How to make "letter of the day" scavenger hunt bags.

Letter of the day bags.

I’m not one of those parents who can find joy sitting and playing with preschoolers for hours on end. “Mommy let’s color together!” results in 15 minutes of coloring and then Mommy getting antsy and starting to make suggestions like, “Hey! I know! I can read a book and you color next to me while I watch!”

 

I’m a much less testy parent when I can create some structure.
 

A while ago this less than June Cleaver-esk character trait of mine prompted me to make “letter of the day" scavenger hunt bags. Here’s how it works:

 

1. Take 26 baggies, one for each letter of the alphabet.

2. Label each bag with the letters A-Z. (Stickers or a sharpie work well.)

3. If your child is learning to write, find a printing practice sheet for each letter and add it to the bag.

4. Make a cheat sheet for yourself of everyday items and activities that start with each letter and put that in the bag too because…

 

5. You’re about to have a day long scavenger hunt involving words that start with the letter of the day. As the day goes by you can add small items that start with the letter to the bag, point out or even take pictures of larger items or activities that start with the letter, and otherwise attempt to incorporate the letter into your day in a fun and low key way.

 

Initially I sat down in front of an “American Horror Story” marathon and just put together all the bags so even on mornings where I’m feeling extra-not June Cleaver I’ve got a fall back plan that requires almost no effort.

Here's an example:

The letter of the day a few days ago was “G.” When I put together the letter I printed out an alphabet worksheet from www.kidslearningstation.com and brainstormed some “G” words to use as hints/suggestions for my four year old, M: Green, giraffe, grapes, grouch, gorilla, go, good, great, goat, gift, golf, glitter, Go Diego Go!(It’s easy enough to come up with more as the day goes by. “Goes!” Ha! "Good" times!)

 

Here’s a picture of the “G” bag at the beginning of the day. The letter of the day is extra-hilarious when the letter of the day is “D” and your kid keeps talking about what she’s doing with her “D” bag. It’s like she has a pet Jersey Shorecast member.

When M got up I gave her the bag (Gave! Another “G”! Yay small talk!). While I drank coffee and returned to the land of the living M, who wakes up with more energy than I'd have after 85 cups of coffee, had the option of working on the handwriting sheet, “helping me out” by going on a scavenger hunt for “G” things, or drawing stuff that started with “G.”

She also had the option of being like, “Whatever, Mom” and setting herself up with Legos or some other completely unrelated activity.

The letter of the day influenced outfit selection. "Girls" can save the world! In "Green!"

The rest of our day involved heart stoppingly exciting stuff like going over to a friend’s house for a before school play date (Going! A “G” word!), getting (G!) a ride from the friend to preschool (where the class pet is a gecko! omG!), running evening errands to exotic places like the grocery store (Grocery! G! They even had grapes! And green peppers!), and bringing home an art project that had so much glitter (G!) my car looked like a Ke$ha concert.

I’ll spare you the details of the rest of the day because it does not make for exciting prose and I’m sure you get the point.

By the end of the day our “G” bag looked like this:

Giraffe sticker, G printing sheet, green felt, glitter glue, grasshopper card, gorilla toy, and a picture of Granny, a grasshopper, and some grass which was great. Yay, "G!"

Letter of the day scavenger hunts work well for us it’s a “do no harm” way for me to have a fall back activity plan and incorporate early childhood literacy without creating a super high pressure LEARN OR RISK MY WRATH situation.

We don’t do a letter of the day everyday and she has the option to do as much or as little with the letter as she likes though generally (G!) she’s seemed pretty into it.


Especially on days where I’m like, “Wow. It’s me and small children for how many hours?” letter of the day is Great!