Do you need a done-for-you lesson plan for your homeschool preschool Co Op with the letter V? I did. I gathered all my favorite letter V crafts and preschool ideas, then put it together for a full 2 hour preschool lesson.
Letter V words for preschoolers:
- Volcano
- Vulture
- Vacuum
- Vase
- Veggies
- Vanilla
How to use this preschool lesson plan:
I’ve tried to split it up in every way I could think of:
You have the supplies checklist for items you’ll need beforehand. Some things might be easier to find online, so to be safe, I’ve slated time a week ahead to get everything together.
Then there is the night before prep. That is like printing things off, cutting things up, double checking your instructions, etc.
Finally I have the morning of prep. That really just involves you figuring out how you are going to stage the preschool in your home, making sure the materials for each project are in the right place, and are ready for the kiddos when they come. The last thing you want is for the kids to smell ‘disorganization’ while you say “hold on a sec, I need the scissors”. they will scatter and scream the moment your back is turned.
I like to go between my kitchen table and the living room floor. Sometimes I’ll set up the welcome/leaving area somewhere else, with toys that they can play with while they wait.
Schedule.
I have found that kids can focus for about 15 minutes. . . longer if it is exciting to them, shorter if its boring. . . but it evens out to about 4 an hour, making 8 sections.
I love asking preschoolers lots of questions when it comes to each section. I’ve written out a few starting points/lessons for each section, but you really shouldn’t read the lessons out loud to them. Just have a normal, yet leading, conversation about vultures, the environment, volcanoes, vacuuming, vases, and veggies.
(P.S Vases were because it was close to Mother’s Day for us, so they plan on giving flowers in their vases to their mom. But I left it open for just giving flowers to say thank you, in case it wasn’t around a Holiday)
Tip: Chances are you are running this Co Op because you have a preschooler. Which means he/she has toys. If this lesson ends before the two hours, it is just fine (encouraged even) to have them have free play time. I don’t add that into the lesson plan, but they always get a little time at the end anyways.
week before prep work: buy these items
- Paper (paper that can handle paint for the volcano, like this paper)
- Brown construction paper. . .or brown paint and paint the volcano base.
- Wipes for painted hands later.
- Red/yellow paint for handprints
- Veggie Straws
- Vanilla Pudding
- Mini water cups
- Dollar store vases (or online here) for each child.
- Tissue papers (different colors optional)
- Elmer’s glue
- Small paint brushes (dollar store)
- Small snacks for the veggies game (I use Motts fruit snacks)
- Optional – different veggies for the kids to try.
Optional Note: Many people have asked for just the coloring handwriting pages that I made for each letter. You can find each of them for FREE on each letter lesson plan. OR you can BUY IT as a digital download (CLICK HERE) or a physical copy (CLICK HERE)
night before prep work
- Pull out your vacuum and make a plan of where they can help. . . Maybe stairs, or using the attachments to vacuum edges if the vacuum is too heavy for the little hands. If you are really into it, you can make a mess on purpose so they can vacuum it up. throwing dirt somewhere, or crumbling a cracker on the floor and having them get each crumb.
- Print off vulture on a vacuum for each child
- Cut up tissue paper into squares and read how to make the VASES HERE
- Print off one veggie game for the group, or give each child their own veggie paper.
- Cut out brown volcano shapes for each child that will fit inside a piece of paper for painting.(they don’t have to be great, just make it roundish triangle-ish, and it should be fine)
morning prep work:
- Gather all the supplies.
- Kitchen table: Have the table set with everything needed for the volcano craft – volcano paper, red/yellow/orange paint. Paper plate that the kids can put their hands in. (set it up using this person’s post)
- Vacuuming area all ready.
- Have the stack of vultures vacuuming and pens waiting next to the table.
- Snack supplies ready to go. Water cups with water (and names written on it?), veggie straws and vanilla pudding with spoons. . . and napkins
- Vases Craft: Vases, glue, tissue paper (here is the link to the activity) ready to be done at the table.
- Veggie papers/veggie snacks for the game in the living room.
Schedule For Letter V Co Op Lesson:
Welcome craft Volcano Handprints.
Note: Painting should always be done first so that the paint has enough time to dry.
This is pretty simple to do. Glue the brown volcano at the bottom of the page, then help the kids put red and yellow paint on their hands, then have them press it on the top of the volcano like spewing lava (explain what volcanoes and lava is.) If you want better instructions, you can click here.
Move to the living room.
Introducing the letter V
Welcome everyone, do you remember what letter we learned last time? what was it’s sound? Do you remember any of the words that start with U?
What letter are we learning about now?
let’s sing the abc song.
It’s V!
V makes the VVVVV sound, like the volcano we just made. What other words start with V? like in Vulture on a Vacuum.
Teaching Children How To Vacuum
Have you ever seen a vulture at the side of the road? Vultures are helpful birds that eat up and clean up all the poor animals that die on the side of the road. It’s kind of like they are vacuuming up all the dirty stuff.
Speaking of vvv vacuuming. who here has vacuumed their home before? I’m going to show you how to vacuum the stairs and the edges. and everyone can take turns.
Lesson on Vultures and the enVironment, ending with Letter V Practice
Vultures are an important part of our enVironment. How can we do our part to keep our environment clean like the vultures do? Should we eat dead animals on the side of the road? No. We can pick up after ourselves when we are inside and outside. What else can we do? Eat all of our food so we don’t waste dinner.
Have them practice their letter V paper.
Snack Time
Snack beginning with the letter V: Veggie Straws, Vanilla Pudding.
V for VASES Craft.
How was vacuuming? Did you find it hard? Who normally does the vacuuming at your house? We should say thank you to them who help keep your house clean. And you can help them with the chores now!
What is another way to say thank you? You can give them a gift. Have any of you ever picked a flower and given it to someone you love? Well, we are going to make v-v-v vases so that any flowers you give them can have a place to live! and it will make your home very pretty.
Vase Craft
Now we are going to play the v-v-veggie game.
This game is similar to BINGO. So you will want something to cover the veggies after you talk about them. I like to give the kids rewards for each veggie they know. Ideally if there was a vegetable option to hand them each time, that would be best. Instead, I opted for MOTTS FRUIT SNACKS. because at least they say ‘a full serving of fruits and veggies‘ on the box.
Eating vegetables is good for us! So let’s see how many veggies you have eaten!
(note: I’m not going to get technical about what is a fruit, vegetable, gourd, root, etc. non-sweet, grown food, packed full of vitamins, all count right now. . . you can of course teach them the difference if it’s important to you. For this game, it is more teaching them how to love veggies instead of naming them)
Option 1: If you chose to print out one for each child, play bingo with each child. hand them a bag or two of fruit snacks, and start naming each vegetable. And if they’d eaten it before, they get to put a fruit snack on the veggie. AND bonus, if they like that veggie, they get to eat a fruit snack right then. (positive reinforcements for saying “I like eating. . .this vegetable”). When you’ve covered all the foods, they can eat the fruit snacks that are on their paper.
Help them out with some of the foods. “Have you ever had pumpkin pie? spaghetti? ketchup? candy (corn). There are lots of veggies are in our favorite foods!”
Also consider buying a couple of veggies to have them try for extra points.
Option 2: If you printed off only one paper to share, put it in the middle so every child can see it.
Go through and point to each vegetable, explain how yummy it is, and when they’ve possibly eaten that vegetable. Ask if they have eaten it, if they have, hand them a fruit snack. If they love the veggie, give them an extra one.
Consider having a few veggies for them to try, but definitely optional.
- Frozen peas or corn (yes, still frozen. I loved that as a kid)
- Pumpkin pudding/pie (individual cut in small pieces)
- ketchup for tomatoes.
- potato chips
- sliced cucumber
- brocolli/carrot/cauliflower bag. etc,.
And that’s it! You are done with the Letter V Co Op Preschool lesson! If there is any time left, remember to let them have some free play!
P.S. After you finish the lesson, come back and tell me how it went. Was it too short? Too long? Did the kids hate it? What tips would you give for other moms giving this preschool lesson? Let us know in the comments!