Brainstorm in Bloom: Exciting Letter E (Alphabet Wall)

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Exciting Letter E (Alphabet Wall)

The letter Roly Poly (4yr old) chose this week was E because when Hornet (6yr old) and I were telling him about some of the things we did for our original Alphabet Wall he really like the idea of doing egg shells. We originally did this around Easter but as it turns out dying egg shells is fun any time of year! We also had fun with egg experiments, egg roll painting and an elephant march with our elephant kazoos!

For the rest of the Alphabet, go HERE!

Enjoy this
Exciting E
for (Seedlings ~ preschool age)...

What we did for the Exciting Letter E?...

Alphabet Wall:
*Eggshells ~ We did this backwards from normal – instead of dying the eggshells while they were still on the egg we first cracked the shells off the hardboiled eggs, put the shells in a few different bowls and then added some food coloring, water and vinegar and stirred it around. We then scooped out the shells onto paper towels to let them dry. Another tidbit on this – I was tentative when Roly Poly (4yr old) wanted to crack his own hardboiled egg but as he was patiently working on it I realized it was such a great fine motor activity for him. He was so proud and cracked two successfully! Firefly (2 1/2yr old) had a little bit more difficult time but he sure tried!

Books:

*Read Enormous Elephant Show (Alpha Tales book) and The EF Book (Bob Book Pre-Reader)

* Read some Egg books ~ Eggs by Lynn Stone, Bear’s Eggs by Ingrid Schubert and Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco

* Read a few Elephant books ~ Elephants Can Paint Too! by Katya Arnold - you have to read this one!, Big Little Elephant by Valeri Gorbachev and a Zootles (younger Zoobooks) magazine on Elephants

Art/Crafts:

*Egg Roll Painting ~ This is pretty fun! It is just like marble or golf ball painting but with plastic or hard boiled eggs. Just put some plops of paint in a box with paper in the bottom. Then add an egg to roll around and drag the paint over the paper. If you use a hard boiled egg you can use the shells for your Alphabet Wall E!

*Elephant Trunk Painting ~ After you read Elephants Can Paint Too! you must try this trunk painting! I just put out some paints, brushes and paper. The fun came when I told the boys they had to paint with the brushes in their mouths! When they wanted me to clean their brush for a new color they made a goofy little noise (kind of like an elephant) and I was there to rinse their brush. Bonus - I cleaned out my junk drawer while they were painting because they painted this way for so long and I had to be near to clean the brushes.

*Handprint Elephant ~ Paint your kiddos hand grey, stamp it on a paper and then let your kiddo turn the hand into an elephant! Roly Poly loved this and of course added a pond with a fish. So cute! Idea from Red TedArt!

*Elephant Kazoo~ We made this fun elephant the first time at an Elephant March party that one of my friends had. They were so fun we made them at home again for the letter E. Thanks Tiptoe Crafts for this idea! Save your Elephant Kazoo for the Music and Movement idea below…

Activities:

*Egg Hunt – Yep, just like the traditional Easter Egg hunt!

*Egg Experiments – We did some egg experiments from Steve Spangler Science! This is a great website, check it out!

Letter Formation:
*E w/ white board

Music and Movement:

*Elephant March ~ Use your Elephant Kazoo (above) and dance and march around to The Elephant March from The Jungle Book.

Snack:

*Egg Salad Sandwich ~ The boys making their own Egg Salad Sandwich. I just give them a hardboiled egg (they remove the yoke because they don’t like it). Then they use a plastic knife and cut up the egg, stir some mayo and mustard in and then spread it on their bread. Sometimes we add lettuce, celery or pickles. They boys really love these!