Ugh… Xx is such a hard letter. People don’t always even know to pronounce it never mind what activities to work on when teaching it. To answer the first part… Xx is pronounced /ks/ like in the end of ax, box, and max. The second thing… that is harder. The sound of Xx is heard at the end of words not at the beginning. So what to do, what to do… a bit of both?
Jack Hartmann’s Xx song
Printing the letter Xx
Capital X — start at the top, slant down going left to right, jump back to the top right above where you finished, now slant down to the left crossing the line you just drew. (if your child struggles to cross the midline, they will struggle making the letter x)
lowercase x– same as the capital, just smaller!
Today’s activities— Xxxxxx
- What to Do With a Box by Jane Yolen– a box can be so many things. Children love boxes and boxes allow children to explore with their imagination.
- Provide your child with a box, or multiple boxes, and let them be creative. Ask questions. What are you doing? Where are you going? How will you_____? Why? Let them play and encourage the to change their play.
- Jessica’s X-Ray by Pat Zonta- Jessica hurts her arm and needs to have an x-ray. She learns about the various ways to look inside (x-ray, CAT-scan, MRI and ultrasound). This book was written by an x-ray technologist!
- Have your child choose a body part to look at via x-ray (google images has a wide variety), then provide cotton swabs to have your child use as bones to make an x-ray picture. Gluing onto a sheet of black construction paper helps it show up better.
- X Marks the spot… Make a treasure map. You can either make a pretend one or even better… hide something in your yard and make a map for your child to follow to find the item.