Letter of the Week Activities with Letter O

It has been an outstanding week for me and my sons as we did activities related to the letter O last week!

 

 

Let me enumerate the what we did. 

 

1. Finger-painting of letter O by Mateo - Just like in the past letter of the week activities, my two-year-old finger-painted the upper case and lower case of our letter of the week on a bond paper. He did this after tracing his finger on the pencil mark on the bond paper and on the O foam letter that we have.

 

 

 

2. O as in Owl hand painting - I found a very cute owl hand painting internet so I thought of doing it as well with the boys. After doing this painting, I let my toddler watch a video of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star again where an owl was part of it. He liked that video very much.

 

 

 

3. O as in Oman flag - This one was part of our United Nations activity since the letter O fell on the same week that this event is celebrated. You may read more about our United Nations activities in detail in one of my previous posts.

 

 

 

4. O as in Olaf art activity. - My sons love the movie Frozen very much! They simply can't get over it. So, I thought that they would be delighted to make a snowman. ;) I asked my boys to trace ovals and circles (using some of their oval and round toys) on a bond paper to make Olaf's body parts. I asked my eldest son to cut the ovals and circles. Then, I asked the boys to glue Olaf's body parts (guiding them how to do it) on a blue bond paper. After letting the cut outs to air dry, I showed my eldest son how to put the other details on Olaf's body by guiding my toddler's hand as we drew the face and buttons of Olaf. 

 

 

 

5. Storytelling about St. Olaf of Sweden - Since it was almost All Saints' Day when we started with the letter O, I thought of researching for Saints whose names start with our letter of the week. I was delighted to find out with the help of the internet that there's a Saint named Olaf and that he was from Sweden! I excitedly shared this with the boys who were very happy to learn about it as well. Too bad we didn't find a photo of St. Olaf of Sweden. We only saw a photo of St. Olaf of Norway.

 

6. O as in Ocean Liner Pretend Play using folded paper - Since it was still United Nations' week and the letter O was our letter of the week, we taught the boys how to make ocean liners/boats using folded paper. They let their ocean liners sail on the oceans in our maps and globe. As part of our geography lessons, I asked my eldest son to look for the oceans in our globe. He found all four - Pacific, Indian, Atlantic and Arctic oceans. After letting their ocean liners sail on the map and globe, we gave them water in a basin to let their paper ocean liners to sail there.

 

 

7. Eating Food that Reminded Us of the Letter O - We served pancakes with the letter O written on top of them (using chocolate syrup) on the morning of October 31. Then, on All Saints' Day, I prepared Chicken in Coconut and Orange Sauce as part of our celebration.
 

The next set of activities were done in relation to our lesson on Obedience. We did a number of activities because I've decided that O will also stand for Obey. We used the materials from the Kids of Integrity website for most of our activities on Obedience.

 

7. The first activity we had on O as in Obey is making an obedience poster. We painted the boys' feet and stamps them foot prints on a cartolina to symbolize that they will follow Jesus' command. I asked my eldest son to write the Jesus' words from John 14:15 on top of our poster. Then, at the bottom, I asked him to write Jesus' command to children to obey their parents. I explained to them the Bible verses to them and told them that I will stick hearts into the poster every time they obey something that I ask them to do. Then, on Saturday (during our All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day celebrations), they will get a reward if there will be at least 10 hearts stuck on their side of the poster. I told them that their reward will be a donut that looks like a letter O. This excited the boys and they kept reminding me the past week to stick heart cut outs in the poster every time they obey something. I printed hearts in a pink bond paper and cut them. Then, I glued a heart each time the boys obeyed something that I asked them to do in the past week.

 

 

 

8. Science Experiment to Make Shiny Coins - This was also adapted from the Kids of Integrity website lesson on obedience. I asked the boys to look for dirty coins that we will clean. We got some cotton buds and vinegar. I first asked them to dip their cotton bud in vinegar and clean their dirty coin using these two. Then, I acted that I forgot to tell them to mix salt into the vinegar to make our cleaning solution more effective. I added salt to the vinegar and asked the boys to mix until the salt is dissolved. Then, I gave them new cotton buds and asked them to dip these in the mixture and use that to clean the coins. They were very happy to see their coins become cleaner and shinier this time! I explained that the experiment as recommended in the website then stuck their shiny coins on our obedience poster.

 

 

 

9. Storytelling on Obedience through the Story of the Mommy Bear and her 3 cubs - I read the story from the Kids of Integrity website to the boys and used our bear stuff toys and some pillows (as cave and wolves) as props in telling the story to them. The boys participated by moving the little bears while I' telling the story.

 

10. Storytelling on Obedience through Noah's Ark plus Pretend Play - We also reviewed the story of Noah and how he obeyed God even though God's command seemed strange and though people were laughing at him as he obeyed God's command to build an ark. We used our stuff toys again and the boys' carpenter tools. They also used our pillows and blankets during their pretend play in building the ark. My eldest son pretended that he is Noah while my younger son pretended that he is one of Noah's sons helping his father build the ark.

 

Noah's Ark pretend play in our bed with the blue blanket as flood waters. ;)

  

11. We read more books about obedience. - Aside from stories in the Bible that teaches obedience to God's commands in different ways and situations, we also read other books on obedience. Among these books that we read in the past week are the following: Creation (where Adam and Eve disobeyed God and as a result of their disobedience they were asked to leave the Garden of Eden); Jonah and the Big Fish; Flaming Furnace, Fiery Faith (story of Abednego); Moses and One Mighty, Awesome, Incredible Rescue; My Very First Bible (where we read about the obedience of Mama Mary even when she didn't completely understand how the angel's announcement to her would come true, about Joseph's obedience in taking Mary as his wife, about Daniel and the lions); and My Book of Devotions about Obedience. 

 

12. We played Mommy Says (just like Simon Says game) and Follow the Leader - This was also suggested in the lessons on obedience from Kids of Integrity website. I first asked the boys to obey some actions that I instructed them to do (example: touch your right ear with your right hand) then I asked them to take turns being the leader while the other sibling is the follower. The leader gets to lead an action that the other one will imitate. I related this to us Christians being followers and imitators of Christ who is our leader.

Me and my sons (in costume as Saints) during our All Hallows' Eve feast.

 

Our All Hallows' Eve and All Saints' Day feast was a perfect way to celebrate the boys' obedience and our outstanding activities with the letter E! You may read about our celebration here in detail.