#960. "F" letter ideas

Reading/Writing, level: Elementary
Posted Thu Apr 8 12:45:40 PDT 1999 by Jan k/ne and the Early Childhood Ring (jblecha@genie.esu10.k12.ne.us).
Dudley Elementary,
Concepts Taught: "F" letter activities

F letter ideas

Letter F part 1

*Fruit Loops, faces, fish, fishing, farm, fish crackers, fire safety, Fairy
Tales, # five, fall
*introduce the Letter F with the Letter F bag containing: fork, feather, fan,
flour, flower, fuse, flag, felt, fig bar, fruit, fish, fish crackers, Fruit
Loops
*glue Fruit Loops to F shape
*count fish crackers onto work mat containing grid labeled with numbers
*glue fish crackers onto work mat containing grid labeled with numbers
*practice writing Ff
*use play dough to make Ff, using laminated letter masters if needed
*draw faces and color
*play Letter Detective: allow students a turn to use a pointer and locate F or
f in environmental print in the classroom
*give students a fish to color, cut out and glue onto light blue paper. They
may add seaweed, bubbles, other fish, a hook and line
*make a necklace with Fruit Loops
*read The Foot by Dr. Seuss
*trace the students' feet onto construction paper, cut out and write their
names on them. Use the feet to form a huge F.
*make an F poster by adding things that begin with /f/: felt, feathers,
flowers, fork, foil, fabric, fish crackers
*draw a large fish outline onto posterboard and have students cut out pictures
from magazines that begin with /f/. Glue the pictures onto the fish.
*gather objects that begin with /f/ and some that don't and place on a large
piece of fabric. Allow the students to take turns identifying all objects as
they're taken off the fabric. The students are then given turns in choosing
and item that begins with /f/ to place back on the fabric.
*copy fruit outlines and have students trace outlines with glue and sprinkle
on dry jello or Kool - Aid
*use plastic fish as counters
*use feet cutouts labeled with numbers or letters for sequencing
*print mostly Ff on fish cutouts and other letters on the rest of the fish
cutouts. Laminate and attach small paper clips to their mouths. Place fish
in a fish bowl or small pond made from light blue bulletin board paper. Make
a fishing pole from a twig and string with a circle magnet tied to the end.
Students take turns fishing and the one with the most Ffs wins. Student has
to be able to identify the letter before they can keep their fish.
*play Go Fish
*pretend to:
~ hop like a frog
~ swim like a fish
~ catch a fish
~ fold the laundry
~ dust the furniture
~ wash your face and feet
~ eat french fries
*graph favorite fruits
*sing Farmer in the Dell

Cindy/SPED K-2
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^^^
excerpted from Mrs. Alphabet's newsletter
Feet, Feet, Feet
Short feet, long feet
Feet, Feet ,Feet
I think feet are neat!
I write this on sentence strips and the kids like to change the long and
short to color words, number words and
even put in their names. It makes a great class book too.
Bobbi
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^
Mystery Box:
Contains a football for the introduction of the letter Ff.

Book Activities:
I read Swimmy by Leo Leonni to my class. Then we all paint a red fish and
I paint a black fish. I arrange then on the bulletin board as a BIG red
fish with a black eye. Causes lot of second glances, even though it's a
well-used idea.
Read The Rainbow Fish to students. Give everyone a shiny scale to use as
they decorate a fish to illustrate the book!

Fish Math:
Use the little fish crackers as counters in a math center on 5x7 fish bowls
that are cut from blue denim.

Family:
I use the unit Family & Friends during this week. Students bring pictures
of their families for display at this time. They also have a "me" bag
which contains items that describe their families and some of their
activities. Fun unit!

Fall:
Class goes on "signs of fall" walk and collect things (from the ground) and
attach to a "masking tape" bracelet to display when they return to the
classroom.

Fire Prevention:
Lots and lots of activities planned around this theme--the very best thing
for kids is to have the firemen take them in a smoke-filled room and crawl
around on the floor with them. Children learn what to expect and to not be
afraid of the fireman. (Firemen have a machine that has "make-believe"
smoke for this purpose!).

Graphing:
Graph favorite fruit--then make it into a fruit salad for all to enjoy!

Art:
Fingerpaint
Paint with feathers

Motor:
Use strips of fabric for children to let "fly" from the fingers as they
frolic around the front of the school!! Encourage them to wave, swirl,
turn and sway their fabric in time to the music. This is great to do on
"Fun Friday!!

~Va.
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^^^
The letter f colored on a ditto and then we glued feathers on.

Paper plate made into a frog

Fingerpainted a paper plate and then made into a fan by adding a tongue
depressor.

Made fruit salad. All children brought in a piece of fruit which we cut up
in a big bowl and ate for snack.

Made an Ff collage of pictures from magazines. (we cut most of them out
then
had children identify each picture they picked out and practice making their
own F's)

Fish shape out of oaktag and then we glued on colored rice for scales.

* Cut a Flower out of white cardboard.A tulip is nice. Use tissue paper
crumbld into little balls. Let them glue.
Play Leap Frog
Freeze Dance
Discuss different Flags
Talk about Friends and Feelings

* We do "Funny Feet" for Ff Week, the children have fun! Take off shoes
trace
their feet and then create them funny! Make faces, houses, people, autos,
the
list is endless!!

* SNACK IDEA: Make Fruit salad. Allow the children to practice
cutting skills using blunt table knives to cut bananas, orange
and pineapple sections.

FANS
If you are near an import store, you could get several kinds of paper fans
to
show the children. Then provide the children with felt markers to decorate
their paper and then show them how to fold them into accordion type fans.

The following F activities comes from a book called Learning Letters Through
All Five Senses
by Lois McCue.

FINGERS, FINGERS (Fingerplay)
Fingers, fingers,
Flit and fly,
Fingers, fingers,
Climb up high,
Fingers, fingers,
Turn and twist,
Fingers, fingers
Make a fist.
Fingers, fingers,
Crawl and creep.
Fingers, fingers,
Fast asleep.

FINGERPRINTS
Offer paper and stamp pads.
Demonstrate how the children can make their
own fingerprints. Supply magnifying glass for
closer observation.

FINGERPAINT
As the children fingerpaint, suggest they
try making the letter F with their finger.

FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
Cut out pictures of faces with different
facial expressions (happy, sad or crying,
worried, laughing, etc.)
What letter does face start with?
Place the pictures and a small hand mirror
on a tray for a shelf activity.

Ff
•Finger Painting
Have children finger paint things that begin with F, such as fish,
flowers,
frogs, etc.

•Feet
Have each child trace and cout out the shape of his or her own feet. Use
everyone's feet shapes to make the Big and/or small letter F for a
display on
the wall.

•Feet
Have the children explore all the movements of feet, such as walking,
running,
dancing, hopping, skipping, kicking, tiptoeing. If possible, have them
do the
activities with bare feet.
•Freeze
Call out movements for the children to perform, such as Walk, skip, hop,
jump,
waddle, etc. When you call "Freeze!" they must stop immediately and hold
the
positions they are in.

•Funny Faces with Fruit
Use halved oranges in the peel. Have each child carefully scoop out the
insides of the orange, draw a funny face on the outside of the orange
shell
with a marker and then cut up the scooped out orange into bite-sized
pieces
and put them back into the shell.. You can add other cut up fruits like
bananas, strawberries, pineapple, etc.

•Darling Little Goldfish
My darling little goldfish (wiggle one finger)
Hasn't any toes (point to your toes)
He swims around without a sound (pretend one finger is swimming)
And bumps his angry nose. (point to nose)
He can't get out to play with me (Point to your self)
Nor I get in to him (Point to children)
Although I say "Come out and play," (motion finger to come out)
He says, "come in and swim." (pretend you are swimming)

•Flight
A bird's body is specially built for flying. It is very light. There
are
pockets of air in it, and most of the bones are hollow. So a bird
doesn't
have to lift much weight into the air. A bird has very strong muscles
for
flapping its wings, and the wings have just the right shape for flying.
The
inner part of a bird's wing is like the wing of an airplane. It lifts
the
bird up in the air. The outer part of the wing acts like a propeller.
It's
long feathers pull on the air and move the bird forward. The design of
airplane wings was copied from bird's wings. Some birds will fly upside
down
to attract a mate! Hummingbirds can fly backwards.

•Felt board..
use it for felt board stories or to let the kids play with the pieces

•Plant Flowers

•Gone Fishin'
required: -pencil and paper, -strainer, -styrofaom, -Yardstick or dowel,
-masking tape, -bucket or wading pool.
optional: _waterproof markers, -scissors

First, have the child draw fish shapes on the paper (make sure they are
no
longer than the diameter of your strainer). Then cut the fish out.
Next, have
your kids trace the fish onto a sheet of styrofoam. finally, cut out
the
styro. fish (you will probably have to do this part!). You can have the
kids
decorate the fish with markers, but you'll have to use waterproof
ink---make
sure to take appropriate precautions. To make a "fishing pole" attach
the
handle of the strainer to the yardstick or dowel with masking tape.Fill
the
bucket or wading pool with water and let the fish loose in their native
habitat. Issue some fishing permits (***I know you all know this
already**supervise closely around water) and the kids are ready for a
day at
the fishing hole!! **make up some stories about the ones that got
away!!!

•Serve Figs for snacks

•Fireworks
cut and paste Fireworks (strips or misc shapes of bright paper glued to
a
dark background.

•Planting Flowers(math)
cut 10 simple flower shapes form wallpaper scraps or construction paper
and
glue to craft sticks. Print the numbers 1-10 on index cards. Obtain a
flower
pot and fill with sand or soil. To play the game, place the number cards
upside down on a table. A child chooses a card, identifies the number
and
"plants" the appropriate number of flowers in the pot.

•Spring flowers(art)
Use pastel cupcake liners for the blossoms. Use green markers or
constructin
paper scraps to make stems and leaves. Glue to pastel sheets of
constructin
paper.

•Flower garden(art)
You will need: Watercolor paint,paintbrushes, white paper, Playdoh,
craft
stick, saftey scissors, glue, egg carton,
Use scissors to cut out heads of flowers from white paper. paint the
flowers
with watercolor paint. Allow to dry completely.
Glue flowers onto craft sticks for stems. Pour a small drop of glue inot
each
egg carton compartment. Press playdoh into glue and allow to dry
completely.
Poke craft stick flowers into playdoh for a garden

•Fish
Make a fishing game by cutting out fish shapes from construction paper
and
attaching paper clips to the head of the fish. Use a straw to make a
pole and
attach yarn for the line. Use either a magnet, or another paper clip
bent like
a hook and let the kids fish for their prey! I have used this to learn
colors,
if they can name the color of the fish they can keep it. whoever has the
most
fish wins. You can also use it for letters, numbers, shapes or anything
you
are trying to teach.

•Paper plate fish
You will need: white paper plate, watercolor paint, brushes, container
of
water, construction paper, (blue, green or white) glue, markers, safety
scissors.
Use scissors to cut out the shape of a fish from the paper plate. Paint
the
fish with water color paint and allow to dry. Use markers to add things
such
as eyes scalesand gills to the fish. Glue fish onto construction paper.
Paint
things such as underwater plants and sea creatures onto the paper.

•Fingerpaint
Recipe:(add a sprinkling of powdered soap flakes to either of these
recipes to
help paint glide over the paper and to make clean up easier)
Mix 2 parts of liquid laundry starch with 1 part powdered tempera paint
of a
few dropa or food color as you paint on the paper
OR
Mix flour and cold water into a paste. Add food coloring ro powdered
tempera
paint on the paper as you paint

•Fugue or Singers that start with F
Paint to music..maybe a Fugue, or a singers name that starts with an F?!

•Funny Fingerprints:
You will need" Sheet of paper, paint, sponge, plastic margerine tub,
markers,
(fine point) scissors
Cut a sponge to fit inside the margerine tub. Saturate sponge with paint
for a
printing pad. Press fingertip inot pad, then press onto paper for
fingerprints. Use markers to draw things such as funny animals, people
or
funny insects. ( YOu can also do funny foot prints if you are feeling
brave!,
Just be sure to supervise closely so the kids don't slip!)

•Facepaint.
Paint the kids faces as ferocious felines, fearless firefighters, funny
fish
or anything else you can come up with!

Letter F part 2

•Feelings
Show pictures of people with different expressions and have the kids
guess how
they are feeling. Or ask how would you feel if, and have them verbalize
or
draw a picture of a face that portrays that feeling. This can also be
done
with a felt board. Make different eyes, mouths, noses, eyebrows, etc and
let
the kids make faces on a felt face to show different feelings.

•Feely bag..
put items inot a bag and have children identify them by feeling.. maybe
the
things in the bag could begin with f also!

•Funnels
Water play.. use different funnels for the kids to experiment with for
water
or sand play

•Firefighers (dramatic play)
Have the children play firefighters. My kids use ropes as hoses and the
couch
as the fire engine. If possible have dressup clothes and hats that can
be used
for fire fighter outfits. Here are a couple of poems to go along with
this
idea:

•Fire, Fire
Fire, fire, fire fire
Hear the sirent blowing!
Fire, fire fire , fire
Everybodys going!
Climb the lader, squirt the hose,
With a sh, sh sh sh!!
Out the fire goes!

•Fire Engine
This is the fire engine
this is the hose,
the firemen work fast
when the siren blows.

Up goes the ladder,
Up goes the hose.
The fire is out
When the siren blows.

•Fire Station
Take the kids to visit a real fire station

•Florist
Take a field trip to a florist

•F collage
Ahead of time cut pictures from a magazine or old cards of things that
begin
with F. Have the children glue the pictures onto construction paper to
make a
collage of F things.

•Snack on Fruit
Have different kinds of fruit for snack
Figs may be a new one to try!

•The Two Feet Game
(hold hands and recite and act out this rhyme)
I can walk with two feet, two feet, two feet.
I can walk with two feet, two feet, all day long.

I can jump with two feet...
I can hop with two feet...
I can run with two feet...
I can march with two feet...
I can slide with two feet...
I can skip with two feet...
(Can also be used with other parts of the body--I can blink with two
eyes, I
can wave with one hand, I can wiggle ten fingers, etc.

•Feet Butterflies
Have each child stand on a piece of paper with fee slightly apart.
Trace
around each child's feet to make "butterfly wings." Draw a butterfly
body
between each pair of wings and add antennae and smiling faces. Let the
children decorate their butterflies with crayons. Then have them brush
glue
over their butterflies and sprinkle them with glitter.

•Counting feet
cut six egg cups from a cardboard egg carton. Poke a pipe cleaner
through
each egg cup to make two legs and bend up the ends to make feet.
Decorate the
last cup with two eyes and two antennae. Have the children place
several of
the cups in a row to create a caterpillar. Have them count the number
of feet
it has. Then let them line up a different number of egg cups and count
the
feet on the new caterpillar they have made.

•Fish Story
Another teacher workshop I give is "Building Classroom Community." One
of the
things I do in this workshop is tell this enactable story. I use it in
the
classroom at the beginning of the year to discuss the importance of
learning
everyone's name. I ask the kids to find out from Mom and Dad how they
got
their name. We enact the story then and we do it again at the end of
the
year during sea life and it is one of the plays we present at
graduation. I
have felt board pieces (wish I could give you the handout or draw on
this darn
thing! The sunfish and the sun are from yellow felt with gold glitter
paint
trim, the diamond fish is black felt with a plastic diamond glued on,
the sea
horse is orange felt, the sword fish gray felt, and the sea star
lavendar
felt. I used black fabric paint and fine tip brush to paint on
features. I
blew up the patterns and put them tag board headbands and laminated them
and
put velcro on so the kids can wear the fishes when the enact the play.
At the
end of the year, the kids paint scenery of the cave, seaweed, and coral
garden
on large boxes with one side removed so they stand in a U shape and the
fishes
can get behind them. There are five fish parts for the kids to play
and we
use another five kids to do sound effects with instruments. So when
there is
a noise made, it comes from an instrument. The story goes in the same
pattern
as the first paragraph each time the yellow fish meets a new fish so I
just
went...... when this happens. Here is how the story goes:

The Fish With No Name
Once upon a time, there was a big yellow fish. He was very sad because
he
didn't have a name. So he decided to swim through the ocean in search
of a
name. First, he swam by a dark cave when suddenly, he heard a noise.
What
noise do you think he heard? (audience response). That's exactly it!
He
heard ( ). and out swam a black fish. "Hi!, said the yellow fish,
what's your
name?" "My name is Diamond Fish." "Oh what a beautiful name!," said
the
yellow fish. "I think I'll call myself Diamond Fish." But the Diamond
fish
said, "Oh, no, no, no. You can't do that! You see, my mommy named me
Diamond
fish because I have a diamond eye. You don't have a diamond eye so you
can't
be Diamond Fish. "Oh," said the yellow fish sadly, "I guess I'll just
have to
keep on looking." And off he swam until he came upon a beautiful coral
garden,
where he heard another noise. What noise do you think he
heard?......(repeat
pattern from above)...And out swam and orange fish. "Hi, said the yellow
fish.
What's your name?" "My name is seahorse"....(continue with same
dialogue
pattern as above using (Mommy named me seahorse because I have a head
like a
horse and I live in the sea. You don't have a head like a horse,
etc....)

Then the yellow fish swims by a dark garden of seaweed and hears another
noise, meets a gray fish. "Hi. What's your name?" "My name is
swordfish."
"I have a nose like a sword", etc.

By now, the yellow fish is so sad and frustrated that he is swimming
near the
bottom of the ocean when he hears another noise......and meets
seastar.....
Sea star says, "You see, my Daddy named me sea star because he was
looking up
at the stars and said, "Those stars look just like you. I think I'll
name you
Sea Star." ......."You don't look like a star, so you can't be Sea
Star."
No, said the Yellow fish, but that gives me an idea!" And he swam to
the top
of the ocean and looked into the sky. But it wasn't night time, it was
day
time. So what do you think he saw? The sun! Yes! And he said to
himself,
"Hey! That's round like me, and yellow like me, and it sparkles like
me! I
think I'll call myself Sun Fish! And he was so happy that he had
finally
found a name, he swam in circles all the rest of that day and lived
happily
ever after in the sea. The end.

• Frogs
Next week my class will be learning all about frogs. I bought two
tadpoles to
have in my class to watch them turn into frogs. I have ditto sheets of
the
stages the frog goes through that the children will cut out and glue in
the
correct order. I drew a picture of a frog and will let the children
glue
green tissue paper on it. I will have the children cut out a big circle
from
green construction paper then cut the edges of a coffee filter and glue
it on
the green circle to make a lily pad and glue their frog on the lily
pad.It
looks really cute. Also for a snack we will make tapioka
pudding and this will be our "frog eggs".

•FLEAGLE THE BEAGEL
cup hands to mouth
as if calling Fleagle the Beagle!
point to wrist watch It's time for the tub!
point to self the to fleagle -I know you don't like it
Make scrubbing motions- But you need a scrub!!!

make scrubbing circles I;ll was you with soap
point to tail and head-From your tail to your head,
Hold palms up And when you're all clean
rest head in hands---You can sleep on my bed

• FABULOUS FLAGS:
Give each child a triangular(pennant shaped) piece of construction
paper that
is approximately six inches wide at the large end and 12-18 inches long.
Provide bright construction paper squares and cicles for the children to
glue
on. I try to get the children to do this project from left to right and
in
descending sizes(left to right as they will need to do this for reading
purposes later on for reading). When the flags are dry tape them to
cardboard
tubes from paper toweling. When the flags are finished put on saome
marching
music, and have a parade.

Fred, the triangle

To accompany this following...I made Fred in the various shape forms and
turned a splodge into Dr. Shape.
..........................................................................

Once upon a time there was a triangle called Fred.

Fred was very unhappy. He was tired of having only three sides, he wanted
four. So Fred ate bigger dinners and after three days he grew another side.
He changed his name to Fred Square because you see all of his sides were the
same length.

For a while Fred was happy being a square, but not for long. After two weeks
Fred became bored with his sides which were all the same length, and he
decided he would rather be a rectangle. So Fred didn't eat anything for
three days and changed his shape to a long thin rectangle.

Fred's friends laughed at him when they saw how thin he had become. Fred was
very upset and for seven days he stayed at home. But a week is a long time
to stay in your house and Doctor Shape went to see Fred. Fred told the
doctor what had happened and the Doctor told Fred that he was really too
thin and he must begin to eat again. Fred took the Doctor's advice and it
wasn't long before he had grown another side. Now Fred had five sides so he
had to change his name again, this time to Fred Pentagon.

All Fred's friends liked his new shape and said they were very sorry for
laughing at him. Fred was the happiest he had been for a long time and
decided he would stay a pentangle for ever and ever. But dear, dear; Fred
found that every time he saw something to eat he ate it, and after only a
day Fred had grown another side. He had to change his name a fourth time to
Fred Hexagon.

Fred was very worried. He tried hard to eat only at mealtimes but it was no
good. The next morning when Fred got out of bed he hurried to the mirror to
see if he had grown again. He had: Fred was now Fred Octagon. He had grown
two more sides.

Fred cried and cried, he was so unhappy. Then he had an idea. He called
Doctor Shape to see if he could help. The doctor said he would call in an
hour's time. Fred ate a biscuit while he was waiting but after he had eaten
the last crumb a funny thing happened. Fred felt eight little clicks in his
eight sides and when he rushed to the mirror he saw that his sides had
joined up. He was an oval.

When the doctor arrived at Fred's house he was met at the door by a circle
with tears in its eyes.

The doctor told Fred that he must have nothing to eat for a week or he would
become so big that he would pop. Fred ate nothing.

On Sunday Fred was a circle.
On Monday Fred was an oval.
On Tuesday Fred was an octagon.
On Wednesday Fred was a hexagon.
On Thursday Fred was a pentagon.
On Friday Fred was a rectangle.
On Saturday Fred was a square.
On Sunday Fred was a triangle.

But Fred forgot to start eating again and on Monday when Doctor Shape called
in to see Fred, all that was left were three lines on the floor.

Doctor Shape called an ambulance and very carefully three-lined Fred was
lifted onto a stretcher and rushed to hospital. Doctor Shape managed to
join the three lines again and make a triangle.

Fred still has three sides but he is never unhappy now because he is a very
important triangle. Every day he tells his story to children who mix him up
with his other shape friends.

............................................................................
..
This was written by C. Smedley and taken from the June 1974 issue of Child
Education.
000000000000000000000000000

Feelings

Silly Face, Silly Face,
What do you see?
I see a Sad Face looking at me.

Sad Face, Sad Face,

What do you see?
I see a Sleepy Face looking at me.

Sleepy Face, Sleepy Face,
What do you see?
I see a Mad Face looking at me.

Mad Face, Mad Face,
What do you see?
I see a Surprised Face looking at me.

Surprised Face, Surprised Face,
What do you see?
I see a Happy Face looking at me.

Happy Face, Happy Face,
What do you see?
I see ANOTHER HAPPY FACE looking at me!

I use round circle faces for each of the feelings--they are colored
brightly and laminated for repeated use.

We also act out the feelings--the children get a real kick out of doing
the sad and mad faces.

Sandy