Phonics are Fun!

At Tumbleweeds, we read multiple books every day. In the morning, at naptime, during circle time: the preschoolers' appetite for books is insatiable and I love it! While I usually read the books out loud, the other day, KO decided to try to read a book to the other preschoolers. I was blown away by his ability. Moreover, the children were all enthusiastic and encouraging as he sounded out words.
The interest in phonics is contagious. SW hunts for 'W', 'H', or 'F' in any letters he can find and has also helped renew the other childrens' interest in the ABC song. This past week, we have sung this song at least 15 times.

While each preschooler possesses different reading and writing abilities, everyone loves to make mail. Thus, taking a cue from the phonics mania, I set up a provocation with paper, envelopes , a rainbow of colored pencils and tiny, wooden letters.
Each child used these materials differently. G and IO chose to trace the letters to spell their names on the envelopes. IR spelled her dad's name with the letters next to the envelope. KO had little interest in the envelopes and paper and chose instead to create acronyms like NYPD and FDNY. Last week we wrote letters as well and EB created shapes and lines that emulated a letter. She drew a stamp and then squiggly line after line to model penmanship. I began to wonder how thinking about phonics through shapes might help develop writing abilities. When we went outside I laid out some shapes for us to play with.
I asked, "which shapes look like letters?" IO picked up a rectangle, "I". I pointed out that a triangle resembled an "A", and SW decided that a hexagon most closely resembled an "O". The alphabet play quickly evolved into the creation of rocket ships with the shapes.
For one of the next day's provocations I shaped a few letters with the wax sticks.
G and SW demonstrated interest and spoke each letter out loud. SW proceeded to create an elaborate 3D "O" with the sticks, a letter he has been very focused on this past week after we made the connection between the letter "O" and the shape of a circle.

Here he is with a watercolor "O!"

We have a stack of notebooks with lines for penmanship practice. However, all of the play around shapes and letters this past week has led me to wonder, is sitting at a desk with a pencil and paper, writing between two lines the most effective method for learning? It certainly isn't the most fun. Still, in the coming week we will break out the books and see if the preschoolers are interested. Perhaps we can explore how certain shapes emulate words. I am excited to see where we take phonics next!