Preschool Lesson: Letter "E"

First, we started off circling up and talking about the letter "E". I made a basic PowerPoint to put up on our TV to display the upper and lowercase letters. Then, we talked about long "e" (followed by pictures of eagles and eels) and short "e" (followed by pictures of elephants and eggs). We then made uppercase "E" with popsicle sticks.

We jumped right into our fine motor activity of dot painting. I had a suspicion they'd be excited about it, and I was right! After seeing how much Elin's little girl enjoyed the Do a Dot markers when she was SourPatch's age, I decided to buy a pack as a quiet General Conference activity. It was a hit! I used the elephant printable from This Reading Mama's free letter E pack and this engine printable.

For our large motor activity, we decided to "exercise" by playing a jumping game. Okay, only a 2 or 3 year old would call this a game, but that's the crowd we're catering to, right? I had them take turns pulling a numbered elephant card out of my envelope. We then jumped all together that many times, counting aloud. (It took them maybe one round to add falling to the floor at the end while laughing to the routine. Kids are funny.) After we jumped to all ten cards, we arranged them in order, 1 to 10 (I got these cards from the free letter E pack mentioned above!)

Next, we went on an egg hunt around the house. Conveniently, these eggs are also shakers to segue into music time. I feel like I do need more shaker songs in my repertoire. I mean, I know you can shake to the beat of any song, but some work better than others. Today, we just did two egg shaker songs and two "E" songs:

• Shake Your Shaker Slowly
• Tue Tue This song is a throwback to the amazing music class we attended in California. The organizer, Brittney, was good about incorporating non-English songs into her class. Plus, I spent a month in Ghana, so it brings back good memories. Furthermore, it has an echo component to it, which is great for Letter E day!
• The Elevator Song
•  Sing After Me How perfect is this song? Ernie and Elmo singing about echos? We watched it twice so we could sing along the second time, echoing along with Elmo.

After a non-e-themed snack (sorry, kiddos!) and playing outside, we read:

• The Little Engine that Could
• First the Egg 
• Green Eggs and Ham

The kids were done with books by the time we got to Horton. Sorry, lil elephant! Next time.

We then reviewed the "E" words we learned by decorating an evergreen tree with objects and pictures, such as elephant, eggs, engine, envelope, ear, eagle, Elmo, and earth.

Back to the craft table, the kids put together some 2-piece puzzles (again courtesy of the Letter E pack linked above) while I got our envelope craft ready.

Okay, time for my disclaimer... this craft is not actually very cute. Still, it turned out to be a good choice for practice gluing, and the kids enjoyed filling up their envelopes with "E"s on little paper squares.

All in all? It felt like another preschool success.