Painting Our Way Through the Alphabet

I try hard to take time to reflect on my teaching, my parenting, myself. To think about areas that are real strengths and to identify areas I need that could use some improvement. Perhaps its the social worker in me, but I'm really good at this step. The next step, the important one, of making a plan to improve the not so stellar parts, is a little more difficult for me.
After last school year, I looked at the Virginia Standards for Education for preschoolers and looked over my lesson plans, highlighting some places that I wanted to focus more on this school year. Writing and cutting are two areas that I tended to place less emphasis. I think because this is painful for some three year olds, difficult for most, and successful for few. Its more fun to focus on the other things most of the time. This year, I challenged myself to develop a challenging, educational, and fun way to work on writing regularly in my classroom. I didn't want to it to feel like work for my kids. (More on cutting in a later post.)
My plan?  Each week on Wednesdays, my kids and I first look at a letter (only capitals for now) and brainstorm words that start with the letter, often with my clues, such as "I'm thinking of a word that starts with B that is the opposite of small. Bbbbbb....." and then my students guess "big". Then, we trace a cardboard cut out of that letter one by one around the table while saying a catchy phrase to describe writing it. For example, for A, we said "Up, down, across" while tracing. B? "Line down. Bubble. Bubble." C- "Around, not all the way!" D- "Line Down, BIG Bubble". I have reviewed the previous letters each week through the week as we see them printed in books, find them in our names, or wait in line for something. The kids have been saying them on their own, too!
Then, the most fun part. I squirt paint on the table. Everywhere. No paper, no smocks. (Thank God for stain remover.) We practice writing the letters with either fingers or paint brushes using the paint on the table. I walk around helping each student make the letter by first moving their hand while the say the catchy phrase and then watching them do it on their own. It is a huge mess. But so much fun. And my students literally squeal with excitement when it is "Letter Time!".
That squeegee I have in my classroom? The kids use it to clean up their own space and table is clean in no time!

Writing on their own on easel paper.