Apologies for the long lag since our last phoneme – we more properly had an SH month, to accommodate timely trips to shores and ships. Of course we started out by tracing S + H on our Usborne Wipe-Clean Alphabet cards. This sound was a fun one to explain and to say: “Shhhh!”
Phonics Book of the Week: Shark in the Park was a fun intro to the sound, also featuring the words SHarp and SHeep. Although there were not many SH words, the book includes lots of repetition so Travis latched on right away. By the next morning he was guessing that shadow and shade also contained an SH!
Guiding Theme: SHell
To start the fun, we pulled out three different sizes of pasta shells just to play with. This was great fun for sorting and scooping.
Of course there was also lots of beach combing to search for real shells to take home!
We Listened:
We Made:
- Shell art! Get creative with your pasta shells and make a collage. First we painted the big ones, and then we arranged the littles in globs of glue on paper.
We added blue for water and brown for sand for a beachy scene!
- Ocean Sensory Tray
- Beach Memento Wind Chime
- Seashell Friends
We Learned:
- For science of the week, we focused on the word SHadow; as a perfect coincidence, there was a great explanatory story in our July High Five about what makes a shadow. Then we were off on a shadow hunt outside and experimented with finding them in front of us, behind us, and beside us.
We also traced a shadow puzzle.
- For math of the week, talk about the word SHort. We compared items in our home as an easy intro to what makes something short versus tall. Blocks are great, as are dolls or figurines or anything else you have at home that provides a short and tall comparison.
We Visited:
- The SHore, (obviously!), to see shells. If you’re lucky (or if there is an aquarium nearby), you may also spot SHarks!
Or hermit crabs in SHells.
We Ate:
- SHepherd’s pie
- summer squaSH
Other Words of the Week:
- Ship: I set the stage for this word with a read of Usborne’s On a Pirate Ship. We continued the fun with their Build Your Own Pirate Ships sticker book.
Although recommended for ages 4 and up, Travis had no trouble at all with a little guidance, and was thrilled with each creation! Then it was time to craft a popsicle stick pirate ship: 
We finished with a real pirate ship adventure – thank you summer vacation!
- Shore: Other than the above-mentioned shore visit to collect shells, we read Shine-a-Light Secrets of the Seashore and Seashore from Usborne’s non-fiction Beginners collection.
- Shine: Here’s your perfect week to enjoy Usborne shine-a-light collection. There are 13 to choose from, and we did many reads of On the Train and Apple Tree. To chase away nighttime shadows, we then made a Tissue Paper Night Light; don’t forget to shine your flashlight around the room and see if you can make any SHadows.
- Shoes: Set up all your shoes and play shoe store. The best part of this game was trying on silly shoes.
Dad’s boots are so fun!
- Shapes: Now’s the time to pull out any shape toys you have – in fact, since so many of our shape toys have been retired to the “baby bin”, it was a fun excuse to dig through and play with old favorites. For more preschool-aged fun, we read Usborne’s Lift the Flap Shapes.
- Shampoo: For purely tactile fun, we made Instant Sensory Snow out of shampoo. Then let your little one try their hand at sudsing up their own hair during bath time this week!
joyful parenting 