Excellent E and Fabulous F Weeks

Continuing along the Alphabet Path,

E is for Eliza!

 

Drawing lesson:

 

Handwriting practice on gray block paper:

 

 

Enormous Elephants painted at the Easel:
 
 

The literary highlight of the week was An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni. Our well-loved copy of this book is inscribed from Nana '95 and indeed we've been enjoying the story for many years. In fact, Look what I found! Isn't it extraordinary? proclaimed in that full-of-wonder Jessica voice, and an endearing honey-sweet Come here, my sweet little alligator are oft quoted favorite lines in my house.

Retelling the story with beanie props (and a little alligator in a plastic egg):

Extraordinary Egg artwork:

These pictures were a lot of fun to make and the girls really like them. We started with a large piece of drawing paper and added the sky with blue sidewalk chalk. The background rocks and pebbles and greenery were done in pastel, but more chalk would work as well.

Then I had the girls paint randomly on green and brown construction paper to make the patterned paper.

We ended up with these:

 

Then I just cut out the frog and alligator parts free hand from their paper creations and helped them glue the pieces onto the picture. I cut the bodies and all the legs out separately to add to the collage look and give them more personality. Little white circles were added for the eyes.

Isn't it extraordinary?

 

And on to more Fun in F Week - practicing First letter sounds and object sorting:

 

F is For Fish! I printed out fish templates on cardstock (I used this image, set at landscape and 200%.) and let the girls paint them with watercolors. I cut the fish out after they dried.

Meanwhile we prepared the background on blue construction paper. I set out the Rainbow Fish book for pretty color inspiration and had them draw a background of seaweed and pebbles and all with pastels, encouraging them to stick with bright greens and blues and purples for a peaceful aquatic look. Then we glued on the fish cut outs adding white card stock eyes and bubbles made with a hole puncher. Very cute!

 

F is For Farm!

We read some Favorite Farm books such as Our Animal Friends At Maple Hill Farm and The Year At Maple Hill Farm. That second one is very nice for learning about the seasons. Another Favorite Farm is of course Signing Time! Volume 7: Leah's Farm. We had lots of Fun making these Farm pictures. We cut green paper grass and glued it on to a large blue construction paper background. I cut barns out of red paper, cutting the doors and various other flaps for peek-a-booing the animals. I printed out a sheet of farm animal pictures on cardstock, (found here, printed at 200%) then cut them out and let the girls glue them where they wanted. (I had nothing to do with Eliza's flying pig.) I used the cardstock trimmings to make the white trim for the barn and doors. These were very simple but they turned out very cute, and the girls enjoyed making them and playing with them.