My preschool playgroup is on letter E and that really had me racking my brains. There aren't a ton of E words that use the short sound instead of the long sound. Plus, we have a little one in the group that is actually allergic to eggs so there go all those ideas!
Instead, we exercised (which started off a round of running through the house -- toddlers -- love them) and then we made nests with play-dough eggs.
Play-dough? Are you nuts?
Well, not totally. I knew that six 2-year olds with commercial play-dough was a bad idea, so I did homemade. That way, accidental (or on purpose) eating was ok and what gets ground into my carpet won't stain and will (hopefully) clean up fairly easily.
Plus this was a super easy, smooth recipe to make. Sorry no tutorial (I never think about it when I'm making something) but I have end result pictures and some tips.
Kindergarten Playdough
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tab. vegetable oil
food coloring (which I didn't do -- sorry I don't know if it will dye your kid's fingers -- I'll try it next time!)
Combine all ingredients in a pot on the stove.
Cook over medium heat continually until mixture starts to pull away from sides of pan (it starts actually lifting out as you stir).
Place dough on cutting board and knead for 1-2 minutes.
Keeps in fridge for up to 6 months.
The nest is a just a paper bag (ok sorry, it is actually a PRINCESS paper bag but not because it has to be) and the directions are found at FamilyFun Magazine online. We didn't do twigs (although we could have since several limbs off my willow tree were pulled down by the end of today) and it still looked "nest-y".
The kids got a big kick out of it and although it was still a parent-as-major-helper craft (I didn't know rolling playdough balls was a skill we needed to work on!), they loved making eggs and talking about all the things that come out of eggs.
Oh and we read Ollie by Olivier Dunrea to cap it all off. This is one of his darn cute goose books.
We also love Gossie and Gertie, and Peedie especially.
