Santa's Sled Rhyme

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to share a couple of fun Christmas activities with you.  Both are based on a little rhyme I made up about Santa's sled.  The first version is a beginning letter sound activity.  It goes like this:

 You select a letter card and place it in the candy cane frame.  Then together with the child, you say the rhyme together.

I typically display three or four picture cards for the child to choose from.  Together we say the names of the items on the cards, emphasizing the beginning letter sound of each.  The child selects the one that matches and puts it on the sled picture.

This is what the sled will look like with picture cards placed on it as the rhyme progresses.

We repeat the sequence using other letters until Santa's sled is full.

The other version is a matching version, which is great for younger preschoolers.  The rhyme is slightly different:

Instead of letters, you place a toy picture on the elf's list.  Display three or four picture cards and let the child find the one that matches and put it in the sled.

These are great activities for promoting early literacy skills.  I hope you enjoy using them as much as I do!  The picture card set I created for the matching game were chosen specifically for a few of my kids working on bilabial sounds and CVC words.  They look like this:

You can download a copy of both activities here.  I printed mine on photo paper again, which I really prefer.  The colors are much more vibrant than they are on card stock, and I don't have to laminate them, which saves a bunch of time.  In the past,  I've stuck Velcro dots on the sleigh to hold the toy pieces in place.  It's not necessary, but it also gives the child visual cues to assist with placement of the toys.

I hope you like it!  Leave a comment if you do.  Credit goes to Scrappin' Doodles (again!) for the darling graphics.  Where would I be without them???

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Pam