Our Letter of the Week is E.  See if your child can make out  the E in the image left. <g>  Our theme is the Egg, the shape is oval, the color white (it is too a color – Tomie De Paola says so ; )), and the number is 5.

ASL E and egg

Lit:

Chickens Aren’t the Only Ones – Ruth Heller  This is a great book which teaches about all the animals which are hatched.

Horton Hatches an Egg – Seuss

From Egg to Chicken

Just Plain Fancy is Patricia Polacco’s sweet story of the dilemma an Amish girl faces when her hen hatches a very unusual chick.

Five Little Ducks (who also lay eggs) If by some misfortune you don’t have Raffi’s musical version do treat yourselves to that! Some of my fondest motherhood memories are Raffi songs blasting on the van radio when my big boys were little. I had to sing this book. It just seemed right. : )

The Eagle and the Beetle (Aesop) a nod to classical curriculum. This story involves eggs as well.   Aesop’s Fables are a marvelous addition to any child’s education. Older children can use them for copywork and composition ala IEW.  We are all about multilevel learning. : )

The Elves and the Shoemaker – Grimm  Free online or any illustrated version

Theme unit for Chickens Aren’t The Only Ones.

Discovery Bottles – Static Electricity

Montessori trays: use egg slicer on boiled eggs this week. Use an oval stencil (metal insets) to complete this egg minibook. An extension is to make lines with colored pencil filling in the ovals like this. If you don’t have insets you can make a stencil from a plastic container lid and an exacto knife. Make E’s and 5’s from playdough to cover letter card. Match patterned plastic egg halves. If your child is ready you can put an uppercase letter on one half and a lower case match on the other.

Snack/Practical life work:  make egg salad sandwiches, deviled eggs, scrambled/fried/poached, and omelettes.

Math – match these eggs by number of dots. Put jelly beans in egg cartons with the spaces labeled with 1-12 (or use a half dozen carton with just 1-6) Match these by pattern or print multiples and use them to make repeating patterns. You can glue your patterns to be recreated onto a control card.

virtual games: I don’t recommend many of these but if you need 10 minutes to make  a phone call you can tap these resources.

Art: lots of options. The obvious would be to dye the eggs. An extension of same would be to explore pysanky egg art. Patricia Polacco’s book Rechenka’s Eggs is excellent here. If that is too ambitious there are printable pysanky eggs found here. Cover the E template with eggshell collage. (use the shells saved from those boiled egg dishes)   I love this string art project. Very multisensory and by golly the finished project will, drumroll please, fit in a binder. <g>   Did you know that egg yolk makes an interesting paint technique? Scroll down to Maryann Kohl’s submission. Her books are must have’s for art instruction.

Movement: tape off the floor into a curvy path and have children push boiled eggs along. Walk the line – make an oval tape circle and have the children walk the line carrying the eggs on spoons.

Verse: Humpty Dumpty (craft project on link and here)

Saints/bible heroes: Esther and St Elizabeth of Hungary  Decorate a crown shape (or make one for the child to wear!) with sequins and include in binder with the children’s retelling of one of these queens’ stories. 

Enjoy!