B for Bee

We continued with the letter B and b today, with the focus being on B for bee. I searched for activities that used bee as a theme, and I found many from 2TeachingMommies.


Alphabet activities
We started the lesson with the 'b' feely card to familiarise EV with the letter formation, then went through the A4 sheet of images, where she could correctly identify all the items. Then I tried to do a B/b tracing sheet with her, but as she is currently in a 'I do, I do' stage, she insisted on working on it all by herself - which means lots of scribbles. This was ok. It is also a way to strengthen her motor skills and in the midst of it, she can also familiarise with B/b. 

The next alphabet game required her to put B/b bees into the correct column, either 'B', or 'b'. She knows her letters, and did quite well in this. 

Art
We did two craft work today. First was a 'Bb is for bumblebee' colouring sheet. She coloured only about 40% of it. But no matter, I kept the sheet for future repeat lessons. 

The next craft featured her favourite activity - painting. I got her to paint black stripes on a letter B which I had drawn on a yellow A4 sheet. Once the paint dried, I cut out the B, and got her to paste the two wings to it, another activity she loved. 

Handwriting skills
We did more horizontal line practice today. What I did was print out the sheet, and put it in a sheet protector, then got EV to practice using erasable markers. Halfway through, EV decided to scribble, which look more like proper circles now. Her motor skills are definitely improving.

Math
The activity today required her to count the number of bees, and then choose the correct numeral from three choices. We did numbers 1 to 5.

What is the difference?
I decided to try a new activity based on the different/same concept. EV did 3 out of the 5 sets, but it was enough to tell me that she does understand the concept. 

Motor skills
We then did cutting, pasting and colouring. Some of these activities are from the Kumon First Steps Workbooks series. In one of these, you'll see EV 'blowing' out some candles which she pasted on to a cake.

Reading
We read a very apt book titled Bee & Me. Written by Elle J. McGuiness and illustrated by Heather Brown, this book is written from a first person perspective. It tells the adventure of a little bee, who gets chased by a dog, and tries to get away by flying into a home. The storyteller is afraid of bees, and shuts the window in an attempt to prevent the bee from entering, but ends up trapping the bee instead. The bee, then asks to be let out to return to the hive to help his friends, and share that bees help plants reproduce by gathering pollen. Without them, there will be no flowers and fruits, the bee shares, sad that humans don't like bees even though they are so helpful. This is a wonderful tale to tell young ones about the importance of bees, and how we shouldn't take them for granted, or assume they are just for making honey. Written in rhymes, it is also great for showing rhyming words.