e is for ......

I have been looking at the short vowel sound 'e' with the little ones, following on from 'a'.

We have been looking at words that begin with 'e' including egg, elephant, echidna, exercise, explorer.

I like to do lots of hands on stuff with the little ones to help them remember and I came up with the brilliant idea to make an elephant from a boiled egg and some vegetables.

We used celery sticks for the legs and a celery leaf for the tail, the ears were carrots, the eyes cloves (I told them not to eat those), we used slivered almonds for the tusks and a piece of red onion for the trunk, although you could probably use a piece of capsicum or something else.

They were a big hit- the little ones had so much fun making them and then eating them.

Don't they look cute lined up in a row?

 Another day we made patty cake echidnas. 

I found some milk chocolate and dark chocolate bullets and we cut them in half to make the spines. 

We used smaller pieces for the eyes and nose.

 The Girl had lots of fun- though I think she ate as many bullets as she put on the echidnas!

They made a special treat for morning tea.

They would make great birthday party fare- I can feel an Australian Animal themed party idea coming on!

We used potatoes to make elephant footprints.

I cut a fairly round one in half and then we stamped it using these great paint impregnated stamping pads - cheap enough and no messy sponges to wash!

Then in a different coulour we used fingers to make the toes- B4 wanted to join in but didn't want to use his finger- so I cut a piece of potato with the apple corer and he used that instead.

I also cut an 'e' out of a potato for them to print as well.

B5 with his finished work.

We also made an 'e' book and playdough 'e' things and exercised and explored and sang songs and read lots of 'e' books - lots of fun memory building stuff!