P is for Panda

For our second week of preschool I decided to focus on the letter P. Ethan can already recognize and identify all of the upper case letters. My goal right now is for him to begin to recognize the lower case letters, learn the sounds each letter makes and begin to get familiar with words that start with each letter. 

We started our morning with a lesson out of our children's devotional book. Ethan enjoyed learning and singing some "Sunday School" songs like Jesus Loves Me, The B-I-B-L-E and Deep and Wide.

Our theme for this class was Giant Pandas! Ethan has a fondness for pandas, ever since his Grandma gave him a little stuffed panda from Panda Express. He was very excited to learn more about this interesting creature.

We read Baby Panda, a book we purchased from the San Diego Zoo on our last visit. We learned all about pandas. I was amazed when I found out that baby pandas are the size of a stick of butter when they're born!! Are you kidding me? Doesn't that seem a little unfair? I mean, I had to birth a 6 lb 10 oz baby (two times) and a panda gets to give birth to a stick of butter?? Amazing. :) Ethan liked learning that pandas eat bamboo. I think he likes the sound of the word bamboo. It is kind of fun to say out loud. 

After the story we watched a PowerPoint presentation that I put together to help us review what we had learned. The last slide contained links to videos I had taken when we visited the Giant Panda at the San Diego Zoo. Ethan loves looking at pictures and video so this was really fun for him.

Next we learned the letter P, upper and lower, worked on the sound it makes and colored our worksheet. Ethan spent some time reading through the books in his book basket and working in his sticker book. The sticker book is just a fun little book I bought at a teacher store that allows him to learn how to apply stickers to paper. Stickers can be quite tricky but he's getting the hang of it! :)

A new activity that I introduced was highlighting letters from a newspaper or magazine page. The goal is to find and then highlight the letter you're learning that week. Ethan does pretty good with this activity, but still requires a little assistance. He gets so excited when we finally find the right letter. He really likes being able to use the marker too. 

Snack time is always fun but this time it was extra fun because we got to eat Panda Puffs!! A yummy little peanut butter cereal that we get at our local Trader Joe's. :)

For craft time we constructed a Panda Face using a blank CD-ROM, construction paper, Popsicle sticks (I didn't have Popsicle sticks so we used nail files), and glue. We ended the day being silly and chasing each other around while wearing panda masks. :)