Fun activities for the letter c sound

For the letter c sound, as before, start with the letter card, alphabet books and a few writing activities. Show your child a clock and explain that we start writing the c sound at number 2 on the clock and not at the very top. Mark the starting point with a large dot. As he writes the letter c sound have him say: ‘Round and round… round and round.’

Table of Contents

Fun activities for the letter c sound

Feed a crocodile

For this you need a crocodile glove puppet. If you don’t have one, you could make one out of a green sock. Place your fingers in the toe section, your thumb in the heel and stick a couple of paper circle eyes over the part of the sock covering your knuckles. Give your crocodile a name beginning with the letter c sound (eg Colin, Connor, Carl, Carol, Chloe, Claire, Caitlyn.)

Tell your child the crocodile is hungry. Pretend it is whispering in your ear that it only eats things beginning with the letter c sound (use the sound not the letter name). Ask your child to help by finding some things for it to eat. Before starting this activity dot a few suitable objects around the room that begin with the letter c sound (some suggestions: a clock, a cushion, a coat, a comb, a cap, a can, a toy cow/camel, /car/cat, a cucumber, a cake, a carrot, a candle, a camera, crisps, crayon, cup, coin, calendar, cardigan, cabbage, castle.) If the object it’s fed begins with a different sound make sure the crocodile rejects it with a loud ‘Ugh!’

Share Eric Carle’s book ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’

Then help your child make a caterpillar out of an egg box. Cut a strip of 6 sections and either paint them to match the caterpillar in the story, or use whatever colours take his fancy. Stick on paper eyes, add a mouth, make a couple of small holes in the top of the head and poke in 2 pipe cleaner feelers.

Make cakes from play dough

Decorate with Christmas cake decorations, buttons, beads, sequins and candles.

Play a comb

This will sound like a kazoo. Wrap a piece of tissue paper (around a plastic comb to cover its teeth and hum a tune against the paper.

Comb painting

For this activity you need homemade finger paint and a comb made from a piece of stiff card with notches cut along the edge. (See photo) I used a sheet of A3 (42cmX 30cm) art pad and just made enough finger paint for this one sheet. (Warning: don’t try to lift the paper up until it’s dry or it will rip. If you think your child might want to lift up his picture as soon as it’s done, use a sheet of white card instead.)

For the finger paint you need:

15g cornflour

15ml cold water

80ml boiling water

15ml cold water

Place your sheet of paper on a plastic cloth or a plastic pastry board. In a small saucepan mix the corn flour into a paste with 15ml of cold water and stir until there are no lumps. Still stirring, add the boiling water and stir over a medium heat until the mixture thickens. Add the cold water and stir it in well.

When it’s cool divide into two small dishes and add a small quantity (probably less than a teaspoon) of ready-mixed paint to each bowl so you have 2 contrasting colours of finger paint.

Show your child how to quickly cover his sheet of paper with the paint using his palm and fingers to spread it across the paper. Use both colours on the one sheet of paper, then, use the cardboard comb to make lovely big swirls in the paint.

Play at camping

Set up a tent (or drape an old sheet/bedspread/curtain, tablecloth over the backs of some chairs and fasten with clothes pegs.) Make pretend binoculars out of two cardboard tubes stuck together. Use brown felt tipped pens to make a few more cardboard tubes look like camp fire logs. Add tissue paper flames (and if you’re doing this indoors in a semi darkened room use a small battery-operated flickering tea light to add to the effect.) Torches and sleeping bags add to the fun, along with plastic cups, plates and cutlery. If you have any metal bottle tops or very large paper clips, pretend these are fish and make a fishing rod from a magnet on a string attached to a twig.

Play catch

Play catch with your child using a large ball. An older child would probably like to try throwing and catching different sized balls. Have him try throwing a small ball in the air and then catching it. He will need to hold his hands together in a cup shape under the ball as it comes down from the air. Can he throw a small ball up in the air, then drop into a sitting/kneeling position to catch it? Or start off sitting/kneeling, throw the ball up in the air and quickly stand up to catch it?

Can he bounce a ball on the ground and lift one leg over it before he catches it? Can he add a clap before he catches it, or quickly spin round?

Make a cloud

A bit messy but great fun. For this activity you need some fresh Ivory soap imported from America. The activity doesn’t work with any other type of soap except this one. Ivory soap has lots of little pockets of air trapped inside which expand and form bubbles when the soap is heated, (It also floats which makes it unusual as other soaps sink.) You can buy a pack of 3 bath bars from Amazon UK for about £5.

It’s best not to use this activity with toddlers as there’s a high chance they’ll get soap in their eyes and mouths.

Place your soap in the microwave on a large microwavable plate and heat on high for between one and 2 minutes. Use half a bar or a full one, but no more, as it expands to almost fill the microwave! (It’s fascinating to watch it expand through the microwave window. Don’t let it go over two minutes though.). The result is a big fluffy cloud. If it fluffs up quite fast then stop the microwave before the two minutes are up.

The cloud crumbles into powdery pieces quite quickly, but before it does, your child might like to use droppers to drip diluted liquid water colours or food colours on to the froth. The soap absorbs the colours to give a very pretty effect. Once the cloud has crumbled, it still has

plenty of play value left. Place the pieces in a bowl, provide spoons and cups and a plastic knife then let your child play with it in any way he chooses. Adding a small amount of shaving cream will make it more mouldable. So will adding toilet paper and a little water. Or instead, you could just add a small amount of water to make a gloopy, soapy mix.