I for Insects & Igloo

It is really great to see EV learning and discovering the world around her. This week is like a eureka moment for her. She traced out the letter I all by herself. Not perfect, but she gets the idea. She started sounding out more sounds more willingly, rather than just 'a, a, a'. Whether it's b or f, she's doing it. She's learning the strokes and sounding the sounds. She even surprised me by repeating 'igloo' after I went through just once. So we are definitely on the right track. All we have to do is soldier on.

This was a chance to do some hands-on activity and sensory play. We made ice together, and also played with it. EV discovering that ice melts and becomes water when it is left outside the refrigerator. I also explained to her about how ice is hard, a solid, while water is a liquid.

EV also did some ironing.

Here she is doing great at writing I/i. I did an impromptu outline of the letters for her to trace in.

An iguana came crawling our way too, as we made a I letter craft, big enough for EV to trace and really feel how the letter is formed

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We painted a picture of insects and made a Indian girl headband. I didn't take a picture of her insects painting, but I can tell you she painted them blue, her all-time favourite colour, for the longest time.

Two of EV's favourite books came in useful when we were talking about insects - The Hungry Caterpillar and The Grouchy Ladybug, both by the wonderful Eric Carle. The Hungry Caterpillar, in particular, was great for dramatising. At the end of the story, mummy wrapped herself in a blue towel, which was great for catching EV's attention since she loved the colour so much, pretended to be a 'cocoon', and then broke out of the 'cocoon', and flew around, flapping the blue towel. Yups, EV absolutely loved it.

To reinforce the book, we did a simple craft where I cut out circles from green, yellow and red paper, and then pasted them to make a caterpillar. Not before we did some counting practice.

I firmly believe that EV will learn so much better if she heads into the great outdoors. So when it comes to insects, what better way to learn all about them, by going on an 'insect hunt'? We popped by the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden at Botanic Gardens one sunny morning and did just that. We saw lots of insects, including a strange white insect with a furry behind.

We will be moving on to 'J' next - another great letter for sensory play.