Overview
The children will make airplanes with the letter U on them that will go up and under as they recognize and name the uppercase letter U and lowercase letter u.

Literacy Activities
Make the U go up and under

• Write the uppercase letter U and the lowercase u on the whiteboard, name the letters, and have the children say the letter name as they write the U and u in the air with their fingers.
• Give the children a piece of paper and show them how to make a paper airplane or pass out paper airplanes that have already been folded.
• Ask the children if they have ever been on an airplane and explain that airplanes go up into the sky and under and over the clouds.
• Have the children decorate the airplanes by writing the letter U several times (support as needed) on each plane.
• Have the children hold their airplanes up in the air when you say, “Up!”
• Tell the children to pretend that their hand is a cloud in the air and have the children hold the airplane under their hand when you say, “Under!”
• Have the children write the letters U and u on small pieces of paper to make letter cards.
• Let the children take turns throwing their paper airplanes and have them mark the landing spots with the U letter cards.
• Tell the children to practice writing the letter U in the air using their airplane.

More Practice
Play ABC hide and seek

• Give the children the letter cards.
• Have the children count the cards to determine how many uppercase and lowercase letters they will need to find.
• Choose two children to hide the cards in a designated area.
• Set a timer and send two small groups to find the uppercase letters and lowercase letters.
• As a group, have children identify the letters they have found.
  • If the letter is a U or a u, have the children keep it
  • If the letter is not a U or a u, place it in the discard pile.
  • If a child misidentifies a distractor letter as a U or a u, have him or her look at the U or u on the whiteboard and compare them to the letter he or she picked. 
• Play another game if time permits.