Egg-citing Egg Smashing

A few weeks back we worked on letter e.  The /e/ sound is a tough one to master so when I had a couple dozen eggshells staring me in the face, I came up with egg smashing.  Each child received a cake pan with cleaned eggshells in it.  Armed with a "Whack-a-Mole" hammer, they went crazy smashed the shells.  Each time they crunched the shells, the kids were instructed to make the /e/ sound.

The kids got the benefit of a little hand/eye coordination practice and the fun of smashing something.  Win-win!

The kids also worked on a letter E worksheet.  This was the first time that the directions were read aloud, but I gave no further instruction.  Many times we would discuss the worksheet during circle time and we would come up with the correct answers as a group, but this time, they were on their own.  I did still provide verbal instruction to the kids as they cut out their pictures.