Taking the Alphabet Outside

On Tuesday of last week the boys were still sick, but we were able to spend some time outside playing with chalk on the patio and enjoying the cool morning after the rain.  I had an idea to start writing the alphabet around the patio.  This provided us with many games!  

We started just by stepping on each letter while singing the alphabet song.  This was great for Elliott because it helped him slow down while singing so he didn't run all of the letters together in the song.  His version, when he's not going slow, includes (you'll have to sing it to get the full effect), " A B C D E F G H I J J come and pee, Q R S......."  

Next we played "Musical Letters."  Just like Musical Chairs - we walked along the alphabet and when the music stopped, we stopped and took turns telling each other the letter we were standing on. 

I brought out a pair of old socks that were balled together and we took turns throwing the socks onto a letter.  The person not doing the throwing had to name the letter the socks landed on.  This was getting tricky because Oliver kept taking the socks and throwing them some where else!

Eventually we just ran around the letters as fast as we could! It wasn't really a game, but it was fun! 


Later on that week we used the sidewalk chalk to draw roads on our driveway for the bikes.  I wrote letters in the middle of the roads.  We pretended that when you drove over a letter and said the letter's name it gave you power to go "super fast!"  I didn't get pictures of this, but now I'm wishing I had taken some.  I just love that Elliott is at the point of recognizing and naming letters!  Such a fun stage!