Autumn 2002

Welcome to Butterfly School's second healthy alphabet week! Save your sheets to create a colorful & personalized alphabet book with your child. Our alphabet Activity Sheets are available each day.

Here are extra ideas from my kitchen table to yours.

Sneak Peak.
Take a peak at this week's sheets to prepare special things to share. Some things you might like to have on hand: ribbon, string ...) Make a simple kite shape by drawing a diamond and adding a ribbon or string to your picture.

Join us next week for a special field trip. We're going on a hike in search of acorns! The alphabet series will continue in two weeks. Until then, enjoy the resources posted here and at www.shininghours.com!

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You are ready for the Activity Sheets now; you can print them from here (Get Sheets), or go back to the Butterfly School home page.

From Butterfly Central,

-- Jessica Steigerwald

For more great ideas, check out the activities at our parent site www.shininghours.com.  

Get ready to read!

Teacher Tips
from Corinne Steigerwald

While developing a reading readiness environment for your child is not as simple as serving soup, it is an important thing to do. Serve alphabet soup or make your own creative alphabet soup once a week and help your child identify the letters!

Reading readiness is not one experience, but is comprised of many experiences and mastery of many basic skills that will enable children to become successful readers, writers, listeners and speakers.

Tip#1: With each Butterfly School page, tell your child you are holding the page vertically so the image may be viewed correctly. Do the same when holding a story book. Point out that the book must be held vertically to see the pictures and words correctly.

Tip #2: As you read, follow the words from left to right with your finger. Use the language, "We read from left to right".

Tip #3: As you continue to read moving from line to line, say, "We read the page from top to bottom".

During the first three years of life children are busy controlling their bodies and communicating with you by crying, gurgling, kicking, hugging, tasting, smelling, hearing, tasting, touching, and loving. All cycles and stages of development overlap, so don't worry if your child is not where the "average" child is.

While it is critical during the first three years of life to create a loving, physically safe, nutritionally nurturing atmosphere for your child's body, it is equally important to recognize and respond to the needs of that growing brain - billions of brain cells ready to go! Read to your infant! Sing to your infant!

Show them leaves, trees, flowers and breezes. But, be sure to use words to identify what you are seeing so your child can hear and repeat the sounds that represent each object.

As your baby masters body basics they are ready for new, cognitive and social challenges. Let Butterfly School inspire reading, speaking, listening and writing activities with you and your child.

Questions for Corinne: corinne@shininghours.com

Coordinated resources: