Letter "B"

Teachable Moments happen all day long if we'll only be aware. You dont have to fall into the trap of perfectionism like I often do saying "when I get my act together I'll plan this elaborate amazing thematic unit." Sometimes you just need to start something and cut yourself some slack, God extends grace to us and we should remember that he expects us to do all for his glory not ours. In an effort to obey and try to glorify God in my few minutes to teach my 2 year old something this activity was born. This took little to no planning but achieved my goal that my son would understand that Blueberries and the color Blue start with "B." Now this may be a fluke, but he seemed to get it and enjoy coloring his blueberries on the page. Simple, few materials, to the point. Remember teaching children or anyone else is about making something connect to a previous experience to encourage a new memory/connection, and thus learning commences.

Ok for you over achievers this is too simple- here are some ideas to make a day/week/unit of  letter "B":

Snack: eat blueberries, blueberry bagels, bread, (anything starting with "B")experiment with blue foods or using food coloring to dye another food blue- personally blueberries give a good dark blueish color to make smoothies, blueish yogurt, etc.

Music: Find songs that focus on the letter "B", my son loves singing "Who let the "B" out b b b b b," "My Bonnie lies over the ocean," "Bringing home a Baby Bumblebee," etc.

Art: Coloring with a blue crayon,
Blue/b collage- for younger kids provide only pics starting with B or the color blue- use your judgement about bringing in a different one to compare. (My two year old could distinguish between blue and say red so I could talk to him about that and have him choose only blue ones.) The older/more aware of differences they are the more choices you can give to them for their collage.
Blueberry bliss: have "blueberries" cut out in different shapes and help the child figure out which shape is the real shape of a blueberry and glue to a piece of paper- and if feeling brave help them cut out the shape then glue.
Blackout: Color on a small piece of paper hard a few colors, then color over the top with black crayon, next help them write the letter B and draw pictures of their favorite "B" words by scratching it out using a popsicle stick or another wider sized utensil.

Extra stuff: Don't forget you can do these things with the color brown, and black and incorporate ideas using brown bears, black bears, etc.

A fav site for great preschool ideas: www.everythingpreschool.com
Happy teaching- planned or unplanned!;)