Who Let the Letters Out?

We all had too much fun today, which is why I'm posting so late-I fell asleep when I got home. :) 
This week I am doing a Chicka Chicka Boom Boom unit and we are talking about the alphabet. We listened to "Who Let the Letters Out" today. Each student got a balloon which had a capital magnet letter inside. On my magnet board was a list of lower case letters that the students matched their upper case magnet letter to, after popping their balloon, of course! They had a blast! It was so funny watching all the different ways they had to pop their balloon. I actually video taped the lesson, and you can watch your child when you come for parent conferences (will schedule soon), if you want.
We also started talking about writing letters. We stared with capital letter F. I shared a link with you a while ago about a wet-dry-try app you can download for your iPad. I reminded the students about this app if you have an iPad. We follow Handwriting Without Tears Curriculum, and wet-dry-try is one of the ways to teach writing letters. I started teaching the letter F by doing wet-dry-try with the class today and sent home a practice sheet. I explained to the students that they will get a sticker and a heart around their best letter F when they turn their paper in tomorrow. There is no right or wrong. I just want them to practice. Help them follow the instructions on how to write the letter at the top of the paper. The lines on the F are numbered with arrows, showing which to draw first and which direction to move the pencil.  You will begin to notice that handwriting is different today than it was when we were in school. We all learned to write with a "tail" on most lower-case letters. That style is called d'nealian. Now, the students are learning a more simple, clean, vertical style of printing. 
Visit http://www.hwtears.com/hwt to read a little more about it. 

Happy Wednesday!