I have been blogging about our peaceful preschool journey since we found out this curriculum is a right choice for us. Some of the activities might look different from what’s given in the guide as I’m striving to work with whatever materials I have got. Also I use this opportunity as a way to connect with her , listen what she has to say and understanding her interests. Some activities such as art skills and read alouds make a perfect wind down activity for her once she’s back from preschool.
Since she attend half day preschool 3 days per week I spread each week activities into two weeks. It allows more grace and peace in our daily activities. Here’s a sneak peek of some activities we did for Letter E.
Day 1
The day started with reading the book ‘Rechenka’s Eggs’ which I checked out from our local library. The colorful illustrations and heartwarming story make it an exceptional read. The part where Babushka decides to set free Rechenka- the colorful egg laying goose whom she could have greedily kept is a wonderful message of selflessness. This book was so loved that we read it repeatedly over the weeks.
I set out our new egg carton box and and let her count the eggs. Once she counted the eggs she moved them into a basket carefully and then counted the spaces.
After counting I marked up the spaces using a pen ( a sharpie would have been better) and gave her a bowl of black chickpeas to count and add that many peas into each slots as labeled. She did well untill 6 but then lost track of the count. So we practiced 1-6 again and after that I let her play with chickpeas and egg carton for a while.
While we were doing the counting work I boiled some eggs over the stove. We followed this Boiled egg recipe and they turned out perfect and easy to peel. Once cooled I invited her to peel the eggs and that’s a great fine motor work and a practical life skill to learn.
We took another boiled egg and played the egg roll game. She thoroughly enjoyed rolling the egg back and forth for a few times.
After enjoying some yummy boiled eggs we set off to dye them with vinegar and food color. It’s better to choose white eggs for bright colors but brown eggs also work well. We tried blue, green and red colors. Since they were brown I added more drops of food color. She dropped the eggs in each cups and we waited untill end of the day. They turned out to be some colorful eggs as we read in the book ‘Rechenka’s Eggs’.
Day 2
After breakfast we sat down for our work and I read the poem ‘ Nest Eggs ‘ for her. While I was reading I let her play with Playdough and let her create whatever she like. I left out the flashcards for her to copy but she ignored them and happily rolled and punched on the Playdough.
While she was at it I modeled how to make a small bowl shape and roll some Playdough as eggs. She had fun rolling and shaping the balls to make her own tiny nest.
She also practiced tracing and coloring this worksheet. She usually never finish this sheet but I use it as a brain break activity.
Walking over the curbs is something that she would do most of the days when we’re out. But it will be fun to take it inside too. I used a painters tape to mark a vertical and some horizontal lines on the floor. She have to balance walk on the straight line and then hop to cross the horizontal lines.
I printed off a picture of Nest & Eggs from Internet for her to try a watercolor painting. She started off drawing the eggs and asked my help to draw the nest. I also showed her to paint some leaves around. She’s getting the hang of copying a picture but need lot of prompts and help right now.
Day 3
We read our favorite touch and feel alphabet book today. She loves this book so much and it has realistic images. We got this book from BJ’s but here’s the same touch and feel book in amazon.
We moved onto the salt tray writing (sand tray for us). She’s getting the grasp of tracing letters and letter E with all straight lines was the easiest.
Then we made up a quick pictionary game with the sand tray. We took turns drawing a picture while the other person close their eyes and then once done we need to guess the picture. Above is a picture of TV with stand that she drew for me to guess.
Writing numbers on chalkboard was hard for her. She could write 1&3 but the rest I let her trace over mine. Sometimes we need to go with the flow and let them take the lead. It saves lot of frustration and unnecessary tantrums.
We love plastic easter egg activities and hence I made up an easy dice game to learn some math facts. Using a sharpie reproduce the dice dots on the egg halves. Find any object that fits inside those halves and hide the object in one of the egg. Now roll the dice to uncover each egg accordingly untill you find the object. When a math activity is masked into a game they tend to learn much better.
How about a surprise egg activity coupled with gross motor skills? We call it Exercise Eggs. Write down some physical activities on a piece of paper such as jumping jacks/pushups/ crabwalk/Skipping etc. Then fold it and shut it close inside the plastic eggs. Let them take turns to open the eggs , read it out and perform the activity. My kids loved the element of surprise in this fun activity.
Do you know the plastic egg halves also make a fun painting tool? Just dip it in a paint and let them stamp circles or paint over a paper. I let her paint the block letter E using orange and gold paint.
Once it’s dried she glued down some googly eyes on her letter E. It’s fun to glue down loose parts that start with the corresponding letter. A for Apple stickers/ B for Bandaid/C for Cottonballs/D for Dots/E for eyes etc.
Day 4
We started the day by reading the suggested book ‘An egg is quiet’ She loved looking through all variety of eggs in the book. We counted the eggs and discussed the differences in size/shape/texture of those eggs. After reading I gave her a sharpie and our colored eggs to copy some of the egg design from the book.
We practiced writing her name on our LCD writing tablet. She’s still learning to recognize and write her name. So I wrote down the letters in her name on another piece of paper and let her copy me.
Making these yummy deviled egg was the highlight of the day. She thoroughly enjoyed boiling the eggs, mixing and scooping out the yolk.
She’s always a happy helper in kitchen but due to my fear of mess/ danger I tend to keep her away. The recipes in this curriculum has made me braver to let her experience the joy of cooking.
She tried the wet on wet watercolor painting for first time after school. She chose her favorite purple color and happily painted the entire paper. Since the water was more the paint dripped all over and it took a day to dry.
Once dried I drew some egg shapes on the paper and cut them out to make the alphabet match game for her.
We couldn’t do the field trip this week as I was not able to find any bird sanctuary closer to us. But an amazing incident that’s worth mentioning is that during spring this year in one of our hanging pots on porch a Robin bird made a nest and laid three eggs. It was such an exciting moment for us to see those tiny eggs. One of the egg hatched and out came a teeny tiny healthy baby. We took great care in watering the plant so as not to make the nest and the hatchling wet. We got to watch the miracle of nature unfolding into a little bird and in 2 months she flew away to independence.