Do you need a done-for-you lesson plan for your homeschool preschool Co Op with the letter A? I did. I gathered all my favorite letter A crafts and preschool ideas, then put it together for a full 2 hour preschool lesson.
Welcome to Preschool Co Op! If you are wanting to know how to start an at home preschool co op, go here for beginning instructions. If you are all set, and just want to hop into the Letter A preschool co op lesson plan, then let’s go!
With each lesson I create, I make 8 sections. I have found that on average, 15 minutes per project is pretty good. Although some take less and some take more. it all evens out by the end of the two hours.
Words starting with A
Apples, alphabet, alligators, animals, alphabet, age, acquaintances, allies, ants.
the 8 parts to lesson A is:
- Welcome Play (waiting for everyone to get here)
- Introduction to the letter (A)
- Handwriting (print)
- Lesson on A-Apple Trees
- Snack Time
- Story Time
- Apple Craft
- Acquaintances and Allies Game
- Singing songs till pick up
Supplies to Buy at the Store or Online
- Handwriting helpers for little hands (optional)
- Pens
- Printing Paper and Ink
- Markers/crayons/or colored pencils
- Construction paper that has brown and green in it (only if doing craft #2)
- red pom-poms (Optional for Craft #2 or #3)
- red playdough (optional for craft #1)
- glue
- apple stickers (optional for craft #1)
- scissors
- Apple snacks. An apple to slice thinly for the lesson (optional)
- Snack ideas: Applesauce, apple juice, animal crackers, apple jack cereal.
- mini water cups
Prep Work
Week before: go over supply list and buy all the online items.
2 days before: Go on a shopping trip to pick up the rest of the needed supplies.
Day Before:
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)
Printables:
- Download and print 1 handwriting A coloring page per child
- Download and print 1 set of Apple Lesson Visuals
- Choose level of preschoolers for the activity:
- Craft #1: Putting Apple Stickers on a Tree for 2-3 yr olds
- (go here and download tree) then either roll red balls of red playdough for apples, or buy these apple stickers note: they can also put these apples in the alligator’s mouth!
- Craft #2: Making the Tree and Gluing Pom-Poms on for 3-4 yr olds.
- This takes green and brown construction paper. And precutting a long brown rectangle for the trunk, and a big green cloud for the leaves. then have them glue the brown trunk onto another piece of paper, then the leaves, and then the red pom-poms
- Craft #3: Apples Up On Top: Counting and Gluing for Advanced 3-5 yr olds
- Download 10 apples on top preschool. It has a boy and girl pages, so print off 1 for each boy and girl you have in your class. And it has a set of numbered apples. that has enough apples for 3 kids on each page. you’ll have to print off the apples and cut them individually for use. or use pom-poms and glue them on top counting the apples.
- Craft #1: Putting Apple Stickers on a Tree for 2-3 yr olds
- Makes sure to have everything cut and set up for your chosen craft.
Night before set up:
Prepare your home with these suggestions here
If you are using the video suggestions, have youtube set up for those and ready.
Welcoming and Play
a fun area where the kids can play before the Letter A preschool co op lesson plan officially starts.
Introducing the Letter A
“Welcome everybody to preschool! Today we have a lot of fun things planned. But first, I want to introduce you to this (letter A). Do you know this letter? A for Alphabet! Who here knows the alphabet song? Let’s sing it together“. (I like superwhy’s abc tune too if you want to mix it up)
(sing or watch alphabet song)
“The Letter A is a vowel, can everyone say vowel? vowels are the sounds we make when our mouths are open. like AAHOHHHUHHIHHEhhh. Letter A Is really important because it is the first letter in the Alphabet. It has 2 sounds AHHHH as in alphabet and A as in Age. Do you know what age you are? (3-5). Can you repeat after me AHHHH now A A A. Very good. A has two ways to spell it. The uppercase one is up, down, and over. and the other is like a circle, then a line down the side, like this. big a, and little a. (trace with your finger over the capital and lowecase A , or with a marker on a white board, or paper where they can all see).
Handwriting the letter A
Show them the A printable.
“Now everyone gets to practice writing Uppercase and Lowercase A’s. This is one of AAAAligators eating AAAAApples. Aligators and Apples both start with what letters? That’s right, A!“
Move everyone to a table if they aren’t there yet, and give them each a paper, pen (and if you have these finger placement helpers, make sure to put them on.) They can also color the alligators and apples with crayons, colored markers, or colored pencils when they are done tracing the Aa’s and trying to write them on their own in the next line.
Science Lesson on Apple Trees beginning with the letter A
Have them gather around on the floor in a circle.
“Who here likes apples? (hold up apples or apple picture) Where do apples come from? They come from trees! A bunch of apple trees together are called an orchard. (hold up apple orchard picture) Can we count the apples on this tree? (counting up to 5).
“What are the parts of an apple? (Show either a real apple cut in half, or picture of the apples) We have the stem. That’s the part that is attached to the tree and where it gets it’s food to grow into an apple. We have the skin. The skin of the Apples can be all sorts of colors. Red, Yellow, Green, or a mix of all those colors. It protects the juicy part from getting too dry.
Now one more thing about this apple. Do you see this brown bunch at the bottom? That is a dried up flower! After the seed grows into an apple tree, in order to make apples, it will first make flowers! and then the flowers turn into apples, and the petals of the flower curl and turn brown like that. Cool right? (watch this time lapse of apples) Now, let’s go and eat some more apple stuff!”
Next comes the fruit part that we eat. (hand each child an 8th piece of an apple. They can have more during snack time)
Discovering their sense of taste
“What words would you use to describe the apple? Juicy, sweet, crunchy, cold. And inside the middle apple is the core. It’s harder to eat, so your parents probably always cut that part out, right?The middle part holds the seeds.
The seeds are pretty special, do you know what seeds do? If they are planted in the ground, they can grow up to be apple trees! But they’ll need lots of special things to grow.
It needs a home. The seed’s home is in the ground, safe and covered up. Do you have a home? Do you need a home that is safe and covered up to grow? Why?
Who’s home has a fridge in it? or has food in it? The ground has food inside it too for the seeds to eat and grow. The seeds need water – Do you need water to grow? Just like us, seeds and trees need to drink water to help grow strong. The seeds need Sun to grow. Do you need the sun to grow? No, not really, but did you know that we get special food from the sun when we are outside? we eat it through our skins like plants. It is called Vitamin D, and it helps make us strong an healthy., but we can also eat vitamin D and other things that help us grow with our mouth. But does this apple have mouths? nope! that is why it is called a plant. Plants don’t have mouths like us, they eat through their leaves, and they love to eat sunlight! They also eat food that’s in the soil, using their roots.
Have them go back to the table
Snack Time: Snack ideas beginning with the letter A: Apples, applesauce, apple jack cereal, animal crackers (remember to have water cups)
After snack, have them come back to the circle, and read some ABC books.
Story time with letter book A suggestions: The A book, abc by doctor seuss, chicka chicka boom boom, (abc books by wood for older preschoolers)
The last book to read should be 10 Apples Up On Top. (if you don’t have it, you can watch in on youtube here starting at 20 seconds. You should also check out this person who made it into a song, he also made dr Seuss’s Aabc in a song) this will Segway into the Apple Craft.
Craft beginning with the letter A: Apples and Counting
Now let’s make this apple craft Counting apples on a tree, or Apples up on top (show them how it works)
Optional beginning or ending game. It’s a getting to know you game, using fancy letter A words.
Game with verb starting with letter Acquaintances and allies. Do you know what an acquaintance is? it is someone that you kind of know, but that might not be your friend yet. Do you know what Ally means? Ally is someone who is on your team! Who here knows everyone’s names? We are going to play a game that is going to change us from being only acquaintances, to being allies and friends.
Who here thinks they are an ally (that means friend) with everyone here? To be an ally or a friend, you need to know 3 things about each person. You need to know their name for 1, what else should we know? (let them make suggestions) ex favorite color, favorite food, their pet’s name, sister’s name, favorite superhero, etc.
Once they have the 3 things, have everyone share what the 3 things are, and then take turns seeing if they can remember everyone’s 3 things. Once everyone participates, and all 3 things were remembered. Tell them congratulations, they went from just Acquaintances to Allies and friends.
Optional songs: Ants go marching one by one, extra alphabet songs.
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