E is for Eyes and Elephants

 Today in our homeschool preschool we talked about the letter E.  We read some poems about elephants (One from Eric Carle's Animals Animals) and a couple of little books about directions and elephants.  We sang our songs from last week and did Jumbo Elephant while pretending to walk around using our arms as a trunk. My mother in law taught the song to my girls and they love it. We also sang "One Elephant Went Out To Play On A Spider's Web One Day" and used our parachute as the spider's web and little elephants sewn out of felt.  This was a huge hit and we sang it over and over and repeated it again before Buddy 2 went home.  We listened to the zoo track off of the LDS Primary Nusery music and movement CD.  It is awesome.  It isn't religious, just fun movement activities for little kids.  We've used ours quite a bit.  Plus, it only costs $0.75.

We also attempted to cut the letter E out of foam with a glitter glue template dried on it.  They mostly love being able to use the scissors.

 Next we talked about using our eyes to see the color, shape, size etc. of things.  We did all kinds of sorting activities.  We sorted a button collection by size and color.  Then we did a collage of big vs. little papers.  Then we had a snack and the kids wanted to do the zoo track again.  Then we did another collage sorting by shape with foam stickers.

 We used file folder games to sort by color, shape and type.  We sorted the same objects three different ways and talked more about our eyes.  We played with more file folders and used blocks to talk about using our eyes to see relationships between objects- in front, behind, above, under, near vs. far etc. 

Playing the cat in the hat game.

 Next New Fish requested we play our favorite game- "The Cat In The Hat- I Can Do That."  It is always good for a laugh.  We need a break from all of the sorting activities.  The kids wanted to sing the elephant songs again and then we played with our water table for the last fifteen minutes.  The kids mostly spent the time watering the plants in my backyard. 

Red Fish's collage

Red Fish was very disappointed that we held school while she was at preschool but that's part of the point- to keep New Fish busy while Red Fish is gone. I am going to have to start saving a few of the projects for her to do so she doesn't feel to left out.  Today she was happy with a letter to cut out and some collage supplies to use. So far- the kids are in love with our school plan and I am as well.  I am a little bit worried about running out of ideas but we have the next couple of months planned around the five senses.