Ee

So much for blogging daily.

Ee week was awesome, though. Monday was a holiday. 8yo went on and on about not having to go to school which helped 5yo decide he didn't need preschool either.
Tuesday- My Country - Bald Eagle
Picked up a great little kids book from the library- Red, White, Blue, and Uncle Who? by Teresa Bateman. It has nice short blips about 'America's Patriotic Symbols.'
So we started with the ABC song. This time we used Leap Frog's Discovery Ball.

 Before Tuesday, I had used Hooked on Phonics. My mistake was to use Windows Media Player to play the cd. The kids were hooked on watching the animation instead of the letter cards. The Discovery Ball was a great way to break away from that. Then I used the cards from 'Hooked on Phonics' with me saying the letter and the kids repeating me.
Next, I made a coloring page by finding a black and white version of the Great Seal (of America) and inserted 'Bald Eagle' in big, outlined letters. I told them everything I learned about the eagle and the Great Seal from the library book and helped them count everything. Thirteen stars in the cloud above the eagle represent Glory, there's twelve arrows representing war, one olive branch representing peace, thirteen stripes in the shield for 13 original colonies (we found only 12, but maybe because you shouldn't post the real seal if that's what the president use.)
Nice and short. It was a good preschool day.
Wednesday- My body - ear, eye, egg
We started with the Discovery Ball again for our ABCs. Used the phonics cards for capital letters and decided to use a matching game I made last year to help learn the lower case. I used only about one third of the alphabet. I'll post more info on that later.
This day formed itself into the five sense. Found some clipart for hands=touch, tongue=taste, nose=smell, eyes=see, ears=hear. I let the kids cut out the clipart and tape it to our poster board person we'd made previously. (He turned out rather scary looking.)  Note- safely scissors stink. I let the 5yo use short grown up scissors and the experience was much better. Then I hard-boiled some eggs and told the kids that we could hear the egg when we cracked it. I'll let you figure out the other senses.
Thursday- My Family
I can't recall much about this day. Early Alzheimer's I guess. I know that we didn't print up pictures for our family tree. I remember that because 8yo's homework happened to be on family tree and I printed them up that night. Perhaps we watched videos on SesameStreet.org on 'Family' and the letter Ee. Tons of clips for family, not so much for letter Ee.
Friday- My World - Elephant
Awesome day. Great participation. ABCs of course, then we traced around an elephant shape that came with the crayola sidewalk chalk. I had printed up big, outlined 'Ee' and 'Elephant' to tape to their pictures. I wanted them to glue stick it on but we're out.
Fridays have turned into Field Trip Fridays (sorry about the lame alliteration.) It was awesome. The local nature center has a Bald Eagle whose wing had been shot. (They only hold injured bird.) So we got to see one and talk about how he's our nations mascot. The 8yo gets out early on Fridays and I don't want him to miss field trips. He had lots of info to add. What a smarty. You know, I'm sure the kids don't realize that we spend a whole week on one letter and that mom spends a lot of time coordinating it with the day's emphasis, but it sure is fun for me.
Next week it Ff and we're going to learn about Father, flags, flutes, fingers, and maybe fish. We're planning a trip to the state capital for out field trip for founding father; that's going to save me from going to Wal-mart to look at fish and giving in and buy pet fish. Following the alphabet can be limiting, but it can also create a springboard for other things. For example, we're also going to learn about short, medium and long. Our flag has short and long stripes, our fingers are different lengths and different sized flutes make different pitches. Not to mention, to make an F you must use three sticks, one short, one long, and one medium sized.