Hello all,
“Letter E is for Eggs Week” was by far the most Exciting week of the 2014-2015 school year yet! The students Entered school Each day with an Enormous amount of Letter E shares! Everything from Eggs, Elmo, Exercise Equipment, Eagles, and Elephants were sent in and shared! There were tons of Letter E books that came in as well! To help explore the letter E, the students also learned all about Eggs! Well, “Letter E is for Eggs Week” has come and gone. Read on below to discover the learning that took place and fun that was had throughout the week!
The students spent both Monday and Tuesday morning working one on one with the teachers to complete their Letter E identification/fine motor activity sheets. The teachers were so impressed with how easily the new students recognized the letter E and also how well the older students remembered all things “E” during their morning work! In the afternoon on Monday and Tuesday, the students created the fifth letter list of the year! As a whole group, the students took turns brainstorming and contributing words that begin with the letter E and also hunted around the classroom for letter E items! Naturally, the letter E list was full of Excellent answers! As you will see, the list included such words as Elbow and Eyeball. Some of the younger students were very confused by these words – none of them make the “ehh” sound like the letter E makes. This led to a discussion about how some letter are a little tricky and they change their sounds! These letters are called vowels – sometimes they say their name (long E sound – “E”) as in Eagle and sometimes they say their sound (short E Sound – “eh”) as in Egg. The students decided that vowels were “silly letters” and moved on to their afternoon stations.
How many E shares do you see?
Answer: Elmo, Ella Elephant Book, Elephant, Eggs, and an E!
On Wednesday morning, the PPA classroom was abuzz with some Egg-tastic news as the students learned they would be starting the first part of their two day art project to create an animal egg! In order to get started, the teachers inflated balloons for the students to paper mache. The students dipped strips of shredded newspaper into the gooey concoction and then draped them gently around their balloon. At first, the students were a little hesitant to get their hands a little messy but once they realized how much fun it was they quickly dove right in! Once all of the eggs had been created, they were set aside in order to dry until the three day students returned once again on Friday.
After music class on Wednesday (and Thursday) afternoon, the students participated in Spanish class where they continued to explore their Los Colores (Colors) vocabulary. Be sure to take a peek at the video below to see them in action!
Thursday morning began with a special visit from a former PPA student and graduate! The Kindergartner featured below came in to read a story to the class and teach the students of PPA all about the wonderful world of Kindergarten! He also introduced his former classmates to the newest addition to the family – his little baby brother! What a special visit it was! Thank you for visiting and we hope to see you and your family again soon!
The day continued to be another Egg-cellent one as the students continued to investigate the theme of the week by creating another, but this time smaller, egg! To start, the teachers held up a chicken egg from the grocery store and asked, “What is this?” Hands flew up into the air as the students noted that it was an egg! The teachers then posed a question – What type of Egg? A dinosaur egg? The students giggled as they recalled what they learned during “Letter D is for Dinosaur Week”. They explained that it could not be a dinosaur egg because dinosaurs are extinct! They continued, this egg was a chicken egg! They were right! The teachers then asked, “Are all eggs chicken eggs?” to which the students again laughed as they began listing various types of animals that lay eggs including: chickens, alligators, turtles, ostriches, snakes, and more! Again, they were right! But the teachers were curious, “How can you tell if an egg is a chicken egg or another kind of egg?”
To investigate this question, the students turned to National Geographic Kids to investigate photographs of different animals and their eggs. The students were fascinated to learn that while many eggs share an oval shape, they are not all the same color! The students loved viewing photographs of blue jay eggs as compared to emerald green emu eggs as compared to speckled house sparrow eggs!
For their morning work, the students, with a little help from some colored fingernail polish, decorated their plastic eggs and set them aside to dry. When the eggs were ready, the students returned and selected a tiny colorful bird to place inside of the egg along with a sparkly letter E! What a fun day it was!
The students arrived at school on Friday morning ready to get “cracking”. The dinosaur eggs had dried and were ready to be decorated! Before the decorating began, the students greeted a PPA Daddy who has a letter E job for his profession! The Daddy photographed below came in to read a story to the class all about Engineers. He explained that engineers have very important jobs to make sure that things like buildings and bridges are built correctly. A special Park Prep Thank You to this Daddy for spending the morning with us!
As the students Excitedly headed to their morning activity stations, they realized it was time to decorate the dinosaur eggs! Using assorted colored paints, the students began painting, speckling, striping, and swirling their eggs! The sky was the limit for the egg designs! Needless to say, the students were thrilled to decorate and take their eggs home later that day! The teachers of course reminded the students to be careful with their eggs. They may “contain” dinosaurs but they are still fragile, after all! 🙂
Friday afternoon wrapped up with an Extremely Exciting Letter E/Egg technology presentation! The students discussed the various animals that lay eggs and also played a game called, “Guess that Egg!” They particularly loved seeing various animal eggs as they were hatching.
Of course, those WiLd aNd CrAzY Storybots made an appearance as well!
Well, that is all for “Letter E is for Eggs Week”. As always, thank you for reading and have a fun and safe weekend! See you next week!
-PPA
Reminders:
School Closed Tuesday
November 11th– Observation of Veterans Day
Parent-Teacher Conferences continue into next week.
Please check your email or the school calendar board to confirm your scheduled time-slot.
Theme for Next Week:
