two parts - a 'U' shaped and a flat piece. On the 'U' shaped piece, I cut a door, while I folded the flat piece to make the room. Then I put two chairs together against a wall, leaving space between them, propped the 'U' shaped piece with the door in front and the 'roof' on the top of the chairs. And viola! I've got a house to EV to squeeze in!

Just when I thought we were going to end the session (which was timely as AA started to fuss), EV wanted to do more. So I gave her a circular carton piece with flaps (which was used to secure the fan we bought) and let her imagination run. It was a steering wheel, a hat and a 'sun' mask. It also provided some good handwriting practice, as she was drawing circles on it.

Today, we combined both house and horse together with yet more crafts! I like crafts, because I think it's a great way to reinforce what I'm trying to teach EV, even if the crafts are just impromptu ideas. They very often rip amazing results and creativity.

We did a house letter craft (inspired by Totally Tots) and horse hand print painting (mummy helped her draw the grass, flowers, clouds and sun).

I also did a review of the letters we have done in Tot Club so far. Though EV is sometimes confused between b and d, I'm proud to say that she knows all her letters a to h.

That's my girl!