If You Give a Cat a Cupcake Letter Cc Ideas

This week we learned about the Letter Cc and we used the book, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake. Let me show you some of my learning ideas and activities. 

Letter Cc Formation Activity

Here is a sheet we made this week. I asked each kiddo to color the Cc their favorite color. Then, we glued elbow pasta down on the lines to show the direction the Cc goes. Although this was easy to do for my class, before this activity many of my students were facing their Cs the opposite way.

After the activity, I am happy to say, I think we “got” the direction of the Cs down.

Grab the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

We used the book If You Give a Cat a Cupcake this week to reinforce the Letter Cc and tie in literacy. I suggest looking to Scholastic Book Clubs for cheap copies of this book.

Writing Activities for If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

I also wanted to work with amazing little learners on using word walls. Sometimes I forget that many kindergarteners don’t know what a word wall is or how to actually USE it in the classroom. The teacher uses it year after year, but my kindergarteners have not!

During small groups, I showed them the If You Give a Cat a Cupcake word wall and how it related to the story. Lots of the group sounded like a discussion because that is what it is. We have to talk it out. Then we read the sentence started on their writing sheets.

I showed them how I could use the words on the word wall to assist my writing. the word “a” wasn’t on the word wall, but the word cupcake was. Here are my little loves working away.

I was doing the activity WITH them using the red marker. I helped many students form letters by dotting them with the red marker on their sheets.

This activity wasn’t about independent writing, but about using what we can to write with confidence. And we have to be able to read what we write about. After we finished our sentence or sentences, depending on the group and ability level because YES I differentiated this to set my students up for success, we drew a picture to match what we wrote about.

 This is the word wall and two writing prompts I used. Here are some student samples:

I was MORE than impressed with their writing. They loved it because of the word wall and because it was about the book. Tying in those two elements made this activity a HUGE success for the start of the year writing.

Letter Cc Charting

We also did a letter Cc chart on Friday. I used my projector and did this as an out-loud activity. I gave my students the OPTION to fill in their own chart if they wanted to. We had never done a chart together, so this was going to be HARD for some students. 3/4 of my class volunteered to do a paper chart at their seats. NO WAY.

I wrote the words the class offered up on the projector and we talked about each word. They gave me a word. We clapped out syllables,  sounded out the word if we could, and talked about the meaning of the word. So, this chart takes a lot of time… but it is meaningful time.

Then, my little ones wrote the same word on their page. And did you notice how many of the Cs are facing the correct way? JUST SAYING… the pasta worked! I used the cards above if my students got stuck and can’t think of the letter Cc word.

When my kids can do these charts more independently, I can use these cards for a write-the-room activity. Also, some of my students get pulled for EIP, so I send a copy of the cards with them for guided support.

Sequencing the Story If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

We also sequence the book, If You Give a Cat a Cupcake using these cards. One thing I love to do is talk about which of the cards are places and which are THINGS. {You can never throw in too many standards, right?} You could also use these cards for writing support as well… just saying.

Reading Comprehension FUN

And we played our FIRST reading comprehension game, which is always a HUGE hit in my class. I didn’t collect data on this game since we just started off, but I usually collect instant data on these games to see who needs extra support with reading comprehension. This game has a board and tons of reading comprehension cards, based on the book.

There is also an answer key, making this an ideal game to play with a parent volunteer or to send home in a literacy pack.

Letter Cc Ideas: Baking Cupcakes

And to complete our sensory experience, we made cupcakes! I found these colorful mixes for cake at Walmart for $1. I got a different colored pack for each small group.  We read and follow the recipe, just like anyone would, but then we cook the cupcakes with our cupcake maker, in the classroom.

Here are our orange cupcakes cooking.

And here are the purple cupcakes that are done. No one thinks they cook all the way through with the cupcake maker, so I broke one open to show you they do!

Of course, we did a million more Letter Cc activities. But it was the start of the year I just didn’t have time to snap pictures. You can grab these packs to help make the Letter Cc more fun in your classroom.

Letter Cc Freebie

Lastly,  if you want this letter Cc sheet, click on the picture or {here} to grab it. It isn’t anything fancy, but it is FUN and it worked.