Preschool Lesson: The Letter "F"

It's illuminating to me how bad I am at predicting which letters are easy and which are hard when it comes to preschool. It's a good thing that the first four letters, A through D, are all fairly easy and versatile. Then, I hit "E" and realized that there are only so many "E" animals, words, and activities to appeal to preschoolers. Naturally, with fewer options, I was also less likely to have said objects and activities at hand.

Not so, however, with Letter "F." What a great letter! So many fun things to do. As per usual, I like to have a little powerpoint presentation pulled up on the television so I can introduce the letter with a picture of capital and lowercase "F." We talked about what sound "F" makes while making the letter with our popsicle sticks.

We then went fishing! It's a little tricky with only one adult, I admit, but still very doable. I set up a blue blanket screen for them to cast the fishing rod over, and when they felt a tug on the line, they reeled in their fish. Kids love this game, right? I remember loving this game... not sure why, but it's magical. SourPatch's foam bath fish made great catches.

Once we caught all our fish, it was time for some real water to play "Float or sink?" I had several objects in a bag, and they took turns pulling them out and guessing if they would float or sink in the glass bowl full of water. Basic, splashy science.

The last item we tried out was a mini football. It signaled time to go outside and get our wiggles out learning to throw footballs together. They did great!

For our fine motor skills inside, we did "Do-a-dot" painting of numbers 4 and 5.

This segued nicely into singing time, since there are so many songs with five creatures, such as:

• Five Little Speckled Frogs
• Five Little Pumpkins
• Five Little Ducks
• Five Little Monkeys

With so many songs, I split up singing time into two segments. We had our "five" session, and later we sang "finger songs" such as "Where is Thumbkin?" and "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (Once I caught a fish alive.)" We also sang "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" using finger puppets. We then watched Ernie sing "One Fine Face" and sang along as he repeats the song a second time.

Whew. We put back on our science hats and talked about our different senses, especially how we can feel things. The kids then took turns reaching into my mystery bag and trying to feel what fruit I had in there. I was using SourPatch's plastic fruit set, which naturally made it trickier than real fruit, so I had a giant picture of fruit pulled up on the television to help give them ideas.

After a snack of fruit (not plastic this time) and fish crackers, we had story time. We read The Foot Book and The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night. Well, really I sang the second book, and after it was finished, I played the Nickle Creek version while we played a freeze game. They danced ran around and around the room to the music but had to freeze whenever I hit pause.

I pulled out some farm puzzles for them to do while I set up the fox and flower craft...

...which I think turned out super cute, don't you? I needed some redemption after the less-than-adorable "E" craft.

There you have it. I hope the children have as much fun at preschool as I do.