Today we finished our study of the letter “B” and the color blue.
I sent home the blue folders I had helped the children make. The outside of the folder was painted with blue bubbles. (See post here for instructions.)
Inside the folder I put their letter “B” mini books from First School, a copy of the rhyme Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, a bear paper with their name on it, the numbers 1-10, a small bear paper with a capital and lower case “Bb”, some bug stickers in a blue pocket, and their tracing paper of the letter “Bb” from First School.
We also made boats with blue sails. The boat is made from an empty laundry detergent bottle (All Small and Mighty to be exact). I cut off the top, but left a piece at the side that was a few inches tall to use for attaching the sail. The children used blue permanent markers to decorate their boats. The sail was a triangle cut from some craft foam with two slits in it. (If you want to know what I did with some of the leftover pieces of the detergent bottle then check out this post from my other blog.)
When we were finished making the boats I filled a shallow plastic tote box with some water and placed it on an old shower curtain. The children had fun trying out their boats. It was a good science activity about floating and sinking. We put different objects inside their boats to see if they would still float. Lots of fun and I know my son will want to use his as a bathtub toy now. 🙂
The binoculars pictured above were made using toilet paper tubes. I let the children color them and then stapled them together. I attached a blue ribbon at the top after punching holes in each tube. The children enjoyed looking for blue and “B” things with their binoculars.
For our snack today we had gummy bears. I had purchased a large bag and divided them up into individual baggies with 20 bears in each. The children colored the bears on a worksheet I had made from one that was found in the book Primarily Bears. The original paper had a bear for the white gummy bears, but I thought that they looked too similar to the yellow gummy bears, so I didn’t give the children any. After they were finished coloring they sorted and counted their bears. I gave them five of each color to make it even. This was a fun counting activity!
We also played a game where someone was “it” and tried to figure out who was hiding a button. They kids were so cute because they would tell who had it or show that they had it. They didn’t quite get the concept of the game, but had fun nonetheless. We also played with a giant inflatable ball during our outdoor time. It was a fun gross motor activity.
The other thing I am excited about is our traveling teddy bear. Each child will have a turn to take home the backpack, bear and book for a weekend. I have asked the parents to write down what their child dictates about their weekend with the bear. The child is then to draw a picture of them with the bear. We will read what they wrote each Monday. I am hoping this will work out well and will be good experience for storytelling.
This was full of “B” and blue activities, and I think the children all had fun learning. I was thrilled when one of the parents said her girls were noticing all the blue cars when they were driving. It is wonderful how children are always learning.
Next week we will be studying the letter “C”, caterpillars, and yellow.
