Letter B Preschool Unit

OVERVIEW

We spent 3 weeks on Letter B. We first did one week of B is for Bee and B is for Butterfly because it fit nicely with some field trips and seasonal learning. Then, we spend a week on The Peaceful Preschool Letter B activities for Blueberries for Sal (with some additions). For the third week, we did B is for Bird. Below you’ll find a variety of learning activities.

B IS FOR BIRD

COMING SOON! I’m writing a separate post for our B is for Bird activities since there was a lot.

BIBLE FOCUS

B is for John the Baptist and Baptism. This also fit nicely in to our B is for Bee theme!

See our Bible Stories A-Z post for more details.

THE PEACEFUL PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES

Book

Blueberries for Sal

That’s it! We loved this book so much that we just read it again and again. I had other B is for Bear books on our shelf to enjoy but mainly we focused on Blueberries for Sal! It’s a classic for a reason.

Learning Activities

The following activities were spread over 3 days.

	Letter B basket of items — We spent time learning about things that start with the letter B (and reviewed the letter B sound), and then we matched various items-that-start-with-B to our Letter B 3-Part Cards via Treehouse Schoolhouse. Books: ABC Dream Gyo Fujikawa’s A to Z Picture Book
	Retelling Blueberries for Sal Using props to retell a story helps add in some fun to the learning but also helps with building language and storytelling recall (characters, settings, sequences, and key events). We counted out fresh blueberries (using our number cards from The Peaceful Preschool) in to mini buckets. Kerplink, kerplank, kerplunk!
	We painted a letter B with blueberry juice crushed from real berries. I had my kids smash blueberries with a mortar & pestle and then help strain the juice into a bucket. They then painted a B with the juice.
	We picked strawberries from our garden! We did not have a convenient place to pick blueberries this week, but we had so many strawberries in our own garden so it worked out fine!
	Berry sorting activity. Sort, name, and count the berries: strawberry, blueberry, raspberry, blackberry. Book: Food Anatomy
	Make berry smoothies. The kids helped measure everything out. Our recipe: 2 cups mixed fresh berries 1 frozen banana 2/3 cup Greek yogurt 1 cup packed spinach cold water as needed
	Blue buttons, blue beads, and blue balls fine motor skills sorting activity (from a blue basket in to bowls). I’ve since learned that my son kind of rejects activities like this; my daughter (2) will go for it though.
	Forming a B with play dough and adding blue marbles & beads to look like blueberries.
	Straining and counting activity: throw a bunch of blueberries in to a bowl of water. Strain the blueberries out using a handy scooper tool and count in to a numbered muffin tin.
	Blow bubbles. FUN, but also strengthens mouth muscles necessary for proper speech. This is at the spillway off the dam where we live. That’s our dog swimming 🙂
	Zoo Letter B scavenger hunt! I made up a scavenger hunt for our zoo trip with things I thought we would see.
	I also built in some time for review with a Letter A and Letter B sorting activity. This tray is from Target and the mini bowls are IKEA.

B IS FOR BEE

Books

Learning Activities

Local Honey Farm Visit

We actually did this first because the Monday of this week was a holiday and my husband could join us for the field trip. We saw a live hive and watched the bees for awhile, sampled a variety of local honey, talked to beekeepers, and saw a variety of bee-related products. We purchased a few items to take home and enjoy.

Anatomy of a Bee using natural materials. We have done this anatomy-of-a-bug activity for ants, bees, and butterflies. It works SO GREAT for insects and includes natural counting.

Book: Nature Anatomy

Bee hive counting cards activities.

You can download the hive counting cards for free here. I printed my on to yellow card stock.

This involves numeral-to-quantity correlation.

We used honeycomb, rocks with painted bees on them (or you could use mini bee erasers or plastic bees), and a bee stamp.

FYI: I paint rocks with Uni-posca medium and fine paint pens.

Fine motor skill threading activity: honeycomb cereal on to a lacing string.

Invitation to play:

Homemade yellow play dough stamped with a hexagon shape to look like a hive
Rocks with painted bees on them (or you could use mini bee erasers or plastic bees)
Yellow wood beads (“pollen”)
Yellow flowers
Honey dipper

Fine motor skill transfer activity: transfer pollen to the hive.

Using a camping mat and yellow pom poms and our squeezy tweezers.

My other option with this was to use an egg carton.

Honey hive transfer activity + science fun!

I put yellow-dyed vinegar in an empty honey bottle as well as provided some in a bowl with an eyedropper.

The egg cartons are filled with baking soda.

Transfer & enjoy the explosion!

Read BEE, form the letter B with rock bees, and spell out the word BEE with our moveable alphabet.

Scissor skills: cut floral straws for the bee to eat.

B IS FOR BUTTERFLY

Books

Learning Activities

	Witness a caterpillar turning in to a butterfly! We were lucky to collect a monarch caterpillar in time for our B is for Butterfly study and to eventually watch it emerge from the chrysalis! If you can’t see this in person, there are amazing time lapse videos online to watch with your kids.
	Form a floral B for the butterflies to eat. Pairing bees and butterflies together fit nicely to intuitively learn about pollinators. Whenever we glue items on to a large letter like this, I have the kids spread the glue with a Q-tip to help learn the form of the letter.
	Anatomy of a Butterfly using natural materials! Book: Nature Anatomy
	Butterfly Symmetry puzzle: free printable here. Print the butterflies on to white card stock, laminate, cut out each butterfly, and then cut in half. I glued the left half of the butterfly to a yellow card stock paper. Then I used velcro dots for the right side of the butterfly so they could be attached in place.
	Life cycle of a butterfly + color sorting activity. Supplies: Color sorting tray (I made ours) Egg: pom poms Caterpillar: cut up pipe cleaners Chrysalis: painted rigatoni noodles (so the caterpillar can fit inside) Butterflies: rocks with colored butterflies FYI: I paint rocks with Uni-posca medium and fine paint pens.
	Butterfly symmetry art using a printout from Simply Learning (Letter B Preschool Unit post). We placed paint drops in the middle near the fold, then folded the paper in half and the kids pushed the paint in the direction of the wings. Unfold… and voila!
	Fine motor skills & counting butterfly activity. Hole punch the correct number of holes on to each wing.
	We were able to visit a botanical garden for our field trip and see a huge variety of butterflies and many still in the chrysalis!