A New Year starts and so too does our early years program. Each fortnight we will be looking at a different letter, country, animal and a whole bunch of other integrated learning areas that are linked to that letter. But fear not, this isn’t just about getting kids to learn their ABCs, the alphabet simply forms a convenient framework for a range of other learning areas – so they will explore, create and learn about the world… and happen to learn their ABC’s and 123’s too!

Before we kick off with the letter of the fortnight let’s get a few simple things set up to ensure the rest of the year is as simple as possible for the parents and teachers:

First up grab a folder to stick all your letters in then print out a years worth of colouring letters: (I like these ones; lovely design with lots of things starting with that letter)

I personally printed a bunch of ‘work sheets’ – worksheets are very traditional learning style, rather than activity based play learning, but the 5yo lives for this type of learning and it has been great for 3yo who likes the challenge of keeping to the letter shape! (I love the design of these ones, it’s a little more USA orientated for us in Australia – ie inchworm for “I” etc – but is a great resource for that traditional learning and each of my kids love to fill these in as a game of ‘big kid school’)

I have also printed out each of the letters for Australian sign language (you can find the full alphabet here) and a simple capital and lower case of each letter to hang on the wall for the fortnight. A good friend of mine (and wonderful early years teacher) ‘posted’ these letters to her son so he would run to the letter box with excitement and find his new letter in the mail box. A beautiful idea that we will implement for our program too.

Lastly I’ve printed off a world map (that we will colour in each country on) and a ‘feature animal’ sheet with a few questions about the animal (where does it live, what does it eat, is it a carnivore/herbivore/omnivore and what is special about it) We attach our feature creature each fortnight, and then answer in whiteboard makers as we learn the answers.

Each new letter I will also post links to printables and activities for them as they come up. If you would like to join us simply follow us (here or on face book) for a years worth of integrated activities to do with your young tot.