The Letter Z

For the letter Z we made these cute zebras. I found a zebra outline and let the kids add the stripes. I have done this with paints or crayons before, but chose to use crayons this time. You can see my little guy hard at work. 

One of our snacks we had Zesta crackers. It is great for kids to see letters in action, on packages, signs, etc. I always have the kids show me the letter on the package. It helps them look places for letters also. 

For our Z movement we: zoomed, pretended to zip things, learned what zany meant and acted it out, and did a lot of zig zagging.

We also did a Z word guessing game. I found it at Mrs. Jones.

Play a Word Guessing game.                                

All of your guesses should begin with the Z z sound.
a. The number that comes before one is ________. (zero)
b. I like to see the wild animals in the ______. (zoo)
c. My favorite jacket doesn't have buttons, it has a ________. (zipper)
d. An animal that looks like a black and white striped horse is a _____. (zebra)
e. Another word for crazy is _______. (zany)

Another fun activity that we did was planting zinnias and zucchinis. I had pre-cut some construction paper Zs in various colors. I had the children glue them onto the paper cups, and then let them fill their cups with potting soil. It was definitely a mess, but they enjoyed it. It probably would have been a better outdoor activity, but I don't think the weather was warm enough that day. Then they planted the seeds into their cups and added a little water. 

Sadly our Z seeds didn't make it, they got tipped over a few times. 

We also had a little cutting practice with zig zag and other lines. We were learning about transportation that week, so the kids were cutting different modes of transportation across the paper. They did much better at cutting than I expected, though I do think one of them just cut straight through, not following the lines, they were finding a more direct route I guess! :)

Mr W. was so proud of himself for cutting back and forth and how long his paper got! :)