Welcome to W week of our Letter of the Week play! W-w-what begins with w, you ask? We had lots of fun finding out.

Wings: You might have noticed lots of bird-themed posts this week, and that’s because we talked a lot about wings. It was a perfectly-timed coincidence that our bird-themed Koala Crate arrived. That sparked great ideas throughout the week, including playing wing charades to kick things off on Monday. Travis soared like an eagle, fluttered like a butterfly, and flapped like a duck, to name a few.

Wolf: W was a great reminder to pull out our Three Little Pig toy sets! We have two, one more meant for babies, and one for children a little older, but there’s no reason we couldn’t adapt them to suit Travis’ level of play, talking about wolves all the while!

Watch: Travis loves watches, so he had fun trying on three different models. For preschoolers, definitely use this word/week to play games about telling the time with a watch!

Wood: Not only did we have fun pulling out all the toys around the house that are made of wood – wooden blocks, wood instruments – but it was also a great way for Travis to do sorting or comparisons, i.e. which of his instruments were plastic and which were wood? “These are made of wood, too!” he exclaimed throughout the week, once the theme was apparent. We had fun with wooden block games like block bowling…

….and block tunnels to roll a ball through.

To make a challenge for older children, create archways from blocks that are increasingly smaller, and see if they can roll a ball through.

Water/waves: These words prompted our field trip of the week, taking advantage of late summer weather to visit a nearby beach and watch the waves.

More fun, though, was water play at home. Please forgive the eco-infraction, but I let the water run in the kitchen sink for a short time and let Travis go to town with colanders, cups, and sieves.

More eco-friendly by far was a game that worked his fine motor skills, with water in an eye dropper. First, he used the eye dropper to bleed the outline of marker drawings I made on paper towels, and loved watching the color run.

Travis then amazed me using precision to drop colored water in the center of progressively smaller circles!

Other water options include filling a basin and seeing what sinks and what floats, or simple games of water toys in the tub.

Wind: This was unexpectedly my favorite of the week. We set up a fan and tested out what would happen to feathers, streamers, and other light materials. Travis tried placing an instrument on the fan and looked so surprised when it didn’t waft up, so it was a good lesson on density, too! He requested the fan the following morning, after I’d put it away! Watching him watch a pinwheel spin in the wind was just magical.

And of course, don’t forget to head out on the windiest day of the week and fly a kite!

Walk/wagon: Pull out the wagon and give rides of course! Or let your toddler push stuffed animal friends around, for great exercise. You can also go on walk with the wagon and make part of the walk into a “silly walk.” We took turns thinking of silly actions, like tip-toeing or taking giant steps (Travis’s favorite).

Here a few final items from our W-themed week:

Fine Art: My idea to make a wind chime was a little too ambitious. I encouraged Travis to thread beads, but I mainly had to put the craft together myself. He liked the end result though!

Food: We had a W-tastic breakfast one morning, waffles and watermelon, which Travis loved watching me chop off the rind, first.

Books: Playing off some of our themes, we enjoyed reading Spot’s First Walk by Eric Hill, Ten Dogs in the Window by Clare Masurel and The Wind Blew, by Pat Hutchens.

Song: I introduced Travis to the wonderful timbre of Louis Armstrong’s voice on What a Wonderful World. He didn’t really connect it to W week, but always worth a listen!

Math: It was the perfect week to teach the word… Week! We have a Wee Sing song that’s perfect for learning the days in order, and I sang it as I lined up our day-of-the-week magnets.

The timing was perfect since we’re also counting down to visits with two relatives, one in one week, and the other in two weeks. So we made a countdown chart, and Travis has been adding a sticker each day that elapses! Consider making a chart for your toddler counting down to any similarly-anticipated event, like a playdate or outing.

What a week!