e is for egg shell (and 25 others)

i buy these large cardboard alphabet shapes each year. then as we work our way through, we coopratively glue things on to represent that letter. here we have egg shells glued on the e.

other favorites i can remember:

apple seeds on a

buttons on b

crayon chunks on c

dirt on d

fake fur on f

grass on g

hair on h

ice cube painting on i

jewels on j

ketchup packets on k

lint (from the dryer) on l

(fake) money on m

nut shells on n

oatmeal on o

purple paint on p

q-tips on q

ribbon on r

sand on s

tape on t

(paper drink) umbrellas on u

velvet on v

wipes on w

x-rays on x

yellow yarn on y

zippers on z

s is for stick art

once again, the magic of glue.

we put out saucers of glue and invite preschoolers to dip sticks in and spread glue as needed.

then begins the creation of craft stick sculptures. we talk about dimensions as we build these basically flat creations. i still see a small one hanging in a preschool mama’s car years later.

this is one i actually did at home with my then 7 year old naomi and 3 year old micah in honor of eliza’s birth.

as always, if pieces are not solid once the glue has dried, the teacher can add more glue.

these pieces look great flat against a wall or suspended horizontally by fishing line. we did that over a changing table area for eliza…it was like she was looking at the underside of a big web.

s is for secondary colors

really, this can be called c is for color or b is for blue or y is for yellow or g is for green or r is for red or o is for orange or p is for purple, because it is an activity we do in the study of secondary colors.

we put a blob of one primary color on one end of the paper and a blob of another primary color on the other end and then mix…a new color!  and then we can extend this into our math and reading concepts by introducing the symbols that they can read (and when the text strip is added to wet paint, no glue is needed).  ahhhhh.

what i like is when some of the primary colors remain unmixed on the edges (though i don’t give that boundary since there are some preschoolers who need to “complete” their work)

we also color mix paint in baggies by sending it around the circle and everyone squishing it.

we also color mix colors of play-doh (sometimes this takes all week!).

z is for zipper

oh, that tricky letter z. not much beyond zebras, zig zags, zooming cars and planes, zweibach. so we do things with zippers. we wear zippers to school, practice zipping our dress up vests, listen to different zipping sounds.
this year i gave zippers away as a goodbye gift:

zippidee-doo-dah, zippidee-day…
keep learning and growing each summer day!

here is a zipper to pull up and down…
work those finger muscles all over town!

when i was checking out at the thrift shop, the clerk smiled hopefully and said, “oh, my, you must have a lot of sewing planned.”

i set her straight.

m is for mother’s day ii

in a top-secret corner of the room, we made mother’s day bead strands which could be worn as a choker-style necklace (quite literally due to shorter-than-i-planned wire), a wrap around bracelet, or a longer necklace if mama would add a bit of string.

there was a random assortment of beads, cut apart leis, straws, then someone brought over little paper cups to use…oh, they were sure fancy.

then with a little “MOM” writing and wrapping, top secret presents were taken home.