School Time : Book Time

Grow Capsules

2012-01-12T18:49:00.000-08:00

I recently purchased some grow capsules (I'm not sure that's what they're called, but I hope you know what I mean) at the target dollar spot, thinking they'd be fun to use with our animal school we've been doing. Today we had some antsy kiddos, so decided to use them.

I showed them the capsules and told them that they were going to turn into sea creatures, and then we made a list of possible animals they could be.

We then placed each capsule in it's own muffin tin filled with warm water and watched to see what they were going to be. All the kiddos loved watching it! Afterwards, we revisited out list to see if we had guessed/predicted any animals correctly. Fun, quick, frugal and easy! N has already come up with several plans of how we're going to use the sponges!

Our New System - Week 2

2011-09-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

"N" recently started kindergaten at a local homeschool coop. She goes twice a week, with me teaching her class (k-2) one of the days. The day that I teach, "A" goes to the preschool class. On the days she stays home, we still have work to do, so I came up with this workbox-ish system that has been working well for us (for all of 2 weeks). "N" and "A" both have their drawers with activities. Before "N" can do her drawers, she needs to write in her journal and do a math lesson with me, and then do her math workbook (the co-op uses Saxon, and she's in the math 1 book).

"N"s drawers are on the left. This week she has:

Tens and Ones

I made up some numbers onto squares of paper and gave her a tens and ones chart, along with 4 rods of tens and 10 ones. She chooses a number, then illustrates it with her manipulatives.

stamping words

she's not doing spelling per se, but I have old spelling lists from when I taught first grade that I gave her so that she can choose words to stamp. She mostly just does the family's names, which is great!

chalk

We have a chalkboard that we made out of a cake pan and chalkboard paint. "N" loves all things art, so this is just a drawer for her to have fun with.

"A"s drawers are on the right. This week he's doing

Find My Name

Last week in the preschool they were working on recognizing their names, so I wanted to tie it with his home "school". I printed 5 of his name and one each of the rest of the family's names and he puts them into 2 columns. He needs a LOT of help with this activity.

circle stickers onto dots

This is good for practicing fine motor skills. "A" loves stickers!

magnets

I put some magnets on a cake pan and he plays with them. So far he's lined them up by color, put them around the edge of the cake pan, and figured out that all magnets don't hook to each other!

When they get done with their drawers, they get to use the sensory bin. This week (and last) they have wheat, with a variety of scoops, funnels and containers. The red tablecloth underneath the bin is for containing some of the spilled wheat. It's worked really well. And both kids enjoy using the brooms to sweep up what doesn't land on the tablecloth. A child-size broom is on my list to buy...

Here "A" is doing his circle stickers onto dots activity. I figured he would do on page a day and move on. Not so! The first day he did all four pages!

This is the sheet "A" used for his stickers.

Sponge Play

2011-07-21T14:28:00.000-07:00

Sponges and water make a great combination and there are probably a thousand different ways to play with them. Here are some of our ideas:

Transfer water from one container to another, squeezing the water out of the sponge.
Throw them onto the sidewalk to make "Sponge Paintings"
"Paint" the sidewalk
Wash your bike

Please tell me what you do with sponges and water!

Ponds

2011-06-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

N wanted to school about snails. I took the liberty of expanding our topic a little (mainly for my benefit. I didn't want to do snails for an entire week. And it's good I did, because we got a little busy and this unit stretched into 3 weeks!) Part-way though she requested a "binder" (folder, as a lapbook), so we ended up putting some of the stuff in there and the other stuff didn't get in. Oh, well!

Snail Lapbook

Snail enemy wheel
Snail fact graduated book
Story starter

Pond Preschool Pack

Word tracing
find the word in the story
Graphing - N really enjoyed this. We said that the animals were racing to get to the top.

Pond Facts Cards - N is crazy about facts. So I made these cards, printed them on cardstock and cut them apart. We lined up the animal cards, then N read the facts and decided which animal it was talking about. I told her that each animal had 2 cards. She used these herself on other days, so I'm taking that as a 'like' activity!

Snail Art - This does require live snails. And baby powder (or talc powder or flour), and black paper (I cut ours to 4x6 and it was a great size!).

Place your snail(s) on the paper and wait for them to crawl off (or use A's method and move them off).

Shake powder of your choice onto their trail. Remove excess (we were outside so we just let the wind take it away). Place snail back onto paper and repeat.

A loved this project! I think it was mostly for the shaking, but hey, I'll take it!

Didn't get to but planned on:

Duck Painting

Penguins

2011-06-02T21:30:00.000-07:00

I know that penguins are a slightly odd thing to learn about as summer is beginning, but N was interested and wanted to learn, so I said, "Why not?" We ended up (both of us!) learning a lot and having some fun. Here's what we did and used:

Library books - again, not any specific title, we just took all that looked interesting and on a level that N could understand. We even found a few that she could read herself!

Lapbook Lessons -

penguin life cycle - really good! N liked to turn the paper around to see one part at a time. We glued the bottom part into her lapbook.
math file folder game - I have to admit, this was not my favorite. The subtraction fact pictures were hard to understand and really confused poor N. I should have looked a it a little better, especially for a kiddo who has done very little subtraction. The addition part was great, though, so maybe next time I'll just do that part.
penguin label - Very good. It was a good way to introduce new vocabulary (beak and bill being the same, webbed feet and why penguins would need them).

My Penguin Book - We used this as a first day, introductory, see what you know activity. It didn't have much in it. Sadly, we haven't finished it (and probably won't) to write what we learned.

Penguin Poems and Songs - We didn't do the puppets, but the songs were a hit!

Word Search - N loves highlighting, so she loved this!

Easy Crossword Puzzle - this was our first crossword puzzle, and it was a good one to start with. N had a hard time at first with the words sharing letters, but she seemed to catch on. We'll be doing more crosswords.

Penguin Fact Cards - I made these up. Some are true and some are false. N read each one and we sorted true/false. Then, we threw away the false ones and made a pocket in her lapbook for the true facts. She enjoyed pulling these out and re-reading them.

We also made fingerprint penguins! They turned out so cute! A had fun making the fingerprints, and I drew on their body parts. N had fun for about 10 minutes, then she was ready to make fingerprints with A. Apparently we need to do more fingerprinting....

We (okay, really the kiddos) slid like penguins down our couch cushions. They did it every chance they could!

We waddled like penguins!

Things we didn't do, but planned to:

Penguin from an Egg

Penguin Maze

Penguins

Butterfly Week

2011-05-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

N is REALLY, INCREDIBLY interested in butterflies. So I planned a Butterfly Unit. We did a lapbook for the first time and I was impressed. I really liked having it all in one place. Not everything we did went into the lapbook, but a lot of it did. And I've seen her looking through it still, even though we're done with the unit. I originally planned it for one week, but she was having such a good time and loving school so much, that we did it for two weeks. N could have done more, but I was out of ideas! So we've moved on.

We checked out ~~a million~~ some books from the library about butterflies. Some were books for N to read, and others were Mommy Read books. The titles don't really matter, but having a lot of books does! See what your library has and use them.

We did our art projects in the morning, while A could do them with us. Then we did our school activities while he and J were napping. It was the first time that I incorporated A in N's school, and I really liked how it worked out. He didn't learn nearly what N did, but he was exposed to a lot of it. Maybe something will stick.

Homeschool Share had a lot of material. We used the Butterflies Eat Shape Book, Butterfly Math, Butterfly Defenses, Butterfly Shape book, and Butterfly Diagram.

Rhyming Butterflies - Download and print this file, cut the butterflies out (I did squares around them with my paper cutter. It was incredibly easier than cutting out each one), then cut in half. N had fun finding the rhymes, then we played a "Catch a Butterfly" (A butterfly version of "Go Fish"). Then we put them inside a pocket in her lapbook, so that she could have them when she wanted them.

I used the amazing handwriting worksheet maker to write some butterfly words (butterfly, caterpillar, egg, life cycle, chrysalis, legs, wings), then N traced them.

We did a painting activity. I cut out butterflies, and N was instructed to only paint them on one side, then fold it in half (it was already scored, since I folded them in half to cut them out) and rub it to get the paint onto the other side. We called it, "making it symmetrical". We learned that you really have to blob the paint onto the first side, or there won't be any to rub onto the other side.

We watercolored "butterfly" pasta, then let it dry. Then, we glued our butterflies onto blue paper to let them fly in the sky. I was impressed with how well the pasta took watercolors.

Butterfly Life Cycle - I couldn't find a fill-in-able Butterfly Life Cycle that I liked, so I made this one. The words are there, but N drew the pictures. We glued it inside her Butterfly Folder.

We made a handprint butterfly. It also had a TP tube chrysalis, but the chrysalis didn't really work. So we took our butterflies and flew!

Tool Time

2011-05-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

We had a great week talking about TOOLS. It all started when I found Turtle and Snake Fix It and the library, and, having absolutely no plan for school, I crash planned around this book.

The first day N read the book and I helped her. I was surprised to see how little I had to help. She has become an amazing reader!

The next day, after reading the book, she did a worksheet that I made (which has since disappeared from the computer!), that had pictures of the five different tools used across the middle, with the sound they made in a line across the top and the tools names in a line across the bottom (I hope that makes sense! I'm still looking for the file. If I find it, I'll add it). She drew a line from each tool to it's sound and it's name.

The next day we read the book again. Then, I had made tool picture cards, which included all sorts of tools - a stove, a screwdriver, a vacuum, a blender, a loofa, a blowdryer, lawn mower, etc. I covered them in contact paper and we sorted them, using yarn circles. We actually ended up doing a Venn Diagram, because she thought that few needed to be in both circles. Our sorts were used a lot/not used much, inside/outside. N isn't much of a sorter (she does well, but has zero fun. And school's supposed to be fun).

Our final day on tools, we read the book (of course), then used our tool pictures to play Tool Charades. N and I took turns pulling a tool picture of a container and pantomimed using it. N loved it! We need to work on her skills (it's good that I knew what all the tools were!), but she had a lot of fun.

I'm really sorry that I can't find my pages. I'll add them if I find them. Here is another book that we read during our week of tools.

Happy Tooling!

And the Winner is...

2011-05-02T22:35:00.000-07:00

Shana! Who said, "Besides his first Bible my faves to read to Blaze are Apples Up on Top, Go Dog Go and Clip Clop" . Congratulations! These 3 books are some of our favorites, also (though that's not why she won. Random.org decided that she won).

Curriculum Clean-out

2011-04-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Eat, Nap, Play is a great book with a lot of fun ideas (click the link to read more about it on Amazon). There are ideas for littles and not-so-littles. If you'd like to win, leave a comment below, telling me your favorite book to read aloud to your kiddos, by midnight on May 1st. (Shipping within the US only). Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you win!

Having Fun With Games, Etc.

2011-04-01T21:12:00.000-07:00

Our first sensory bin. It's been a big hit! I tried to keep it to a theme of "Spring", so we have birdseed sunflower seeds, fake flowers, old spice containers, measuring spoons, and a little ladybug. I had hoped to add plastic insects, but have had no luck finding any. Both kiddos really enjoy it when the bin comes out, and they play really well together (mostly). We tried it on the carpet first, then when that was more mess than we wanted, we moved to the kitchen, where the broom made for easy clean-up. I'm already planning our Easter bin. I don't know why I haven't done these before!

N and I played with Triominoes one day for school. Our job was to match 2 of the 3 numbers. She had a really good time with this, which was a little surprising to me. I figured she'd want to make designs and skip the matching. But I was wrong! We matched until there were no more matches.

My favorite was when she matched just 1 of the 3 numbers, and asked if we could make a bow instead of diamond. Of course I said YES!

No pictures, but we also used the tiles from Upwords. A used them for stacking and practicing words - up, down, off, on. N used them for making word families. It was a very visual way to see that the ending stays the same, only the first letter(s)/sound(s) change.

St. Patrick's Day 2011

2011-03-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Green pancakes - they were better received by the kiddos than the green eggs from March 2, Dr. Seuss' birthday.

Green Muffin Tin {Thursday} - Graham Cracker Cookies (graham crackers with leftover frosting sandwiched in the middle), Green Beans, Green cottage cheese, green apples, green salad and milk, in a green cup (I contemplated turning the milk green, but decided not to [A has a tendency to spill his milk])

We did a found art collage on contact paper. This was a great activity for spanning the age and skill difference of my kiddos (2 and almost 4). I pulled all of my green art supplies (tissue paper, ribbon, foam shapes and abc's, pom-poms, paper, material, buttons, etc) out and they decorated their pieces of contact paper to their hearts content. When they were finished, I put a piece of black construction paper on the back and folded the contact paper over. They look really good (sadly, I haven't yet taken a picture).

Other St. Patrick-y things we've done:

Word search
Ordinal Numbers
Number Order
Make a Leprechaun
Write (dictate) a story about a leprechaun

Valentine Art

2011-02-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

Here's a super-easy art project that my almost 2-year-old succeeded at just as much as my almost 4-year-old. We dipped heart cookie cutters in paint, then printed them onto construction paper. Wa-la! Doesn't it look fancy?

our first stART

2011-01-29T20:55:00.000-08:00

We read Corduroy, by Don Freeman. It's a favorite of N's. For our ART, I cut out overalls from construction paper (I used blue, not even thinking to make them green until N pointed out that Corduroy's were green). Then N and A glued on Corduroy's lost button, and lots of other buttons!

To see other great ideas using books and art, click the button [below:)].

Still Schoolin'

2011-01-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

Though it's been a while since I've blogged about school, we're still going! I've been working with N on writing/reading lessons that I used with my first graders. She's currently on lesson #3, and is loving it! Each list has 5-7 words. With N we've been spending a week (or more) on each list. The first day we read the words, then write them in some way. We've used the white board and magnetic letters, so far. One of the activities we do weekly is "See, Spell, Write". I write the word in the first column, then she makes the word with letters and glue, then she writes it in the word in the last column. I've introduced her to word searches, which she loves, mostly I think because I let her use highlighters for the words. Here is the link to Lesson 1's word search. This week she's going to rainbow color the words, using a different color for each letter. We've used cards (lessons 1&2, lessons 3&4). One week we played "Hide and Seek" with them. Another week N jumped to the word that I called out. I'm planning on putting them on a ring, so that she can practice reading them in the car, etc, but I haven't bought a ring yet.

We've been playing a lot of games. Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Number Bingo, puzzles of all kinds (sequence, numbers, etc).

One day each week we go to story time at the library. Another morning is running errands. I've been trying to plan an intentional activity for the other mornings that both kiddos can participate in. We've painted, played with beads, put together a cat. This week, on Tuesday, it's Winnie the Pooh day, (according to this website) so we'll be watching a Winnie the Pooh movie.

Lesson 1 - a, and, at, am, as
Lesson 2 - it, is, in, me, mom
Lesson 3 - go, got, get, can, cat, be, but

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-13T20:19:00.000-08:00

I printed out a turkey and cut off the feathers. Then I cut feathers out of construction paper, one for every day until Thanksgiving. On the back of the feathers I wrote craft, activity, song, snack or paper. N gets to choose a feather every day, and we do whatever is on the back. Here is a compilation:

Crafts:

Indian vest
pilgrim collars
pine cone turkeys
popcorn corn
colored popcorn kernels

Activities:

Turkey strut - masking tape turkey foot prints on the floor. Turn on music. When the music stops, children choose a turkey print to stand on.
Find the turkey - hide paper turkeys around the room. Children find them.

Snack:

cornucopia - ice cream cone and fruit snacks
Peanut butter turkeys
apple turkeys - apple body, toothpick filled with raisins for feathers, and something for eyes and mouth.

Song:

My Delicious Ambiguity has a Thanksgiving songbook that has tons of songs!

Paper:

Thanksgiving themed worksheets that can be found online.

Muffin Tin Monday - Circus

2010-10-05T21:12:00.000-07:00

In our muffin tins we had:

Homemade corn dog, with ketchup (not homemade!)
Grapes (seals balance beach balls)
Cheese people (because people go to the circus)
Popcorn
Peanuts

It was fun! I'm excited to try it again next week.

A Month (or more) in Review

2010-06-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

With summer here, baby #3 on the way, and A's changing schedule, things have been a little hit and miss. But we're still going! School time with a jealous little brother is a challenge. Tray time, when both have different activities and abilities, is another challenge. N understands (and mostly obeys) the rule that she's not to do A's tray time. A, however, doesn't get it, and constantly wants to do what his big sister is doing. So, with that introduction...

School:

We're still working our way through the alphabet, making a book using the alphabet cut and paste sheets. N has started helping me cut out the pictures, and usually does pretty well.
I've started having N "write" books, thanks to the inspiration of Preschool With Mommy. Sometimes I have N dictate what to write, and sometimes I write what I want. Either way, we read it together (multiple times), then she illustrates each page.
N is really good at recognizing, or guessing, extended family names. So we've been working on writing them and reading them more often.
And finally, showing what a slacker I've been, we've been doing worksheets, mostly from TLS Books. On days when we only have a few minutes or when A is being especially difficult, it works. And N still loves school.
And other life school opportunities. We go to a weekly playgroup. A friend, who happens to run a tractor dealership, learned of N's love of tractors, and invited us to come help move the tractors. N was in HEAVEN!!!

Tray Time for N (new for record keeping *=how well she liked the activity):

Shaving cream - a huge hit for about 15 minutes. Then she was done. **
Jenga blocks***
Magnets ****
Contact paper art - from Shannon's Tot School *****
Wheat - scooping, pouring, measuring *****
Wikki Stix***

Tray time for A:

Transferring - ducks, pom-poms **
The yogurt game - I cut a hole in the lid of an empty yogurt container, saved milk jug lids, then let him put them into hole. He then turns over the container and shakes the lids out. He loves this game and it was super easy to make!*****
Circle stickers - with help, he took them off of the paper, and put them on the blank sheet of paper. Towards the end, he was able to start taking them off himself. ***
Wooden puzzle ** (but he might have just been too interested in N's activity that day)

Tray times together:

Water! I filled two tubs with water, and gave them cups, salt and pepper shakers, bowls and funnels (all plastic, of course). They had a great time!*****
Foam blocks ***
Silver strips, cut from a fringe curtain. When N first saw it, she said, "What are we going to do with that?" But then she jumped right in. It made a huge mess but they had fun.****

The Trouble with "G"

2010-05-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

Our letters this week were "G" and "H". Luckily, I went into it knowing that N didn't know her "G" sound. After reviewing some pictures with her, where only one sound was different (gown, down), I learned that she didn't have a clue that the /d/ and /g/ sounds were different! So, thanks to the help of a friend of a friend, we got started teaching the /g/ sound. I used a tongue depressor and held down her tongue as she tried to make the /d/ sound. After lots of giggles and then refusals to try, she was successful 3 times. And now she knows that the sounds are different. She doesn't like the tongue depressor method, so I hope that it serves as the needed impetus to get the /g/ sound going. After working on the /g/ sound, we did the "G" and "H" cut and paste pages from Homeschool Creations. N is getting the hang of them and seems to really enjoy them!

We read Elephants, a book that is in a series I just discovered at our library. The series, Animals I See at the Zoo, has very basic facts, in large print on one side of the page, with a large picture of the animal on the opposite side. They are perfect for toddlers/preschoolers! After reading the book, we talked about what elephants can do with their trunks, comparing it to what we do with our noses. Then N put colored, cut, and put together and elephant puzzle. She needed more guidance with it than I had expected, but did a pretty good job. Our last elephant activity was making and reading an Elephant mini-book.

Our math for the week was the Shape Book. When I put it together, I left out the cylinder and the cube. Even with those out, I figured that we'd get through maybe 5 shapes before N lost interest. Nope. We made it the entire way through. And she could have kept going. I'm amazed at her current interest in "making" books!

I introduced new words this week: cat, sad, bat, has, want. We're going to focus on the short /a/ words for a while. I put in want to show that there are exceptions to rules. We'll see if she gets it or if she gets confused. This first day with the words I got out the needed magnetic letters and she made the words with letters, then "read" them with her finger underneath.

And this week, we started Calendar. N LOVES it! We do it first thing after breakfast, even though school isn't until later. N counts the days already on our calendar, then chooses which comes next (I only give her 2 or 3 options). Then she changes our Today Is: sign. After that she checks the weather, and fills in the appropriate pictures on our weather chart that I laminated. Then we go over our schedule for the day. Our final activity is a mini-devotional. N chooses a picture from the Gospel Art Book, and I tell her the story that goes along with it. Usually, when the first story is done, she wants more. I know it won't last, but so far, it's great!

Colored Rice, Etc.

2010-04-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

My favorite activity this week, and I think N's also, was gluing colored rice onto patterns. We'd seen the idea at the library, and N was really interested, so I decided to try it. I found instructions on coloring rice here, and it turned out really well. I used NEON food coloring, and the rice is beautiful! N, of course, mixed all of the colors soon after starting, but it was still a hit!

We played with Discovery Toys Playful Patterns. She was able to do the basic shapes, and even figured out how to combine the foam shapes to make larger shapes.

We looked for our words (and, to, the, at, is) in some of her books, and marked them with a sticky note. At first she did really well and was pretty interested, but it didn't last for long. It did show me which words she really knows and which ones she still needs to work on, though.

N had randomly checked out a book about Dinosaurs, so we did a day of them. From 1+1+1=1, we used the dinosaur puzzles. Once I got her pointed in the right direction, she did an amazing job. I thought she would need a lot more help. We also talked (briefly) about the life cycle of a dinosaur (egg, hatchling, little dinosaur, big dinosaur). Then we used the Dinosaur Life Sequence Cards from Making Learning Fun, and N put them in order, naming each part as she went.

Once again, I didn't do well on the picture front. I'm really trying to do better.

Seize the Moment

2010-04-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Letters C and D. Turns out that N can't make the "k" sound for C. I've known this, but didn't think about how hard it would be to see what the pictures start with if you can't make the sound (she makes the "t" sound instead).

Our books this week were about grasshoppers. So we made grasshoppers out of clothespins and pipe-cleaners (no pictures though. Sorry! I'll see if I can remedy that!). We then colored a picture that matched. Okay, that didn't really make sense, so I'll explain. I printed out two identical copies of a picture of a grasshopper. Then we took turns choosing what color to color the parts - I chose to color the wings green, so both N and I colored our wings green. She choose to color the legs pink, so we both did, etc. She's been really sloppy with her coloring lately and I thought this might motivate her to do a better job. Turns out she really can color inside the lines! And I wrote a poem about grasshoppers (after an extensive internet search that turned up NOTHING for a simple grasshopper poem). Here it is, in case you want a simple grasshopper poem (we put actions with it):

Grasshoppers all go

Hop, hop, hop.

When they hop on my nose I say

Stop, stop, stop!

We talked about big and small, large, medium and small. N was pretty determined to put them in correct order when I gave her 3 objects.

We started with 5 simple sight words: at, and, is, the, to. I gave her magnets and she had to make each word. With only the right magnets out, she had a lot of fun. I think that if she'd have had 26 instead of 10 letters, she would have been overwhelmed. Then she matched the words to each other (I had 2 copies of the words), and then we played memory with them.

We made playdough faces on playdough mats that I made with the egg template that I can't for the life of me find again. I cut out the eggs, glued them to construction paper, then covered them with clear contact paper. I think she got the idea, but didn't really do it. We'll try again another time.

And, on one of our walks, we found pinecones. So we brought them home, smeared peanut butter on, then rolled them in bird seed. So far, no birds have enjoyed their treat. Maybe we don't have the right kind of birds around here...

The First Week

2010-04-10T14:25:00.000-07:00

This week we began our new schedule.

Monday we did A and B. I really like the alphabet cut and paste sheets found at Homeschool Creations. I wanted to do something like it, so finding some that were already done was a huge time saver to me. I also had N do the B do-a-dot page, found at Confessions of a Homeschooler, but we used dot stickers instead of markers. Once she understood what I wanted her to do, she did really well.

Tuesday we did the Number Book found at TLS Books. N loved this! At the top, she had to circle all of the number (there is a page for each number 1-1o). At the bottom, she had to trace the number three times. I gave her a smiley face on the best traced number. She worked really hard to trace well. She liked the smiley faces!

Wednesday we were all out with colds. But because N does best with routine, we pulled out some worksheets, also from TSL Books, and she had a good time and we counted it as school.

Thursday we went to the early storytime and left A with Grandma, so that he could get a good nap and hopefully get over his cold. So, no school happened. But our Tray Time that afternoon was a hit (of sorts). I had seen at many blogs the idea of freezing small plastic toys in a container of water, and then giving the children tools to get them out. So we gave it a try. At first, N had no idea, but after I showed her that the warm water melted the ice, she was all for it. After she got the toys out, she played with them in the extra water.

Friday we made bread. N loves helping with bread, so this was a good fill in for school.

I already have next week planned and it should be great. It feel FANTASTIC to already know what's going to happen each day.

For more great ideas and to be inspired, visit Preschool Corner and 1+1+1=1.

Long Time

2010-04-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time. We haven't been slacking on school, I've just been trying to find a better system for us. Here's what we've been trying:

Instead of using a book for the whole week, I've made a theme for each day.

Monday - Letters -2 a week. Review their sounds, how to write them, words that start with them, etc.
Tuesday - Book activity/poem activity. Read a book/poem, do activities that correlate.
Wednesday - Math - review shapes, numbers (we're working on recognizing numbers up to 20, as well as counting).
Thursday - Beginning sight words.
Friday - Hands-on learning

N likes knowing what to expect each day, so we've started having a schedule. It makes life a lot easier for both of us. As N gets older, this will grow into calendar time, but she's not there yet.

We still do tray time, but not as a part of school. It's an afternoon activity and N continues to look forward to it everyday!

If You Give A Moose A Muffin

2010-01-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

(No pictures. I can't get my button to work!)

Monday - Read the book and did the worksheet, except that instead of finding the words, I had N circle the "m"s that she found. She had no trouble finding them, and she did a really good job with tracing the letter.

Tuesday/Wednesday - I don't remember what we did on these two days! Where is my memory going?!?!

Thursday- We talked about the "M" sound and then N had to find 10 pictures of the 15 or so that I had cut out that began with "M" and glue them onto an "M" paper. She did really well with it. A couple of the pictures that I had chosen that did begin with "M" she named as something else (mitten/glove), so it was good that I had a few extra "M" words.

Friday - I set up an Uppercase/Lowercase letter clothespin activity. I had thought that it would be a great learning experience and we'd get to talk about how some were the same and others were different. NOT AT ALL. The only letters N didn't right the first time, with no guidance from me, were "d" and "q". She had fun, though, and I learned that she's been paying attention!

Tray Time:

We began this week and N LOVES it! This week we used:

wheat, with scoops and bowls
base ten cubes (N called them little teddy bears.[?]). She had a hard time putting them together at first, but got the hang of it (and didn't give up!)
toothpicks, into a container with holes in the top. Not N's favorite, which surprised me.
foam shape puzzles. Also not her favorite, though she liked them more than the toothpicks.

Weather

2010-01-23T14:30:00.000-08:00

I have to say in the beginning that this week wasn't very well planned. I had a lot of good ideas floating around, but not much preparation. And it was apparent to me throughout the week. So, here we go:

Day 1 - I had made a snowflake, a raindrop, a cloud and a sun out of felt. Also labels that said, "snowing" "raining" "cloudy" and "sunny". We read the book Sun and Rain, looking at the clues in each picture that showed us the weather. Then we looked at the felt weather pieces and talked about them.

Day 2 - At Mama Smiles I found the pattern for this bear, along with various outfits. I used the outfits that she had, and made one of my own that included an umbrella and galoshes. This day we read a book called Weather and looked at the clothes that the children wore for the weather. Then, using our weather pieces, we dressed our Bella Bear in clothes that were fitting for each type of weather. Afterwards, we went to the computer and played "What Should Bella Wear?" N loved it, playing it multiple times!

Day 3 - Using the Cloud Math Mat, N rolled a die, and wrote the number that she's rolled in one of the clouds. I learned from this that we haven't spent much (as in, none) time writing numbers. Good to know. We'll definitely be working on that one.

Day 4 - N did a A-S Dot-to-dot of an umbrella. She liked it!

Day 5 - Due to the lack of paint in small town Colorado, we ditched our painting a cloud idea and went instead for making a book for N to color and read. She likes being able to read books. And because "it" and "is" are repeated A LOT, I've started pointing them out in other books that we read. And she's starting to get it!

BROWN BEAR, BROWN BEAR

2010-01-16T13:25:00.000-08:00

N really enjoyed this book. A LOT. So much so, that some plans had to change - isn't it convenient that they can with only one student? So, here's how it went...

Monday - We read the book. The first time through she started helping "read" the repetitive parts. And then we did the matching. And she had a lot of fun.

Tuesday - We read the book together then she traced the fish and two others that I found here and here. She didn't do as well as she could have on the tracing. However, I'm trying to not be a perfectionist teacher and to let her do things as she enjoys. Sometimes, though, it's not easy, especially when I know how well she can do, and just decides to rush.

Wednesday - I changed the plan. Because she was already "reading" most of the book, I decided to do an activity to help her with the part that she was struggling with - the color words. I made up some Color Word Cards - with black print (because colored print would give her too big a hint). Then we read the words, comparing them to the color words in Brown Bear, Brown Bear, and glued matching color beads onto the cards.

Thursday - We made the puppets and read the book - once with N using the puppets and once with N reading the book and me doing the puppets. Then again when A woke up. N loves acting things out, so this was great! She did get a little hung up on there being no puppet for the children.

Friday - We did 2 things for the book. Using a paper punch and white paper colored brown (no brown paper to be found. Where did it all go? And why did it leave when I needed it?) we covered the word brown with bears (idea found here). Then, when A awoke from his nap, we took a field trip to a pet store, to look at GOLDFISH. Because N didn't understand why the goldfish in the book was ORANGE and not GOLD. So we found goldfish. And they were orange and yellow and black and white. N is very excited to go back to a pet store.

Again, not many pictures. I'll work on that...

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - Planning

2010-01-09T19:37:00.001-08:00

Monday - Introduce the book. Then have her match the animals from the book.

Tuesday - Trace the fish, then color it in.

Wednesday - Make the Coloring Animals Mini-book.

Thursday - Storytime AND do a retelling of the book using puppets.

Friday - Art: I haven't decided between painting a bear, making a bear mask, or making a necklace.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! - Reality

2010-01-09T18:16:00.000-08:00

Okay. Things didn't go exactly as planned. I WILL BE BETTER. And I didn't get many pictures. Alright, only one. I WILL BE BETTER. But I think that the week, overall, was a good start. Here's what happened:

Monday - We read the book and did a letter assessment. She would tell me a letter that she saw, and then trace it on the paper with marker (she loved that part!). The didn't get "W" and "E". Good to know.

Tuesday - We made a mini-book that was repetitive. We colored the trees together and then she read it to me, each of her animals (separately.), to A, to Uncle, etc. She doesn't look at the words when she "reads", nor does she point to the words, but she likes that she has a book that she can "read" all by herself.

Wednesday - We scattered the stuffed letters all over the rug and N did various things to pick them up: Crab walk, giant steps, run, walk backward, gallop, baby steps, frog jump, etc. (think 'Mother May I'). She really enjoyed it. How do I know? She asked to play it later in the week...

Thursday - This was our worst day of the week. We'd planned on going to early storytime, but the scheduling didn't work, and we ended up going to the later storytime, which meant that school time was available. So, not having anything prepared, I threw together an activity and it bombed. She was supposed to line up the letters of the scrambled sticky note alphabet. It wasn't a huge hit. But I think that another time, with more calmness in the house, it would work.

Friday - We used the pages found here to play a game. We used the tree outline and the cards, but not the pieces. We just colored the tree as we drew a shape. It worked really well for us. N also really like the game.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

2010-01-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

Monday - letter tracing (while doing letter assessment)

Tuesday - shape matching game

Wednesday - find the letter with stuffed letters scattered around the room. I'm thinking we'll include some gross motor skills by having her jump/hop/run/walk backwards etc. to find the letters.

Thursday - story time

Friday - art of some sort. I'm still working on it!