When it comes to teaching your Pre-Kinders the letter “X”, you may want to get creative. That’s because there aren’t a whole lot of words that start with the letter. Thankfully, there are several words that end with it. One of those words is “fox.” There are many different ways that you could work foxes into a lesson plan. Here’s a look at some of them:
Introduction
Begin the lesson plan by decorating your classroom in a woodland motif. One way to do that is to create a series of trees with poster paper or cardstock. Providing that your students don’t have pre-existing allergies or respiratory issues, you may want to spray the air with a pine scented air freshener too.
When you are done with those tasks, pop a woodland nature sounds CD into your classroom’s stereo system. Ideally, the CD should contain the vocalization of foxes. If it doesn’t, there are sites on the web that contain audio files of foxes making an array of noises. You could feasibly use those files to make your own sound effects CD.
Afterward, kick off the actual lesson by gathering the students into story circle formation. Read Diane Swanson’s book “Welcome to the World of Foxes” aloud. Doing so will help to introduce the children to the animal. Depending on your budget, you may also want to have a fox hand puppet at your disposable. They tend to retail for $9 to $15 apiece. Using it will undoubtedly keep the children’s eyes riveted on you and the story.
Science
Once you’ve finished reading, show the children photos of foxes. Be sure to mention the different types of foxes and point out each one’s distinguishing features (i.e. bushy tail). You’ll also want to mention its behaviors, diet, life cycle and place in the food web. The Fox Website is an excellent resource for such an endeavor. It contains a lot of information about foxes that has been broken down into a question and answer format. Thus, you could use the information to develop talking points and visual aids.
When you are finished lecturing, give the children a few fox coloring pages. The Education website contains coloring pages that feature desert, gray and red foxes that you could use for such purposes.
Next, read Phil Roxbee Cox’s book “Fox on a Box” aloud. It is designed to familiarize the children with the letter “x” and the “ox” sound. You might want to consider reading it in conjunction with Pamela Duncan Edwards’ book “Four Famished Foxes and Fosdyke.” Its text highlights the letter “F” as well as the word “fox.
Afterward, give the children a series of handwriting and phonic worksheets to complete. The First School WS website has both letter “x” and letter “f” tracer worksheets that feature foxes. The Education website features a phonic worksheet that you could use. It is titled “Vowel Sounds: Long O, Short O.” There are also readymade “fox” and “box” rhyming cards available through the Florida Center for Reading Research website that you could use as part of a memory game.
Music
Proceed with the lesson by reading Peter Spier’s book “The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night.” It would make a perfect prelude to a music and poetry session. There is even an arctic fox finger puppet template that you could pair with the book posted on the Education website. Later, teach the children the words to a few foxy songs and finger plays. Ones to consider using are “Fox in a Box”, “Here Comes the Fox” and “Red Fox, Red Fox.”
Art
From there, you may want to consider letting the children make fox tracks in sand dough. Just in case you don’t have any on hand, there is a dough recipe posted on the First Palette website. There is also a fox tracks worksheet available on the Education website that you could use as a template. The worksheet is part of the site’s “Animal Tracks Guide” series. The same site also contains a “Patterns: Animal Parade” sequencing worksheet that you could use to segue into a math related activity.
Math
As far as the math activities go, you may want to let the children count and sort fox tracks. You could also let the children play a game of dominos or bingo with fox themed items. The Tools for Educators website features free software that you could use to make sets of dominos and bingo cards as well as a fox dice game.
Source: Personal Experience
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