e is for engine

The final letter "e" word that we talked about was engine. My little boy just loves "choo choo trains". He really, really enjoys Thomas the Tank Engine. He got a train set for Christmas along with several Thomas engines and he plays with them every day. So, it was a fun way to talk about the short letter "e" and he got pretty engaged in the activities. 

Books 

We read all the Thomas the Train books we own and checked a couple out of others from the library. These books are pretty simple stories about the adventures of the different trains on the island of Sodor. Each of the trains has its own personality. The original stories were written by a Reverend for his son and emphasized friendship, honesty, and hard work. These are good character traits for children and I want to find the original Thomas the Tank Engine series for Jonathan. 

The Little Engine That Could by Wally Piper

This is a classic story about a train of toys that breaks down and needs another engine to help them reach their destination. Several bigger or more important engines come by but are too busy to help. Finally a small engine comes by and although she's uncertain if she can help she says "I think I can, I think I can" and is able to climb the mountain to help them deliver the toys to the waiting children. Jonathan loved this story-- I guess there's a reason it's a classic! He's asked to read it several times. I think we'll be adding it to our home library soon!

 

Math 

We printed out numbers and shapes printables from Carisa's Tot Pack over at 1+1+1=1. Jonathan identified the shapes easily and we sat and practiced counting the number of trains on each card. As I learned with our elves unit, Jonathan does better counting when he can actually manipulate the objects he's counting. So we pulled out some of our trains and counted how many we had. 

The major Thomas engines have numbers attached to them. We don't have very many of them, but if he continues to enjoy these trains I could see purchasing the trains numbered 1-10 and having him practice putting the trains in numerical order. 

There's a great article about how these wooden train sets help children build early math skills at Sensible Math Education. 

Web Resources 

The Little Engine That Could Story Lesson @ Mother Hubbard's Cupboard

Thomas the Train Tot Pack @ 1+1+1=1

e is for elf

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It's so hard to find words with the short e sound. I don't know what I'll do when I get some of the more difficult letters, like X. Anyways, we tried to focus on elves for the short e sound. The books weren't much of interest to Jonathan, but he did like the activities...

Books

Elfabet: An ABC of Elves by Jane Yolen

This book features adorable multicultural elves on each page. Each letter has its own page with a busy elf engaged in an activity which corresponds with that letter of the alphabet. As an added bonus, each elf is surrounded by objects which begin with the same letter. For example, the E page says "E is for Egg Elf endlessly eating". The elf is sitting in an elder tree surrounded by an elephant, an eagle, elderberries, and evening primroses.Lauren Mills' illustrations are fun and full of detail. As a two year old, however, Jonathan wasn't impressed. I think the book is too detailed for him at this age. As he gets older, however, I think he'll have more fun finding the items in the pictures. We'll probably save this one for when he's in preschool or kindergarten. It's definitely worth checking out if you have children a little older than mine.

The Elves and the Shoemaker retold and illustrated by Bernadette Watts

This is a retelling of the classic fairy tale story by the Brothers Grimm. A poor shoemaker has only enough leather left to make one pair of shoes. He sets out the leather at night and finds a beautifully made pair of shoes the next morning. The shoes continue to be made each night as the shoemaker and his wife sleep. Eventually, the shoemaker and his wife watch to see who was helping them and find two tiny elves. The shoemaker and his wife come up with a gift for the elves to show their gratitude. This is a beautifully illustrated retelling and Watt's colorful drawings breathe new life into a well known story.  The text is short enough that toddlers ought to be able to sit through the story. Jonathan, however, didn't show much interest in this one either. 

Art 


We colored a picture of an elf with the shoemaker as well as an "e is for elf" page that I found at Making Learning Fun.  I pulled out his markers and in addition to coloring, he had fun practicing pulling the caps off and putting them on again.

Math


To tie in to the Elves and the Shoemaker story, I had Jonathan count and match Grace's shoes. I printed out a clip art of an elf and taped it to a paper bag. Then I put 5 pairs of Grace's shoes inside the bag. He really got interested in this activity. He really did a great job matching the shoes and was so proud when he found a match.

 Then he lined up all the shoes and counted them. Jonathan can count 1-10 but sometimes he'll count an object twice. This was a great activity because he could manipulate each shoe to know whether he counted it or not.

So that was what we did for elves. Next, we turned our focus to engines... more about that to come.

Web Resources 


E is for Elf @ First School

Reading Our Library- Keith Baker

Keith Baker's books have appeared on many reading lists and blogs. Baker is an award-winning American author/illustrator who has written several children's books, most of which feature different animals or nature scenes. Here are a few of his books we've read recently:

Little Green

This is a simple story that is just beautifully illustrated. A little boy is sitting at his window with his paints and paintbrush in hand admiring a little green hummingbird as it flits about the garden. The boy narrates the journey the hummingbird takes as he flies amidst the flowers. At the end of the story, you see how the boy tried to capture the hummingbird's flight through his painting. The bright illustrations are very fetching and Jonathan really enjoyed this book. We had attempted it earlier (when he was less than a year old), but he really engaged with the book this time. He had fun pointing out the bird on each page as well as trying to find a little caterpillar that is hidden in each illustration. This is a very toddler friendly book. For more books on hummingbirds, as well as Little Green inspired craft visit Almost Unschoolers.

Big Fat Hen 


This is Baker's version of the nursery rhyme "One Two Buckle My Shoe". The book counts up from 1-10 with bold colorful illustrations. The double-page spread show different hens with their little eggs. The acrylic illustrations really caught Jonathan's eye and we practiced counting the eggs and insects on each page. The book does not cover the entire rhyme, however, so if you are looking for a book specifically on the nursery rhyme, you may want to choose another selection. If you're looking for a toddler friendly counting book, this is a great choice!

LMNO peas 


This is a fun alphabet book that both parents and toddlers will enjoys. Baker's book features little peas on each page along with the letters of the alphabet. Each pea is engaged in either a profession or activity that begins with the respective letter such as electrician, singer, and voter. There's a lot to see on each page and that kept Jonathan and me quite entertained. There isn't a plot beyond showing the little peas in their different activities, but the rhyming text and detailed illustrations make this a winning alphabet book! Brimful Curiosities has a more in-depth review that made me decide to check out this book as one of our Keith Baker picks. She also has a fun craft to go along with the book. I think we may attempt this next time!

We've also read Keith Baker's Meet Mr. and Mrs. Green as part of our alligator lesson. We enjoyed this beginning reader book so much that we're planning on reading more in this alligator series.

Guest Blogging at Ready, Set, Read!

Today I'm doing my first guest blogging over at Ready, Set, Read. I'm sharing a recent book find- Touch the Art board books.

Head over to Jackie's blog to see the post as well as other ideas for helping your little ones grow into readers!

Reading Our Library- Thump, Thump, Rat-a-tat tat by Gene Baer

Thump, Thump, Rat-a-tat tat by Gene Baer showed up on several toddler-friendly book lists. It seems like this is the only picture book Gene Baer wrote.

There is no storyline- the book portrays the sound that a marching band makes as it gets progressively closer and then further away. The size of the words and the illustrations match the crescendo and decrescendo of the music. Lois Elhert did the bold geometric illustrations that match the storyline perfectly. The rhythm of the text is very soothing and appealing for toddlers. Jonathan had a lot of fun with this book- especially marching in time with the rhythm of the words. This book is very cleverly written and illustrated, and would be a great resource for talking about sound. It's a shame that Baer didn't write more children's picture books!

Library Link

e is for egg

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Sign Language 


We reviewed the sign for egg.

Books 

An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni


This is a cute story about three frogs. One of the frogs named Jessica finds what the others think is a chicken egg. When the egg hatches, a baby alligator emerges and they befriend the baby "chicken". Jessica and the chicken are inseparable and the chicken even saves Jessica's life. When their baby is reunited with its mother, the silly frogs still think the alligator is a chicken. Lionni's pictures are very beautiful (as always) and appealing to little ones. Jonathan easily sat through this book. He didn't totally get the humor until I pointed out that the alligator wasn't a chicken and then he laughed at the silly frogs. It's a great story about friendship and differences.

Guess What is Growing Inside of this Egg by Mia Posada

This book was a hit with Jonathan. It's a nonfiction book about eggs. Each page has a picture of an egg (and a little of an animal) with a poem/riddle. Then the reader is invited to guess which animal the egg belongs to. The next page reveals the animal and gives more facts about the egg. Jonathan really got involved with the story and had fun naming the different animals. I don't know if he fully grasped the point that all the animals laid eggs- but he still enjoyed the story a lot.

The Odd Egg by Emily Gravett


Emily Gravett is an award winning British author/illustrator. This book features several birds, each of whom have an egg that they are waiting to hatch. Duck, however, does not have an egg of his own. One day he comes across a big egg and adopts it as his own. The pages are cut with graduated sizes so that children can watch as the eggs hatch and see the excitement of the mama birds. The other birds make fun of him until his own egg hatches and an alligator is born! Jonathan liked turning the pages and seeing the baby birds and laughed at the alligator thinking the duck was its Mama. It was a cute story with clever and engaging illustrations.




Video 


We watched a YouTube video of baby chickens hatching:




Art 


We used several pages from Carisa's Tot School Printables. We painted a picture of eggs and Dot-Painted the letter Es on another page. We also played with a lowercase "e" stamp that I found in the dollar section at Michaels.

Most of our other egg activities were Easter-tie ins. There are some great Easter printables out there!

Math 


We practiced number matching using an Easter egg printable from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Jonathan knows the sequence of 1-10, but he has trouble remembering which dots he's counted.

A fill the basket printable from Love My Life x4 worked out much better in terms of counting since he had to physically move the eggs that he counted.

We also worked on simple A-B-A-B patterns using our plastic Easter eggs.

Food 


I would have attempted scrambled eggs, but my picky eater won't touch them right now. Maybe next year. :)

Anyways, we had a lot of fun exploring eggs!


Library Links 


An Extraordinary Egg
Guess What is Growing Inside of this Egg
The Odd Egg


Web Resources 


Chickens Aren't tOnes @ Totally Tots
E is for Egg @ First School
E is for Egg Printable @ Lightning Bug Literacy
E is for Egg Toddler Unit @ 1+1+1=1
E is for Egg @ Totally Tots
E is for Egg @ Walking by the Way
Easter Printables @ Love My Life x 4
Easter Printables @ Confessions of a Homeschooler

e is for earth

Image source

Books 

Our Big Home: An Earth Poem by Linda Glasser

This is such a beautiful book! It celebrates the earth that all people and creatures share. The free verse celebrates the water, sun, soil, sky, rain- all the aspects of nature that we often enjoy without thinking about. The illustrations by Elisa Kleven are bright, colorful and full of detail. Jonathan and I just enjoyed the pictures so much. Each time we read the book (yes, he asked for repeated readings), we would find new animals and details to talk about. It was a great platform for talking about God's beautiful creation and how we need to take good care of our home!

Round Like a Ball by Lisa Campbell Ernst

This book is laid out like a riddle or guessing game. The reader is invited to guess what is round like a ball along with a family. Each page gives another rhyming clue and the cut-out pictures get larger and larger until finally the object (the earth) is revealed. The illustrations are very striking. Jonathan had fun with the guessing game saying "nooooo" after each page.

The Earth and I by Frank Asch

This is a book celebrating a little boy's love for the earth his home. He talks about how the he helps the earth and how the earth helps him in return. The boy talks about how pollution makes him sad, but he helps to clean up the earth. Asch's illustrations are very colorful and calming. The book, however, failed to capture Jonathan's attention as much as other Frank Asch books.


Art 


We painted a picture of the earth. I gave Jonathan blue construction paper and green paint and let him paint as he desired. Then we cut the paper in the shape of a circle:

Library Links 


Our Big Home: An Earth Poem
Round Like a Ball
The Earth and I


Web Resources


Earth Day Activities @ No Time For Flash Cards
Earth Day Ideas @ Making Learning Fun
Earth Crafts @ Silly Eagle Books
Earth Day Printables @ DLTK-Kids