Elmer & Elephants

Information provided on this
page for classroom use only; not for publication.
thevirtualvine.com 2003
When working on Letter
E, I seem to always gravitate to using Elmer by David McKee as a
connection for the letter. Because I like colorful things, Elmer the
patchwork elephant appeals to me and "Elmer" & "elephant" are great words
to reinforce the /e/sound. And it's also a good story to use when
reinforcing the concept that each person is unique and has their own
unique qualities. The book is about Elmer, who unlike the rest of
his herd, is a patchwork elephant. He's well loved however by his
friends because of his great sense of humor. He decides though that
he'd like to look like the rest of the herd. So he ends up becoming
gray like the rest. His friends no longer recognize him in his "new
skin", and wish he'd return. And they get their wish after a hard
rain.
We'll
begin this mini-unit by reading Elmer, then we're going to color a
patchwork elephant and glue on a black capital E and lowercase e. I
stress to the students when coloring not to have two of the same colors
touch. I leave out my elephant as a model if they'd like to use it.
They also have access to the book as well. I have this elephant
colored and laminated as well as the Es. I don't show the students
the Es until we're finished. Then I model for them where/how they're
to be placed, and they glue them on their elephant. We'll display
them in the hall with the word "Elmer" formed using a different color for
each letter.
printable elephant pattern
These elephants were
done by my Ks.
Of course, they had
to have some help with the placement of the Es.
We're
also going to use elephants like this one to practice counting out the
appropriate number of peanuts 1 - 5. You can use real parched
peanuts or brown paper peanuts. I'm using the latter, but I did not
bring them home to scan in the picture.
We'll
also working on writing and forming the letter Ee.
Another
activity that we'll do that the children enjoy, I call a Do-A-Dot.
I believe there's a commercial product out similar to this or there was
at one time. Several years ago some teachers online were using
them, so I created some for my class according to the information I
gathered from them. I created mine using graphics software, but
some said that they could be made by using a film canister as the stamp
to make the circle. The circle is about the right size, but by
doing it on the computer I could move the circles around until I had
them as close to what I wanted as possible.
The
students stamp inside the circle with a colored Bingo stamper of their
choice. (Good way to get them to identify their colors in a
natural setting. They have to tell me what color they want and
then they get that color.) I model for them first how it's done.
I say the letter name each time I stamp the capital letter (over and
over and over again). I show them where to start stamping
and how to form the letter correctly with the stamper (same as if we
were writing it ... they have to follow the correct letter formation
route) Then I say the letter's sound while stamping the lowercase
letter (over and over and over again). And show them the correct
formation for the lowercase letters. Then I have the students do
theirs. I walk around and listen and watch what they're doing so
that I can make corrections where needed.
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Letter Ee
Do-A-Dot |
For
a counting activity, we'll count elephant die-cuts in the pocketchart.
Each row will have a different number of elephants on it (1 - 5).
They'll count the elephants and then place the correct number card at
the beginning of the row.
After
having the story of Elmer reread, we'll make the elephant puppet.
They'll use a black crayon to write the capital and lowercase Ee on
it. The next day, we'll reread the story again, then they'll use
the puppet to retell the story. Of course, I'll model for them
what to do before asking them to do it. This is really, really
hard for my students. This pattern is from Alphabet Puppets plus
More! (Teacher's Friend Publications) Not only are these puppets
good for retelling the story, but they're also a good exercise
in learning to cut with scissors. I always have a model already
finished so that I can use it to show how many pieces they should end
up with and where they'll need to cut and not cut. They do a lot
better than you'd think they would.
We'll
also read The Right Number of Elephants by Jeff Sheppard,
because it reinforces counting, albeit backwards from 10. But we
also count all the elephants on each page, so that gives us practice
in counting forward as well.
Another
resource for this unit is called [I think] A Letter A Week (TEC251).
It has activities for "E is for Elephant". My book is at
school, I just have some of the pages here.
Another
counting activity is to have students count out 5 die-cut elephants
and glue them on to a large size sheet of construction paper.
Then they number their elephants 1 - 5 and draw in a background if
they choose.
Sequence
elephants in the pocketchart that have been programmed with the
numbers 1 - 5.
Activity
sheet counting peanuts and circling the correct number.
If
you have an elephant stamp, you could divide a sheet of paper into 6
sections. Then program each section with a number 0 - 5.
Students stamp the correct number of elephants in each box.
Use
two different color elephant die-cuts to reinforce AB patterns.
We're using red & yellow, and we're going to glue them onto a
sentence strip to form a "hat".
We
will end the week long mini-unit by creating an elephant snack.
Elmer's
Color Collecting Game (printable)
http://www.communication4all.co.uk/Board%20Games/Elmers%20Colour%20Collecting%20Game.pdf
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9.14.03
last updated 3.9.08

hits since 11.11.03 |
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