Alphabet Play - Let's Start with the Letter "A"

We had a blast at our first Toronto Alphabet Play today!

Lots of words start with "A" - like apple, animals, airplane, so it was a fun place to start.  Join us each month as we work through letters of the alphabet.

 Here's how you can have some Alphabet Play fun with the letter "A":

Any great Alphabet Play session starts with the ABC song, of course..

Show the letter "A", see if kids can identify it

Identify any kids who's names start with "A"

Talk about words that start with "A"

Start drawing some pictures based on those words and see if you can turn them into stories.

Name characters in the pictures/stories with "A" names

In normal conversation, stop to point out words you've said that
start with "A" - again, and, also, age, adult

"A" Words for Pre-schoolers

• apple
• ants
• airplane
• art
• animals
• arm
• ankle
• ambulance
• astronaut
• alligator
• arrow
• apron

 Awesome...that's an "a" word too!

 Have Fun!

Toronto toddlers love the Alphabet

T is for Tree and momstown Toronto got creative while learning about the alphabet with our Alphabet Play.  We read Picture a Tree which is a fabulous, 4 seasons book on trees from Barbara Reid - always a great book to share.

Tales for Tots explores literacy with Toronto preschoolers

D is for Duck!

D is for Duck this month! How cute is that little pond dwelling feathered friend? Perfect partner to go with our Pond theme this month and our book from Scholastic Canada, A Cuddle for Little Duck.

Curious to see other little momstown ducks in action? We thought we'd share with you some news from our sister chapters and what their kiddos thought of A Cuddle for Little Duck. Click on the links below to read their blogs with more description - everyone loved this sweet book!

momstown Oakville

Our momstown Oakville winner of the book this month.

momstown Ottawa

momstown Ottawa is a brand new chapter and works with Chapters/Indigo like momstown Toronto to promote literacy and momstown storytime together.

momstown Central Alberta

Friends in momstown Central Alberta (aka for us Toronto dwellers, that's Red Deer) created their own blue pond on the floor and coloured ducks, lily pads and fish to play with in the pond. Such fun!

momstown Brampton

momstown Brampton

momstown Brampton got really crafty with this theme! What cute duck mini puppets they made with the preschoolers and sweet goldfish handprints with the babies - everyone got in on the action after storytime!

momstown Barrie

momstown Barrie really got into the pond action feet first - literally! Using their feet to paint a blue "pond" and then gluing on yellow ducks - cute idea!

We hope to see your little ducks soon and play with your family in momstown Toronto!

P is for Popcorn at momstown Tales for Tots

P is for Popcorn! And at the circus - what's the best snack? Popcorn of course! What a fun craft AND snack!

Of course, P is also for Parachute and parachute we did! And dance. And sing. And jump. And yell. All the fun stuff you should get to do at momstown Toronto!

"O" is for Olympics

"O" is for Olympics

Sometimes the best ideas for are the simplest.  A few days ago, my nephew C., who is two, noticed an advertisement featuring the Olympic Rings.  He is beginning to recognize letters of the alphabet, and he commented that there were letter "O's" in the picture.

As I began to explain that the picture was of the Olympic Rings, and not of the letter "O", I realized that he was right as well.  The circles in the Olympics Rings do look like letter "O's".  Moreover, many words associated with the Olympic Games begin with the letter "O", including "Olympics", "Opening Ceremonies", "Outdoor" events, "Outstanding" performances, "Ore" used to the make the medals, "Overseas", where many Olympic Games take place, and the "Oceans" that divide the five continents represented by the Rings.

"Opportunity" also begins with the letter "O", and I was not about to pass this one up.  We dug out our craft supplies, and created our own "O is for Olympics" alphabet craft.   Check out how we did it here:  "O" is for Olympics

Summer Literacy in Toronto: B is for Butterfly

Literacy all begins with the A-B-Cs and in momstown we strive to help moms introduce these magical letters early to their children via our Alphabet Play program.

Recently, momstown Toronto worked on the better 'B' and made B is for Butterfly. So many awesome words start with B.... Baby, Bubble, Blue, Bottle, Banana and Butterly. B is one of the first sounds that babies can make.

This summer, join us for our ongoing Alphabet Play programs (we get about 20 kids each time - so fun!) and keep literacy on the list as the weather heats up. To help keep reading, writing a priority, check out this fabulous post for 6 Fun Summer Literacy Ideas. You'll be inspired to make the library a very regular cooling station this summer!

As always, momstown offers a FREE membership trial so everyone has chance to try out a momstown membership and enjoy it first. At $45/year it's a steal for 10-20 programs a month all focused on early education and mama support.

Alphabet Programs in Toronto

momstown is very pro early literacy and we LOVE our Alphabet Play program! In the East end we hold this program at Lil Bean n Green and in the West end at Chapters at Runnymede/Bloor.

The objective is to learn our letters together and transform them from 'just' the letter into something more memorable. Introducing our e is for Earth and F is for Feathers!

Alphabet Play: C is for Cookie

momstown Toronto's Alphabet Play program is simple in nature but BIG in literacy growth. Our Scholastic book of the month was How do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies? so we were inspired to create C is for Cookie!!

Big thanks to the Chapters at Runnymede/Bloor for lending us their space for our momstown programming - we love Indigo Kids!

Alphabet Play: S is for Snow

momstown Toronto West kicked off our Alphabet Play program with the letter S for Snow, hoping maybe that might bring a little bit of the white stuff our way!


momstown's happy to be using the children's department at the Bloor/ Runnymede Chapters bookstore which is such a terrific space to focus on both literacy and creativity.

Watch for our monthly program here hosted by Carrie our momstown Community Manager for the Toronto West end of momstown.

Alphabet Play - C is for Crown

What another wonderful morning with our momstown moms and tots. Today we made Crowns using paper plates, lots of glue, stickers and crayons!

Our take home craft was a picture to be colored in - the Letter C for Crown. All of this was part of our Monthly Educational Theme - Hats!

Songs, stories and free play made up the remainder of the time during our playgroup and smiles and giggles were in abundance!