October 5, 2013.  Letter E    Theme:  Eggs     Number 5     Shape Oval 
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Free Play in Learning Centers
Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Review letters A-D and #'s 1-4 and introduce Letter E and #5.  Read "My E Book."  Have each child gather 5 of an item in the classroom, i.e., 5 pencils or erasers or crayons, etc.  Ask the children which animals they think might hatch from eggs.  Write their answers down on a white board.  Explain that later in the day, we will read a book about what hatches from eggs and compare what we read to their answers.
Snack:    Whip up some biscuit dough.  Fold a  plastic animal (oviparous, of course) inside each biscuit and shape into an egg.  Bake according to directions on can.  Allow the children to crack their eggs and see what hatches! I would not recommend letting the children eat the biscuits, however.  Bake some extra biscuits, without the animals inside, for the children to taste if they desire.  You could also do this with egg jello molds.
Bible: 
Free Play in Learning Centers or outdoors:  While the children were playing, I decided to tackle cleaning the soil out of our "Reptile Habitat."  I had purchased white sand to replace the soil, so that the children could play with the plastic reptiles in the habitat.  This turned into quite an activity, but I kind of love when this happens!  The children decided they wanted to take home some of the real plants that I was digging out.  Sooooo, I dug up some old plastic pots and put just enough soil in three pots, separated the plants, and was able to provide a plant for each child to take home!  They loved this!
Group Lesson:  Read "Chickens Aren't the Only Ones" by Ruth Heller (World of Nature series).  Pre-reading:  Invite each child to tell the class about his/her favorite kind of cooked eggs.  Ask students to look over the list of animals they feel might come from eggs (done in Circle Time earlier).  Ask students if they know what bird lays the biggest egg?  smallest egg? 
Explain that oviparous describes any animal that lays eggs from which its young hatch.  Post-reading:  Let children use recall to name more egg-laying animals that were not mentioned in Circle Time, and add these to the chart.  I printed out pictures of oviparous and non-oviparous animals, and after discussing oviparous, each child was given an animal and had to decide if the animal was oviparous or not.  I gave each child a tiny piece of sticky tac and asked them to place their animal on a chart I had made.  On the chart, I made a line down the center and titled one side "Lays Eggs" (with a picture of an egg beside it), and on the other side I placed the title "Does Not Lay Eggs."  The children had to decide on which side of the chart their animal belonged. 
Lunch/Rest
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  Outdoor play if weather permits.  Move to music if inside.
Art/Fine Motor:  Autumn Leaf Photo Frames.  One of my student's grandmother had donated these to my preschool.  I purchased some Puff Paint and offered the children glitter and told them to decorate the leaves any way they wished.  They turned out quite nice.  I then placed a photo of each child inside their leaf (it is a good idea at the beginning of the year to take pictures of the students so that you have these photos for just these types of artwork.  They make cute keepsakes for parents!)
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October 7, 2013.  Letter E    Theme:  Eggs     Number 5     Shape Oval
Sign In:  Now, instead of having the children just sign in by writing their names, I give them a worksheet (only takes them about a minute or two to finish this).  On the top of the worksheet, they are to write their names, so this is my way of having them sign in currently.  Today's worksheet had the children trace some lines and circle some hidden pictures.  They enjoy these hidden picture worksheets.
Free Play in Learning Centers
Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Review letters A-E and #'s 1-5.  I have introduced vowels to them by way of a vowel song (sung to Old MacDonald).  "There are some letters I love to sing, and vowels are their name-o:  a, e, i, o, u; a, e, i, o, u, a, e, i, o, u, and vowels are their name-o!"  I also talked about the sounds a, e, and i make, and will review these well for several days before moving on to o and u.  From:  http://www.brighthubeducation.com/pre-k-and-k-lesson-plans/15637-teaching-vowels-and-sounds-activities/.
Snack:   I made extra hard-boiled eggs, which I had to make for our art project for later in the day.  Casey and Jake both enjoyed eating the extras!
Bible:  Read about Esau and Jacob.
Free Play in Learning Centers or outdoors
Group Lesson: I read two books about eggs:  "The Egg" (a First Discovery book from Scholastic) and "Jakers!  What's Hatching?"  We also discussed taking care of our teeth, and later in the week, we will do an  "egg"speriment with hard-boiled eggs to see the effects of food on our teeth.  I made up a small Mystery Box and placed in it:  toothbrush, fluoride toothpaste, a hard-boiled egg and a watch.  We are learning to brush our teeth TWO MINUTES twice a day to have a healthy mouth; thus the watch.  We observed how long two minutes is.  Casey then walked around the preschool for two minutes (it actually seemed quite long), but the children seemed interested in learning how long two minutes is.
Lunch/Rest
Gross Motor/Phys.Ed:  Outdoor play if weather permits.  Move to music if inside.
Art/Fine Motor:  "Eggs"cellent Prints:  Place a piece of white paper inside a shallow box and let children choose two colors of paint to "blob" into the center of the paper side by side.  Take a hard boiled egg and place it on the paper inside the box.  Let the children roll the egg around inside the box by tilting the box from side to side and all around.  When the pictures have dried, you may want to cut them into an egg (oval) shape.  I actually let the children choose four or five colors of paint, because they were really enjoying this activity.  The hard-boiled eggs turned out very pretty, as well as their paper eggs. 
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October 9, 2013.  Letter E    Theme:  Eggs     Number 5     Shape Oval 
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Free Play in Learning Centers
Circle Time:  Morning learning songs.  Review letters A-E and #'s 1-5, etc.  Vowel song.  Find the Letter Game:  I have preprinted 12 or 13 of each letter of the alphabet onto cardstock and cut out the individual letters.  I will hide Letters D and E around the preschool.  I will announce this to the children, explaining that there will be lots of Letters D and E hidden around the room.  They are to find the hidden letters and then place them in the correct pile (I will have a Letter D pile and a letter E pile placed on a table).  I did this activity last week, and they asked to do it again, but I told them we  would do it again later, and today's the day!  They love hunting for hidden items!  This is a good activity, because it teaches them letter recognition.  They must recognize the letter they find in order to place it in the correct pile. 
Snack:  
Bible:  Devotion and Bible Memory Verse:  "So love your enemies.  Do good to them..."  Luke 6:35.  Devotion will be about God taught Jonah how to love his enemies.
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Group Lesson: Continuing learning about healthy teeth.  Today we will do our "egg"speriment.  I will explain that the class will conduct an experiment to learn how food and drink can change your teeth.  We will place one egg in a cup of water and place the other egg in a glass of dark soda.  I will explain that we will leave the eggs sit in the cups for a couple of days.  I will ask the students to predict what will happen to the eggs.  "What would happen to your teeth if they were covered in soda?"  "How do you keep food and drink off your teeth after you're done eating?"  To stick with our egg theme, I will read "What Will Hatch?" by Jennifer Ward. 
Art/Fine Motor:  We will paint gourds!  If time, we will also do some leaf painting (gather some leaves from outdoors, let the children paint them with a paintbrush, and then do some stamping on paper with them to see how they appear after having been painted.
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