While I have my lesson plans from last year and I know that the kids are not the same…for some reason I am feeling the need to do things ‘new’ and ‘different’ this year.

Go figure.

It was a full day though and we had a lot of fun stuff going in the classroom ~ playing and making messes.

Alphabet Book

This year’s alphabet page craft was different than our bumblebee from last year. I had all the pieces cut out and then got a great idea for another craft {also bee related}, so I ended up cutting and creating a different page for the alphabet book ~ a boat. Not just any boat, mind you.

A brown boat with a blue sail in the blue water.

‘Cause I’m all about the letter ‘Bb’, I am! If you’re going to do it ~ might as well go overboard {there was really no pun intended on that…}.

You’ll need:

~ Brown and blue construction paper
~ Glue sticks
~ 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper {you can print off the alphabet book if you’d like!}

To Make:

{Note: I cut out all the pieces ahead of time since we have a short amount of time and a lot to do ~ otherwise I would recommend letting the kids cut out their own shapes!}

1. Trace a boat shape, a triangle and a ‘wave’ pattern out for your child.
2. Let your cut out the pieces for the boat.
3. Glue the water and boat onto your paper.

Art

After last week’s alligator craft, I wanted to keep the theme going of making a craft that is shaped like the letter we are studying. Since I also have an overabundance of foam sheets from the Dollar Tree, I have been using those ~ and they are a little more sturdy than construction paper.

The Bee ‘Bb’ was the result of my efforts. :) If you’d like more specifics on how to make it, you can find direction in my ‘Bb’ is for Bee Craft post.

We also had fun making ‘Bandaid Butterflies’ that I found over at No Time for Flashcards. Cheap ol’ bandaids at the Dollar Tree in some great funky colors made it fun, fun, fun.

Cooking ~ Blueberry and Banana Smoothies

There wasn’t much cooking involved – just blending! :) I hauled the blender in and we made banana and blueberry smoothies. Want to try them too?

You’ll Need:

~ 1/2 cup of blueberries, fresh or frozen
~ 1 banana {peeled, of course!}
~ 1 1/2 cups of milk
~ sweetener to taste {we used a few tablespoons of sugar}
~ ice to thicken

Drop it all in the blender and enjoy!

Game

We played a quick game of “I Spy” or find…and looked around our room to see what we could find that started with the letter ‘B’. Here’s what we found {and I borrowed this great idea from Carisa at 1+1+1=1 ~ her color ‘I Spy’ is wonderful!!}:

Math

Balancing and Estimating. I brought my scales in, along with my counting bears and we checked to see if bears of different colors weighed the same, compared the weight of bears to blocks, counted, sorted….and had fun learning.

Songs and Rhymes

We used a bee puppet during our circle time and sang a fun little song:

Do you like to buzz?
Are you covered all in fuzz?
Do you call a hive a home
In the garden where you roam?
Do you like to make honey
Are your stripes a little funny?
Do you like to buzz?

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas for teaching the letter ‘B’ – there are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used:

Zachary has moved onto the letter “B” this week and it cracks me up how HUGE he has to make his “bellys” on his B’s. His P’s and R’s are normal, but he really enjoys making them larger than life.

He also started preschool 2 days a week (so Mommy has a little more time with Kaleb on those mornings).

Letter Sheet/Collage

Click on thumbnail to download pdf

Writing

This week we used our large easel to practice writing our letters, especially since the bellies on those “B”s can get rather large at times!

Rhymes and Songs

London Bridges Falling Down
Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee

Storytime

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle