A Treasure Hunt with a Literacy Goal

Each month in pre-k we'll have a "color of the month". The children will explore this color through various experiences. This month's color, red, was presented at the sensory table. At the beginning of the week the children tore and cut all types and thicknesses of red paper. This gave us a chance to see the scissor grip which was used as well as their finger and hand strength.


We made a board with each child's picture and his/her name, and hid magnetic letters to correspond to everyone's first initial among the cut paper and scraps...... then the treasure hunt began! The children excitedly searched for the letters and matched them to their friends' names. This activity was such a fun way for the children to begin to identify letters and to associate a written name with a particular friend.

Max,  Matthew and Jonah are really engrossed in the cutting process.

Lukas, James David and Charlie W. were chatting and cutting at the same time.

Jack, Sophia and Anna cutting-----Jack is cutting cellophane which requires more concentration since it is so flimsy.

Anna and Charlie B. cutting----we don't think Anna left the sensory table for very long!  It  is good for children to have repeated exposure to an activity since each time they learn something different from the experience and the classmates they're interacting with.

Anna and Sammie are searching for letters.

Matching letters to names

Jack and Jonah working together to find and match the letters.

Lukas is adding a letter to the board.

Charlie is holding up the small tongs we used to pull the letters out from the paper.  This tool strengthens the pincher grip, essential for writing.