Letter B

Outings:

Bowling- ask if they will put the bumpers in and if they have a ball ramp for the kids to use. This makes it doable for kids who are just able to pick up the ball.

Bug Hunting- take a jar with holes punched in the lid if you want to bring any home, but we suggest just a magnifying glass for getting a closer look.

Visit a Bakery- Call your local bakery and see if you can come in for a tour. It would be fun for your child to see how bread is made. If there is not a bakery around or if you are not that adventurous, simply make bread at home.

Visit the Beach

Craft:

-Hot air balloon (identifying shapes/colors/scissors skills)
Trace a balloon's outline. Color the gondola.
Decorate the inside of the balloon with cut-up shapes (use precut foamies for children too young to cut), older children can help cut out the shapes to practice scissors skills.
Identify the colors and shapes as you work
Make clouds in the sky around your balloon with cotton balls.

-Beading Bracelets (hand-eye coordination/patterns)

You can bead with lacing beads, buttons or fruit loop cereal.

You can also work with patterns writing them out ahead of time or starting a pattern and asking your preschooler to continue it.

- Bug Rocks-
Simply glue googly eyes onto a rock and give your preschooler some paint and a paintbrush. Let them create their own bug. You can add any other crafting supplies that you have laying around; pompoms, pipe cleaner, cotton balls, the more the better.

-Make a Bird Feeder-
Materials:
Clean 1-liter soda bottle, 2 wooden spoons, small eye screw, Length of twine for hanging
Instructions:
Start by drawing a 1/2-inch asterisk on the side of a clean 1-liter soda bottle, about 4 inches from the bottom. Rotate the bottle 90 degrees and draw another asterisk
2 inches from the bottom. Draw a 1-inch-wide circle opposite each asterisk, as shown.
Use a craft knife to slit the asterisk lines and cut out the circles (a parent's job). Insert a wooden spoon handle first through each hole and then through the opposite asterisk, as shown.
Remove the bottle cap and twist a small eye screw into the top of it for hanging.
Finally, fill your feeder with birdseed, recap it, and use a length of twine to hang it from a tree.
 (other variations include, molded peanut butter and birdseed or the simple PB on a pine cone)

Language:

-Baby BummbleBee Rhyme
I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee,Won't my mommy be so proud of me, (Cup hands together as if holding bee) I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee,Ouch! It stung me!(Shake hands as if just stung) I'm squishing up the baby bumblebee,Won't my mommy be so proud of me,('Squish' bee between palms of hands) I'm squishing up a baby bumblebee,Ooh! It's yucky!(Open up hands to look at 'mess') I'm wiping off the baby bumblebee,Won't my mommy be so proud of me, (Wipe hands off on shirt) I'm wiping off the baby bumblebee,Now my mommy won't be mad at me! (Hold hands up to show they are clean)

The book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?

Food:

Frozen Banana pops-
Ingredients:
bananas
popcicle sticks or spoons
any coating you desire; chocolate, peanutbutter, honey
any toppings you desire; rice crispies, crushed peanuts, sprinkles, coconut, cheerios, crushed graham crackers
wax paper
baking sheet or plate
Directions:
Cut the bananas in half, insert the popcicle stick or handle of a spoon. (keeping the peel on the banana helps keep hands clean and your banana from falling apart)
Peel the bananas and place on wax paper lined baking sheet or plate, freeze about 3 hours till completely chilled.
Take out of freezer and dip in your desired coating and then into your desired topping.
Enjoy!

Blueberry Muffins

Crispy Broccoli Dippers with Cheese Sauce (click link for recipe)

Teddy Grahams

Games:

Balloon Fishing - Blow us small balloons and place them in the bathtub or sink. Allow your preschooler to 'fish' for them with a net or strainer.

Button Button, Who Has The Button? - (a game for older preschoolers)
This is played with more than three people.  Sit in a circle on the floor.  Pass the button (make sure you don’t let anyone see you have it) to another person’s hands. At the end say, "Button button, who has the button?".  Each person needs to tell you if they have the button when they are asked the question. This is good for practicing asking questions and basic communication skills. It is also good for learning names of other children who are playing.

Beanbag or ball toss- set out your stockpots and pans, label each with either a picture or shape. Call out the picture or shape and have your preschooler try to toss the ball/beanbag into the correct pan while standing behind a designated line. As a twist; put either an upper case B or lower case B in each pan, tape upper and lower case Bs to the beanbags and have your child try to match up the upper and lowercase letters.

Paper Work:

Hidden Picture Color Sheet (letter recognition)

Capital B Butterfly Color Sheet

Lowercase b Banana Color Sheet

A is for Apple and Alligator

Outings:
- visit an apple orchard
- visit the aquarium

Crafts:
- Letter A placemat - cut out things that start with the letter A and text letter A. Paste them to paper and contact paper over it. We put a tracing page with uppercase and lower case A on the back so we could flip it over and practice tracing with our fingers while we waited for dinner to be ready.
- Hand print apple tree - Cover child's hand in brown paint and make the tree trunk. Cover child's hand in green paint to make the top of the tree. After the tree has dried allow child to dip finger in red, green and yellow paint and dab onto the tree to make 'apples'. (you could use a Q-tip instead of fingers if you want)
- Alligator paperbag puppets
- letter A alligator or handprint alligator -


Food:
- Applesauce -

Ingredients: Three to Four sweet apples, 1/2 cup of water, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, sauce pan.

Directions: Quarter, core and peel apples. Cut the quarter pieces in half and put them in the saucepan. Add the water and cinnamon and simmer covered, until the apples are tender (about 20 minutes). Have the kids mash the cooked apples with a potato masher or put them in a blender. Chill and eat. Makes 6 servings.

- Apple crisp -
Ingredients:
4 medium peeled or unpeeled cooking apples, sliced (about 4 cups)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup quick-cooking or regular oats
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened

Directions: Heat the oven to 375°.
Spread the apple slices in an ungreased 8-inch square pan.
Mix remaining ingredients with fork; sprinkle over apples.
Bake uncovered until the topping is golden brown and apples are tender.
Makes 6 servings.
Language:
- Ten Red Apples rhyme -

Ten red apples growing on a tree,

Five for you and five for me.

Help me shake the tree just so,

And ten red apples fall down below.

One, two , three, four, five,

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

- A is for Angry by Sandra Boyton

Games:

- Alligator Chomp-

Decorate clothespins to look like alligators. Then using foam letters or paper cutouts of letters. Allow your child to make the alligator 'eat' only the letter A. (he doesn't like any other letters)
- Feed the Alligator - Draw a large Alligator face on a piece of poster board or the side of a box. Cut a hole out where the Alligator's mouth would be and add paper teeth (make it at least twice the size of the beanbag). Tape the board to a chair and let each of your children take three tries to feed the Alligator (by throwing a beanbag into the Alligator's mouth)
- Waterballoon match-up - fill up water balloons then with a sharpie marker draw either upper or lower case letter As on the balloons. Place 2 buckets next to each other, one labled with a lowercase A and one with an uppercase A. Have your child race back and forth matching the balloons to their correct bucket.
- Fishing for letters -

Paper Work:
- minibook
- mazes
- Letter search