We finished our N is for Neighborhood preschool unit, part 2, this week with a fun field trip, neighborhood helper game, and some writing practice. The activities were a lot of fun to do together with my preschoolers and they really enjoyed them too.
Activity One: Who are the People in your Neighborhood Letter N Photo Scavenger Hunt
Objective:
to help students understand what N sounds like, and to meet people in the neighborhood.
Materials:
One scavenger hunt list for each team, available here.
Writing instrument
Camera of some sort.
Cautionary Statement:
This activity involves going to private residences. Children should only go to houses of people who are known by the adult supervising them. Children should be accompanied by an adult for this activity.
All the items we collected that started with the letter N sound on our scavenger hunt. From Left to Right and Top to Bottom: Necktie, Nail, Newspaper, Necklace, N, Nickel, Notebook, Noodle, and Napkins.
Method:
Divide the children up into groups depending on the number of adults and children participating in the activity. We only had one adult (me) so we only had one group.
Go over each item on the list. Emphasize the N sound that each item starts with. Also, remind the children that only photos will be taken of each item on the list.
Remind everyone of the safety rules you want in place while going on the scavenger hunt. The rules we followed included: Only one person knocks on the door of the house. Everyone stays together as a group. Because of how far apart our neighbors are, we used a vehicle. So, we also had rules about staying in our seat belts until the car was turned off, and making sure everyone had gotten in and out of the vehicle at each stop.
Now, take the kids and go out and meet the neighbors. Don’t forget to cross of the items on the list as they are found.
It was a lot of fun to go out and see my preschoolers interact with the adults in our neighborhood. All of our neighbors were really sweet to my preschoolers. And, because of the limited number of people within a reasonable distance, we collected two items at each home, making six “new” friends. These were all families that I knew, but many of them were only slightly familiar to my preschooler.
This activity helped my preschoolers learn how to interact with people, while also learning the N sounds. And it was a great way to “meet” the people in the neighborhood.
Activity Two: People in the Neighborhood Bingo
Do you remember the song “People in Your Neighborhood” from Sesame Street? This activity builds off of that song with a fun Bingo game.
Objective:
children will learn about the community helpers in their town.
Materials:
One Bingo game board for each child, available here, which includes four separate game board configurations.
Markers to cover each square.
One bowl to hold the names of community helper titles, so they can be drawn randomly during the game.
Method:
Begin by going over each picture with the children and talk about what each community helper does.
We also watched a few of the Sesame Street YouTube videos of the song for fun.
Next, explain the rules of the game. The game can be played as a Bingo game or a blackout game. We played the game until we had a child with a blackout. But the length of the game will depend on the ages of the children playing.
My kids had a lot of fun with this activity. They liked marking off the helpers, and talked a little about the community helpers they knew. We ended up singing the song for the next week.
Activity Three: Righting Letter N
The enlarged version of the writing practice. Notice how two paths contain lowercase N’s and two paths contain uppercase N’s.
No that’s not a typo in the name of this activity. This fine motor activity focuses on helping children form letter N by correcting mis-formed N’s and completing a maze.
Objective:
Children will become familiar with the formation of both upper- and lowercase forms if the letter N.
Materials:
One “Righting Letter N’s” printable, available here, for each child.
A writing instrument for each child.
Method:
Begin by showing the children how to make an uppercase and lowercase letter N. Have the children practice tracing the letters with their fingers a few times.
Next, give them the printable, and explain that along each path are broken letter N’s they need to fix.
Tell them to be careful and make sure they are making the letters how they are supposed to be made. Each path contains only upper- or lowercase letter N’s.
We had a lot of fun with this unit and writing practice. My preschooler enjoyed learning about the letter N so much, that she rooted for the Nebraska football team — even though we were rooting for the opposing team.
