A is for Awesome, Apple, and Alligator

My mother-in-law is a retired teacher and has great ideas for helping kids learn. She gave me an idea for the blog based on what she used to do while teaching. The class would work on one letter at a time and have a food/snack that started with that letter and some crafts (like an alphabet coloring page, etc.) that had to do with the letter. Higgins is just starting to write his name, but otherwise has no interest in learning his letters. I am hoping that this helps him get interested in the alphabet. Today's letter is A.

Crafts: 

• Apples. There are a ton of apple crafts you can make.
• Make stamps out of apples (see my Johnny Appleseed post for ideas)
• Clay apples. Bernardo made these at school and they are cute. You form clay (like Sculpey) into a ball. Insert a small stick for the stem. Let dry. Paint red once dried. DM Tip: Use red clay to make it easier and less messy!
• Apple tree. There are lots of ways to make an apple tree craft: paint a tree and use fingerprints for the apples, cut out shapes and glue the tree together, use round stickers for the apples, etc.
• Alligator  puppet
• Ant fingerprint craft
• Coloring page. I have a coloring page below, but if you want a different coloring page I found a really cool website called TwistyNoodle.com. It allows you to pick the type of coloring page and customize the text. They have a a few different coloring pages for each letter. Some pages have one picture, some have multiple, and some have handwriting practice at the bottom of the page. You can also change the wording of the text at the top of the page to be in print or cursive, or add your own verbiage.

Food: (Click on links for directions/recipes)

• Apples
• Cut out Shapes
• Baked Apples
• Wormy Apples
• Monster Apples
• Applesauce
• Applecrisp
• Apple Cider in an Apple Cup or apple juice
• Alligator Cupcakes and Cookies
• Avocado
• Apricot
• Asparagus
• Anchovies. I'm not sure any child would actually eat these, but they are an A food.
• These are a little trickier, but could work work if your child knows the exact name (i.e. almonds not just nuts, angel food cake not cake, etc.)
• Almonds 
• American Cheese
• Angel Food Cake
• Apple Jacks Cereal