PreK: Elephant Unit Study

We learned about elephants this week! From their habitat, to the foods they eat, to the special characteristic they find important in a herd: sharing.  I made up some of my own stuff to with this lesson and I also found lots of stuff from different places on the web - I'll list those in the bottom of my post.  Here is a snap shot of our week:

 Our poster board for the week covered the following:

Letter E

Color - Gray (Meaning = hazy, hidden, false, deception)

Number 11 (Meaning = end, stop)

Vocab Word - Elephant (Meaning = powerful, large)

Shape - Pentagon

Verse: "Even a child is known by his deeds." Proverbs 20:11

 "The Elephant Trunk" Rhyme

I found this on KidSparkz.com

The first time through my son wasn't too thrilled with it,

but then I added a bunch of motions the second time through

and then he WANTED to do it again and again.

Especially the "pshhhhhh" part. hehehe

This poster is part of the Letter E pack from 1+1+1=1.

This went along with our verse.  The first time we read through our verse,

my son asked "what is a deed?" which led right into this poster.

Worked out great!!! 

Another poster from 1+1+1=1 Letter E Pack.

I have this song on a children's CD, so it was nice to hang up the words.

We did every day to begin our school. 

Our Letter Mailbox

I sing a little song that goes like this:

I've got a letter, I've got a letter

Let's look and see, Let's look and see

What letter do we have today? What letter do we have today?

It's the letter (___), It's the letter (___)

Inside is the magnetic letter of week along with letter vocabulary cards.

I just used the vocabulary cards from 1+1+1=1 Letter E Pack.

Our Math Activity

I took a small cookie box and covered it with construction paper.

Drew an elephant on paper, then cut it out.  Then I made peanut shapes out of cardstock paper and cut those out.  I gave my son a dice to roll, he counted the number of dots then fed the elephant that many number of peanuts.  Then he got creative and had his tractor haul the peanuts to the elephant to feed him.  LOL

  Elephants have trunks and they can hold up to 3 gallons of water in them.

To help my son understand how they can suck up water, I had him play a game.

I set out 2 cups, filled one up with water and gave him a straw.

He sucked up water in the straw and then took it over to the empty cup and spit it out.

Then I showed him 3 gallon empty jugs to show him how much 3 gallons was.

We filled them up and then dumped them out in the tub.  I didn't get a picture of that though.

I had bought an elephant shaped chalkboard at Target in their dollar area awhile back.

So I pulled it out and gave him some chalk.  He first started to trace the outline of the elephant.

Then he made an eye and ear.  Then decided to color it all in.  Then we worked on writing the letter "E" and he tried to write his name.

Calendar Time is officially his time.

He loves to do the calendar because he thinks he is teaching me. :)

He will lead me in the Days of the Week song (you can find the version we sing HERE).

And then he'll count the numbers and tell me the next number to put up.

Then I prompt him to tell me the month, day, and year.  Then we sing our last song to know the day of today, day of yesterday and day for tomorrow.

And we have a month song for April, you can get yours HERE.

Math Activity

I cut out elephant foot prints out of foam and then labeled each print number 1-11.

I hid the tracks around the house and had him find them in number order first, which led to an elephant stamp.  Then I hid them again and he found them and put them in number order.

 

Elephant Craft

Take a CD and then you need 3 circles of the same size, 2 smaller circles, a long rectangle, then 2 smaller circles for eyes, and 2 tusks.  Color them and then glue to the CD.  

Hangs easily on the wall to with a nail! :)

We did lots of worksheets too, letter E practice, elephant tracing page, and scissor activities.

Our science consisted of activities too, but I didn't take pictures, but we did the following:

1. Habitat Matching

Took 3 bowls and filled each one with a different type of habitat - grass, hay, water.  I had some animal toys that I set out and had my son match the animal to the correct habitat.

2. Nature Hunt for Elephant Food

We took a nature walk outside.  We looked for different things in our neighborhood that elephants could eat and glued them to our journal.

Here are the links to the different activities we did:

1. My Elephant Lesson Plan

2. 1+1+1=1 Letter E Pack

3. The Elephant Trunk Rhyme

4. Video: Nursery Rhyme "Elephant Goes Like This and That"

Next week will be Monster Trucks at the request of my son. :)

Have Fun and Be a Blessing!

~Bekah

 

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