Two for Tuesday

Ok this is a HUGE edition of Two for Tuesday, and it is brought to you by a dear friend of mine (whom I've known since I was 15!) who asked for some of my favorite preschool curriculum/ideas.  I looked back on blog posts, and I pulled some from memory, and then I linked my pinterest boards.  I no longer have preschoolers....SIGH....but I know a lot of you still do so here are some of my favorite things.



Homeschool Creations Printable Pack

1+1+1=1

Starfall.com

Alphabet Spoons

Survival Guide

No Time For Flash Cards

My Preschool Pinterest Board

My Homeschooling Pinterest Board

My Science Pinterest Board

Community Helpers

Firefighters, Police, Construction worker, Mail Carrier, Veterinarian

Nursery Rhyme: Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home

Police Craft: Cut out badge shape from cardboard. Cover with aluminum foil. Use the handle part of the paintbrush to "draw" on the badge.

Discuss what police do--speed limit signs, stop signs, litter laws, etc.

Construction worker craft: make a safety vest out of paper bag;

Build with blocks in the "construction zone"

Firefighter craft: Paint a fire-red/orange/yellow paint, add a cut out of a house.

Draw flames with sidewalk chalk, use hose (or spray bottles) to put out the flames.

Tour the local firestation

Mail carrier craft: http://familycrafts.about.com/od/potatochipandpeanutcans/a/Pringles-Can-Mailbox-Craft.htm

Cut out mailbox shapes put a letter/number/shape on each mailbox. Make an envelope and put the matching/corresponding item on the envelope. Have child match them up.

Mail something!

Veterinarian:

Pretend play "vet" with stuffed animals.

Community Helpers Puzzle: Create this (if you don't have one) by printing a coloring page, color it, and then cut it into pieces for your child to put back together. If you have a laminator, or access to one, laminate the page prior to cutting it.

Math Skills: We'll use the blocks on our building day to make some patterns. We'll also make towers and count the blocks (we are working on higher numbers.)

Four will be learning the color red, and we'll work on matching. I'm going to make a "color red box." A color box is a school supply box (like a stiff cardboard pencil box) and I will put various RED things from around the house in it for him to discover. We'll look at the box each day.

Another project I'd like to complete this week is a color match wheel. You cut out a cardboard circle, paint sections of the circle in different colors. Paint clothespins to match. Have child pinch the clothespin to clip it on to the matching spot on the circle. I plan on doing this 2 times. One with just 4 colors (for Four) and one with more colors (for Three.)

March Week 5--Spring

I have been in a funk since the beginning of the month. My apologies. Three and Four have done very little "organized" school because of my funk. I'm snapping out of it (I can feel it...) and have planned this coming weeks unit. We'll be talking about spring. I know in many parts of the country, it's not really feeling like spring so maybe they can use these acitvities to help them feel "springy!"

Counting--flower stickers; Make a field of flowers, counting as you go.

Science: Make a birdfeeder--using paper towel/tp rolls and pb and birdseed. Here is a link: http://www.kinderart.com/crafts/easybirdfeeder.shtml

Science/Craft: Make a birds nest--go on a scavenger hunt and glue the nature items to the inside of a coffee filter making a nest. Talk about how birds look for things for their nest.

Craft: Stained glass eggs; Discussion of eggs being new life that occurs in spring. Observe the nest building in our yard (we have a bird box, and a ledge on our porch where there is current nest building going on, YAY!) Cut out the outline of an egg (2), have child pick 2 or 3 colors of tissue paper then cut it or rip it into small pieces, stick it to clear contact paper then cover with another piece of contact paper. Hang in a window and let the sun shine in!

Science/Craft: March is windy-discuss how wind moves the clouds (and observe it!) Make a cloud out of cotton balls.

Plant seeds. Water them (this is my boys favorite activity.)

Fly a kite.

Craft: Make a kite out of construction paper.

Importance of Honeybee's discussion and a bee handprint craft: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/insects/mhandprintbee.htm

Splashing in the Puddles (gross motor activity from www.brighthub.com)

Set small mats, such as those used for naptime or activities, around the room to make a disjointed path. Then have each child stand on one mat and jump up and down, singing the following song (to the tune of “We’re Following the Leader”):

We’re splashing in the puddles,

The puddles, the puddles,

We’re splashing in the puddles,

One, two, THREE!

When they reach the last line, children should jump forward three mats. You may want to instruct children to remove their shoes before starting this activity. If you’d like, you can tie this activity into the book that you’ve read by discussing how it might feel to splash in real puddles.

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/education/early-childhood/articles/63311.aspx#ixzz1HndQzD9h

Week in Review

This is how you make a Venn Diagram interactive.

It's hard to see the ribbon outline in this shot, the original idea was to use hula hoops, but alas, I didn't have 2 hula hoops on hand. So, ya do what ya gotta do to make it work.

Helping me make the cupcakes.

Watching some newly emerged butterflies dry their wings. Sadly, one butterfly did not fully emerge before his wings dried. But, it was a good lesson in life.

Painting his coffee filter with watercolors.

Three's finished product.

And, after assembly.

Three painting his egg carton caterpillar.

Adding eyes.

Adding some of the food the caterpillar ate.

Sequencing.

We did the life cycle cards, he enjoyed them, somehow I didn't get pictures. This weeks theme is "The Big Red Barn." We are visiting a farm next week, so we are preparing for that. Plans to come shortly.

March Week 1: The Very Hungry Caterpillar

This weeks unit is going to be based around The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. We currently have 5 caterpillars in chrysalis preparing to emerge as Painted Lady Butterflies.


--Memory: Butterfly match game. We have a beautiful one that I ordered from Eeboo a couple years ago. But, before I remembered that (yes, I sometimes forget about great materials that I ordered, shut it ok) I was going to make a simple butterfly matching game. You could cut out different color butterflies from construction paper, use stamps to make patterns, etc. and play a memory game with those just as easily.

--Gross Motor: Move like caterpillars, and then move like butterflies

--Craft: Egg carton caterpillars: paint an egg carton, punch 2 holes in the first cup, thread a pipe cleaner through to make antennae, add googly eyes and you have a cute caterpillar.

--Craft: Coffee filter butterflies: Use an old fashioned clothes pin (the non-pinch ones) and wrap pipe cleaner around the top for antennae. Paint a coffee filter (you could also use colored tissue paper if you don't want to paint) and after it dries fold it and slide it into the opening at the bottom of the clothespin and spread out the wings.

--Math: arranging caterpillars from smallest to largest. I'm using these: http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/TheVeryHungryCaterpillar.html (There are MANY awesome things for this book on this site, you might find something else you think your kid would like there...check her out!)

--Math: addition Ex: on Monday the caterpillar ate one apple, and on Tuesday he ate two pears...how much food did he eat on those days? And so on, you get the picture.) I printed this: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_9DbWcozSA54/S8vlZpkCSZI/AAAAAAAABCY/ePukoAGOPPk/s1600/Caterpillar+Food.png to use as counters for the math problems.

--Math: Count how much food the butterfly ate ALL week.

--Cooking: Make cupcakes, and form them into a caterpillar. Enjoy!

--Lunch: Butterfly sandwiches--cut the sandwich into triangle pieces, and arrange them points in to look like butterfly wings, use a pretzel rod, carrot stick or pickle (or anything you think of!) as the butterfly's body

--Science: Life Cycle of a butterfly (We've been watching this first hand, as we ordered caterpillars from insectlore.com) Print out sequencing cards and put them in order. I used these: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/sequencingpl/

--Science: Did the caterpillar eat healthy foods? Which ones weren't healthy? The caterpillar got a stomach ache, what might give you a stomach ache?

--Science: Sort the food the caterpillar ate into food groups-meat/veggies/fruit/grains. Brief discussion of how much of these foods boys/girls should eat.

--Science: Purpose of butterflies (2ND largest pollinators next to honey bees,) found everywhere on the planet except Antarctica

--Science: Sense of taste. Butterflies taste with their antennae.

--Language: Before/After--"What did he eat BEFORE the oranges?" "What did he eat AFTER the plums?" (I will use story sequencing cards from http://www.dltk-teach.com/books/hungrycaterpillar/sequencing.htm for this)

--Language: Days of the Week

--Muffin Tin Monday: I'll be using foods from the book to create Monday's Lunch! :) We'll be out all morning on Monday, so I'll make it ahead of time so it's ready and waiting when we arrive back home at lunch.

Best Laid Plans....

**I apologize for the formatting of this, but I've edited it 4 times and it just won't stay.**

Sometimes Three just blows my plans out of the water. LOL We started on the President's Day ideas, and well....he wasn't really feeling mama's best laid plans. He does like money, so he liked sorting the money, talking about the names of the money, and arranging it by size.




Doing crayon rubbings of the coins, not so much his thing. He absolutely refused to do the wig craft. BOOOOOO. I was most excited about that one. He had no interest. Oh well!


One and Two recently got their own laptops. I have been pretty adamantly against this for sometime. About a month ago, their bio-dad asked if he could get them their own computers. Hmmmm, let me think. I decided yes. And, now, I can't figure out WHY I fought this so hard! It has been GREAT. They are doing more of their work ON the computer-increasing their typing skills/speed. It is easier for them to get the things done (at least for Two who has writing...issues.) They don't have to wait for each other, or me, or Three to be done with the computer in order to do their work. They can share their google docs with me, so I can check them easily.




Why was I so against this? Live and learn. Live and learn.




Over the weekend, I will post another week's lesson plans. We've been so sick this month, that we've really not done much. Seriously we had the flu, then a stomach bug and have been sick non-stop since Feb 1. Is it March yet? Our next unit will be based on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book, because we have 5 caterpillars in chrysalis right now! Three is OVER THE MOON excited. I imagine they'll emerge next week sometime, so we'll be doing a unit on caterpillars and butterflies.

Letter D

Dragon craft from notimeforflashcards.com (which ROCKS.)

Tracing Letter D felt letters (I made felt letters, instead of typical montessori sandpaper letters.)

Writing Letter D in oatmeal

Coloring his "dinosaur costume:"

Working on scissor skills by cutting out the spikes for his dino

The back of the dinosaur costume:

We did a dino craft....from dltk-kids.com....but I apparently didn't take pictures. :(

Our Week in Review

For fine motor skills, we worked on beading. I put some beads on a pipe cleaner, put a knot in both ends, and then gave Three and handful of beads (making sure all the colors were represented) and a pipe cleaner piece with only one knot. He then had to duplicate the first pipe cleaner. Later we will work on patterns with this activity.

This is the original one I gave him.

We have been working on letter C this week, and we used Coconut Candies (M&M's) for this activity. I dumped out the package, and put out the bowls, then Three had to sort them by color. There were only 2 green ones in this package, which presented a great opportunity to discuss which had the least, and which had the most (since the difference was easy to spot.) After sorting, and our discussion, I laid out 6 on the table in a line and he counted them, and then his FAVORITE part, he got to eat them. :) As soon as I said "Let's do school." today, he said "Let's do the M&A's!!!!" (you know what he meant!) I had a 2nd package, so we did. :)

C is also for Colors! We did a mixing colors experiment as well this week. I put a glob of blue, yellow and red paint on a paper plate. Then I asked Three to put some of the red in between the red and the yellow, then asked what he thought would happen if he added some yellow. After his guess (which I think was purple,) he mixed some yellow to the red to make orange. We then repeated with red/blue, and yellow/blue. He was still talking about this yesterday, when I gave him some green paint for a candle craft and he remembered mixing yellow and blue together to make green. He also very proudly showed it to a neighbor when they came over to play.

After all the mixing, he painted a very colorful picture, which when finished he titled "Red moon, Blue star." I somehow didn't get a picture of the finished product (but here you can see the beginnings of the red moon) but it is on my fridge, I'll try to snap a shot of it before it goes to Grandma (because EVERYTHING goes to Grandma....*eye roll*)
This is a Candle Craft (see the C theme?)
Finished product, served as our centerpiece...for an "mock" candle light dinner.

PRESCHOOL: An oldie but a goodie, rainy day fun

While the temperature has dropped outside, it is raining. BLAH. So, in an effort to keep Three and Four busy this afternoon I'm digging out some oldies.

Three loved the Discovery Box I made (from Totally Tots blog.) For this afternoon, I have loaded it with some new small things for him to find. :) He also has a fire truck craft from Home Depot (it's a wooden truck that you assemble, my MIL found this at Goodwill) that we may attempt.

Four is into everything today, and after looking at 1+1+1=1 blog, I think I have some ideas for him too. Wooden spoon, metal mixing bowl, and play wooden food. Happy camper? Probably! Also after reading the blog, I think I'm going to let him play with the rocks. We have rocks that Three uses for school, but I haven't let Four play with them yet. He still REALLY puts everything in his mouth, so we'll see how that goes. For later this week, I'm hoping to get a paper towel tube from my neighbor, and give him some objects to drop down it. We don't use paper towels, so I don't have any of my own, but I know my neighbor will share. :)

I've also been going through my The Toddlers BUSY BOOK for some "Rainy Day Play." I came across "Blanket Riding" which we've done before, but I hadn't thought of it for today. Another fun thing for my brain!

I may also make a squishy bag. It is a ziploc bag with any sort of squishy substance in it, the book suggests: corn starch and water, mustard, ketchup (maybe the 2 together to work on color mixing for Three?,) hair gel, shaving cream....I have an excess of really cheap hair gel (because of One's dance recital, and her super short hair in the back that needed to be slicked UP for her high pig tails) so I may use that.

PRESCHOOL: Field Trip to the Mill

Storytime @ the mill was the story of The Little Red Hen, then the kids made a headband.

Then they went outside to "plant" (they really just dug up the dirt, but they enjoyed it!)

They ground some wheat:

Then we toured the actual mill, which is over 300 years old. I took a picture in there, but it was blurry. After that they did a second craft, which I didn't get a pic of because by this time Four was pretty sure he no longer wanted to be in the wrap and I couldn't do anything but chase him around the room. After the craft, we went out to the lobby where there was a dress up center. Here is Farmer Three. :) (You see Four in the background trying to destroy the mirror...wonder why we call him the jabberwocky?)

I got to snap a picture before Four ripped the hat off his head (but you can see him reaching for it already!)

Sisters getting in on the dress up action, One.

And, Two.

PRESCHOOL: Spring crafts and Field Trips

Field Trip to the Farm:

Planting a watermelon (FAVORITE FOOD) seed! He was so excited when Farmer Fred offered this option.

Farmer Fred cranking the tractor to take us on a hayride through the fields. We got to try squash and brocolli straight from the field!

Feeding some picky goats!

Brushing a horse, who was funnily enough named "Bubba" (which is what we call Four.)

Another planting, this one is a flower planted with our neighbors.

These are foam flower stickers. We are working on counting objects to 5 (you could alter for whatever number or color you are working on.) There are 5 flowers, we counted them as we stuck them. Then we counted them again (and worked on pre-writing skills) as we added stems.

A is for Ant craft: Cardboard egg carton segment, paint, pipe cleaners.

Field trip to the fire station (Three has serious hero worship.)

Tractor (we weren't working on anything specific here, he just wanted to make a tractor!