E preschool ideas

We sat down with some books and looked for things that started with the letter E.  Then we made a list of them.  Here is a rundown of some of the words we found:

• elephant
• eagle
• egg
• earring
• envelope
• eel
• electricity
• easter
• elmo

We read: Where's Elmo? A peek-a-boo book, Easy Street, The dumb Bunnies' Easter, and The best mistake ever!  We took a walk after reading Easy Street, to the construction area, and looked at how they make a road.  We talked about sequencing by discussing how the men first smooth dirt, second they smooth gravel, third they smooth the asphalt, and fourth they paint the lines. 
With The best mistake Ever!, we discussed what foods are healthy and which ones are junk food. 

 We did two crafts with construction paper.  We made an Elmo with red, white, and orange construction paper, and a hand print elephant with ink and a black marker.  First we pushed my daughter's hand into an ink pad until all her fingers were covered and then we pushed her hand, palm down onto the construction paper.  The trunk is made from her thumb, while the legs come from her fingers. 


Then we practiced writing big letter E.  First I wrote the letter with a highlighter and my daughter traced over it.

Dinasour Preschool Activities

Since we are focusing on the letter "D" this week, we had to discuss dinosaurs.  Almost every preschool child I know loves dinosaurs.

1. We put together a giant floor puzzle.

 

  2.  We read a couple books, My first Dinosaur touch and Feel and Dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles. The book on the right belonged to my husband when he was a little boy and we enjoy looking at all the pictures he drew inside.

 

3. We even wrote our own story fashioned after the stories written by Laura Numeroff.  She has written several books, one we recently checked out at the library was, If you give a Pig a Party.  This is a great activity for teaching sequencing.   

Our Story:

If you give a dinosaur a Danish

If you give a dinasour a danish...

he will want a glass of milk to go with it.  When you bring him into the kitchen and get him the milk,

he will dip the danish in the milk and gobble it up.

 

But, he will accidentally spill the milk because his arms are so tiny. 

Then he will ask you for a napkin.  When he see's the napkin he will remember that he also needs to clean up in dinosaur-ville.  He will go back to dinosaur-ville and help all the dinosaurs clean up.

 

Try making your own stories up.  It can be a lot of fun.

4.  We also made patterns using the Melissa and Doug dinosaur stamps. For example, blue triceratops, red spike tail, blue triceratops, red spike tail.  What comes next?

On the nightstand...

Currently reading Charles and Emma The Darwins' Leap of Faith. Written by Deborah Heiligman. On the jacket flap, the author is described as having majored in religious studies. She married a science writer and fell in love with science, too. In this book she combines her interests in science, religion, and her belief in the importance of human connection.

I am really enjoying reading about Charles Darwin and how thoughtful and kind he was to his wife and children. One of my favorite quotes from the book comes from something Charles wrote to Emma:

I wish you knew how I value you; and what an inexpressible blessing it is to have one whom one can always trust, one always the same, always ready to give comfort, sympathy and the best advice. God bless you, my dear, you are too good for me. ~1859

If only we could all show such love and respect to differing points of view like Charles and Emma did.

English Roses

After reading English Roses, Zelda asked her Dad if children who come home from school and don't have a mom, have to cook, clean, and do chores. To which he responded that they also have to take care of their siblings. Zelda matter of factually responded that if she didn't have a mom then he would have to help her cook because she could get burned. I think she may appreciate me a little after reading that book, although that is not the moral of the story and I don't think that was the message Madonna had in mind when she wrote it.

Make new discoveries

If you enjoy science and want to share it with a small child between the ages of 3-5 then check out this series by Vicki Cobb.

Keeping Quilt

Reading Patricia Polacco's book, The Keeping Quilt, inspired me to include some fabric that was my mom's into this baby quilt. In the story, the family's clothing was cut and made into a quilt. It was then passed down from mother to daughter and then to granddaughter. I decided to pass on a little something from grandma to her grandson through my sewing. I hope my nephew will think this is a quilt worth keeping.

The Red Ripe Strawberry...

Lurking in our strawberry patch I saw a small thief. It wasn't a mouse, rabbit or bird. It was a light brown chipmunk. He helped himself to a red ripe strawberry, clutching it between his front paws. Instead of disguising it, trying to bury it, locking it up, or covering it with a cloth he went straight to eating it. And he didn't even share.