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Preschool Corner: All About the Letter Ee

Eggs and elephants were the topics we covered this week for class. Once I started with the elephants it was a little hard to stop, especially once the handprint came into play. :) Too cute and too fun.

Be sure to check out my Letter E post from last year too for some additional ideas to use for the letter E, including a printable collage sheet, a different alphabet page and games.

Before I forget, if you are looking for the links to past alphabet posts, they are all at the bottom of the blog in the footer.

Alphabet Book

You’ll Need:

  • Gray paint {we had fun mixing black and white together}
  • Paintbrushes
  • Green markers
  • Pink ‘ears’ for your elephants
  • Googley eyes
  • Wet wipes {for quick clean-up}

To Make:

{Note: I cut out 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 pieces as much as possible!}

1. Mix up the paint {if needed} and have kids color grass along the bottom of their alphabet sheet.

2. Paint your child’s hand with the gray paint, completely covering the fingers and palms.

3. Have your child place their hand on the paper {fingers pointing down toward the grass on the bottom} and gently press hand onto the paper so that the paint transfers.

4. Add an ear and an eye to your elephant and paint a thin tail.

Art

Elephant E ~ This week our letter craft for that looks like the letter we’re learning about was a fun little elephant. You can see it up close and get directions in my E is for Elephant post.

Games

Egg Matching ~ I put numbers on one end of a plastic Easter egg and the same number of dots on the other end. The kids had fun counting the dots and finding the number match {works great if you either mix up the egg colors or use all the same color egg}. They also counted out pieces of elbow macaroni to put inside, depending on what number was on the egg.

Uppercase/Lowercase Matching Game ~ Found a great letter E matching game over at Homegrown Hearts where the kids sort upper/lowercase letters. Be sure to check out her other E printables.

I Spy ~ These are things that we found either in our classroom or brought from home to share for show and tell. Can you find the things we spied? {this will print great as a 4×6 print}.

Science

During our group time, we took a raw egg and put it into a jar filled with warm water {it sank}. I made some observation sheets for the kids to predict and record what would happen when we added salt to the water.

We added a LOT of salt.

And it finally floated up to the top {thank goodness}.

Songs and Rhymes

During our group time we sang the song “Do Your Ears Hang Low” and then later replaced the word ‘ears’ with other body parts: elbows, eyes, knees, hands, etc… and the kids had fun trying to see if they could throw those things over their shoulders.

One of the boys is VERY flexible and can put his foot over his shoulder!

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas for teaching the letter E. There are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

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E is for Elephant {Craft}

The saddest part of my week {ok, I exaggerate a little bit…} was discovering that our craft stores carry every shade of foam sheets and construction paper ~ except GRAY!! Do these people not know that elephants are just begging to be made by local preschoolers?

I got the idea from this post at No Time for Flash Cards. The kids have been loving the crafts {and the parents too, I believe!}.

What You’ll Need:

  • Gray or white foam sheet/construction paper {our craft stores only had white}
  • Scissors
  • Pen {to trace letter}
  • Paint ~ if you can’t find gray paper or foam
  • Googly eyes
  • Glue

How to make the ‘E’ Elephant:

  1. Trace and cut an uppercase ‘E’ out of the foam sheet or construction paper. I used a foam sheet that was about 4″ x 5″ in size. Since our craft store didn’t have gray foam, I used white and we painted it gray after we had glued it all together.
  2. Using the extra foam, cut out an ear and a trunk for the elephant. I used a little sliver of our white foam to also cut out a tusk for him.
  3. Glue the elephant’s trunk onto the middle section of the letter ‘E’.
  4. Glue on the ear and paint if needed.
  5. Add an eye and tusk to finish!

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Preschool Corner: All About the Letter Dd

Unfortunately, my camera is being a little tempermental lately, ever since the ‘great drop from above’ courtesy of Zachary. I think that I’ve figured out a way to work the lens so that the camera will actually take pictures now, but this last week only managed to produce actual class pictures.

Be sure to check out my Letter Dd post from last year too for some additional ideas to use for the letter D, including a printable collage sheet, different alphabet page and games.

Alphabet Book


Doctor Kit ~ I still had plenty of bandaids left after our bandaid butterflies, so the kids were thrilled to see the bandaids back. I pulled out whatever supplies I had {that were safe} for the kids to stick in their Doctor Bags.

You’ll Need:

  • Black, white, and red construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue and tape
  • Q-tips, large craft stick, bandaids, a cotton ball, gauze bandage and other ‘medical’ supplies you might have around {that are safe for preschoolers}
  • 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 pieces as much as possible!}

1. From the black construction paper, cut out a rectangle for the doctor’s bag as well as two handles. Fold the black rectangle in half to make the bag. Glue the handles onto the bag.

2. Cut out two thin rectangles from the red construction paper and glue together to make a ‘red cross’.

3. Cut out a white circle and glue your ‘red cross’ on. Glue the circle and cross onto your bag.

4. Open the bag and glue/tape all of your medical supplies into the bag.

5. Glue your doctor’s bag onto your alphabet sheet.

Art

D is for Dinosaur ~ We made our ‘D’ shaped craft – a cute little dinosaur this week. You can find the full instructions for him in my D is for Dinosaur post.

Daniel & the Lion’s Den ~ I printed of some cute coloring sheets from Christian Preschool Printables for the kids to work on.

Cooking

Dirt Cups ~ I whipped up a quick batch of pudding and the kids had fun banging and crushing oreos and graham crackers to make them look like ‘dirt’. We spooned out some pudding and topped it off with our ‘dirt’ mix. Yum!

Games

I Spy ~ Since my camera wasn’t working, I had to recreate as much as I could pull together at home for the letter Dd. You should be able to click on the picture if you would like to download it and print it off. I am hoping to pull together one for each letter of the alphabet {meaning I will backtrack and post the letter A one soon}.

Songs and Rhymes

We used a song during our circle time that is similar to the ‘Five Little Ducks’ song, but just a little different. While we were singing, we lined up a Momma Duck with her five little ones and the kids took them away one by one as we sang the song.

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas on teaching the letter D. There are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

D is for Dinosaur {Craft}

This dinosaur was great for identifying several different shapes with the kids ~ triangles, rectangles, and ovals. When we sat down to put the craft together, the kids had to count out four rectangles, five triangles, and one oval so we were able to squeeze in a little math too! Depending on the colors of scales the kids pick out, you can also pattern the scales.

What You’ll Need:

  • Green foam sheet or construction paper {I used two different colors}
  • Scissors
  • Pen {to trace letter}
  • Googly eyes
  • Glue

How to make the ‘D’ Dinosaur:

  1. Trace and cut an uppercase ‘D’ out of the foam sheet or construction paper. I used a foam sheet that was about 4″ x 5″ in size.
  2. Using the extra foam, cut out several triangles for the dinosaurs back.
  3. Cut out four rectangles to use as ‘legs’, an oval for his head, a neck and a tail.
  4. Glue the legs, tail and neck onto the back of the letter ‘D’.
  5. Flip the dinosaur over and add his head, scales and eye.

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Preschool Corner: All About the Letter Cc

I want to say a HUGE ‘thank you’ to all of you who are joining up with the Preschool Corner each week and sharing what you are doing with your preschoolers! You all are making my day and giving me some great ideas of things to do and I love to stop by and visit your blogs!!

This week we talked about the letter ‘Cc’ during our co-op preschool class and that involved caterpillars, crabs, counting, ‘clouds, and cookies.

Alphabet Book

Last year we made a clock for our alphabet book and I really wanted to do some patterns with the kids this year. Really, that was easier said than done, because glue, tiny dots and a limited amount of time means there is little patterning done.

This was great for some fine motor skills too, since the kids helped out and used a hole punch to make their own teeny tiny caterpillar pieces from black, white and yellow construction paper.


You’ll Need:

  • Hole punch
  • Green, black, yellow, and white construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue
  • Thin black marker
  • 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 pieces as much as possible!}

1. Draw some leave shapes and have your child cut them out.

2. Cut out a ‘stem’ for your milkweed plant and some grass for the ground.

3. Let your child use the hole punch to make circles from the black, yellow and white construction paper. Punching holes in the leaves to make them look ‘chewed on’ is fun too!

4. Glue the milkweed plant and grass to the paper.

5. Glue the black, white, and yellow hole pieces for caterpillars ~ try to make patterns with the colors!

6. Add little eyes and antennae with a marker if you’d like.

Art

Chocolate Chip Cookies

We used small paper plates, shaving cream paint, and felt ‘chocolate chips’ to make puffy paint chocolate chip cookies. No Time for Flashcards has a recipe for puffy shaving cream paint {which I had to totally fudge since I didn’t print it off}, but it worked great.

The kids painted their plates and then rolled a number die to see how many ‘chips’ they needed to add to their cookie and they had to count them out. If they wanted too, they rolled it again and added that many more to their cookies.

C is for Crab

Keeping up with our crafts that are shaped like the letters we’re learning, we make a cute little crab for the letter ‘Cc’. You can read more about the craft in my ‘Cc is for Crab’ post.

Book Activities

During our circle time we read the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and then played some games together that related to the book.

Story Sequencing: DLTK Kids has a great printable that you can use to sequence the events of the story and have the kids recall what the caterpillar ate in the book.

Size Sequencing: Carisa at 1+1+1=1 has a great tot book for the Very Hungry Caterpillar including bunches of great printables. We used the butterflies and caterpillars to practice sequencing from smallest to largest.

Games

Cloud Blowing ~ I wanted to do blowing for the letter B, but we ran out of time. This week we called it ‘Cloud Blowing’ and the kids had fun getting down on the floor and blowing cotton balls across the classroom {thanks so much to Four Little Penguins for the idea to use it for the letter C!}.

I Spy ~ We pulled out everything in the classroom {and our show & tell things} that we could find, starting with the letter ‘C’ and made a big pile on the floor. Do you see them in our pile?

Math

During our circle time we also had fun counting coins. The kids each took turn rolling the number die, identifying the number and then counting out 1:1 that amount of pennies.


Songs and Rhymes

We used the book Who Took the Cookies From the Cookie Jar by Bonnie Lass. The kids loved being a part of the rhyme and we went through all the kids.

Additional Resources

Be sure to check out another one of my posts for some more ideas on teaching the letter C. There are some different activities and printables in that post too!

Stories & Books We Used

About the Preschool Corner

The Preschool Corner is a place for us to share the ideas we are using during our “preschool time” with our kids. You can join in the fun and record what you are doing in your house. Please link your exact blog post to the Mr. Linky below (if you have questions feel free to ask). Be sure to link back to this blog post so that your readers can find some other great ideas too!

The guidelines can be found here if you need them.

Share what you’ve been doing in your house this week!

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C is for Crab {Craft}

You’ll have to turn your computer sideways if you want to see the ‘C’ correctly, but I figured you all were smart enough to see the ‘C’, right?

I’m betting you all are going to think I have an obsession with googly eyes…and it’s true. I do. There’s just something about those wiggly things that make a craft so.much.cuter.

What You’ll Need:

  • Red foam sheet or construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Pen {to trace letter}
  • Googly eyes
  • Glue

How to make the ‘C’ Crab:

  1. Trace and cut an uppercase ‘C’ out of the foam sheet or construction paper. I used a foam sheet that was about 4″ x 5″ in size.
  2. Cut out two ‘claws’ for your crab. I didn’t use a pattern, just freehanded it.
  3. Cut out four long, skinny rectangles to use as ‘arms’ and eye extenders for the crab.
  4. Glue the legs and eye extenders onto the back of the letter ‘C’.
  5. Flip the crab over and add the eyes and the claws.

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