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.)

Planning

Today my goal is to go over my preschool skills checklists to see where we are. I'm trying to decide if Three will be ready for Kindergarten level work by fall, or if we'll just continue on with preschool. He wouldn't go to Kindy this fall, because of his Jan birthday, but homeschooling allows him to do school at a different level than his social skills set....which wouldn't be at all ready for K. Two started Kindy when she was still 4, she has a late Dec. birthday and would not have gone that year, but she was academically ready.

I'm using two skills checklists:

http://www.worldbook.com/typical-course-of-study-preschool-curriculum-guide.html

http://www.reocities.com/Heartland/Forest/2468/skillslistage4.html (this list is often considered advanced, and I'll bear that in mind as well.)

This weeks theme, which will be put up tomorrow, will be Firefighters, and other community helpers. :)

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

March Week 2: The Big Red Barn

Math skills: Estimation...use a farm related item (dried beans, unpopped popcorn kernels, toy farm animals, etc.) place some in a jar and have the child guess how much the jar contains. For this, I think I'll show him groupings of 10, 25, 50 before hand and then let him estimate as I don't think he has ANY grasp of this concept. He could prove me wrong though, woudln't be the first time.

Play "The Farmer in the Dell."

Sing Old MacDonald Had a Farm.

Craft: Milk Carton Barn.

Science: Food from the farm. What foods do we eat that grew on the farm? Another discussion about healthy eating.

Science: Duck feathers repel water. We have a local pond that has lots of ducks. I'll go collecting some feathers from shore, and we'll spray some water on them to demonstrate how they repel water.

Craft: Stick Horse http://www.everythingpreschool.com/lessonplans/farmanimals/art/art1.htm

Science: Make butter! It's really simple. Put some whipping cream in a jar, add a marble, and shake shake shake! Enjoy it on some bread. Mmm. Mmm. Good.

Craft: http://stepbystepcc.com/farm.html Pig of Many Pinks (I will see if I can find some other shades of pink tissue paper at the store, all I have is HOT pink. If I can, we'll do this, it sounds cute!)

Craft: Alternate for the above, but I may do both! MUDDY PIGS- Cut large pig shapes out of pink butcher paper. Give each child a pig shape with a small amount of brown fingerpaint in the center of it. Let the children cover their pig shapes with the brown fingerpaint "mud." (MUDDY PIGS- Cut large pig shapes out of pink butcher paper. Give each child a pig shape with a small amount of brown fingerpaint in the center of it. Let the children cover their pig shapes with the brown fingerpaint "mud.")

F is for Farm. For some reason Three cannot remember this letter to save his life. Ok, I take that back, recently (since it's the beginning letter in "Get Ready For the Code" he's been doing better. He knows several letters, and we've already covered F, but for some reason he always forgets it.)

Math skills: Counting a dozen objects, and using the word dozen. :) We'll use plastic easter eggs in a carton, and maybe these flashcards: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/printables/flash-cards/numbers-shapes.htm

Reading: http://www.first-school.ws/theme/fables/farmer-and-his-sons.htm

Cooking: Make haystacks with chowmein noodles, peanut butter and butterscotch chips

We'll also be doing "Food From the Farm" for Muffin Tin Monday!

Sensory: Coffeee grounds make great dirt for tractors to plow! (Awesome idea from http://www.angelfire.com/fl/preschoolfunzone/farm.html)

Sensory/Science: Different forms of corn. Corn starch, corn meal, corn kernels, popped corn.

I also have a game that I got from a GamesForLearning yahoogroup that is called "Farmer Farmer What Do You See?" it covers both colors and counting so I'll use it for both boys (colors for Four, counting for Three."

Lastly, I printed a game AGES ago...seriously, One was a toddler that is a big red barn and several small animals. You have to match the animals to the farm, since some of them are not farm animals. We'll defineatly play that as well. Three has played it before, but it's been awhile. I googled and couldn't really find anything similar to what I have, but you could EASILY make your own version of this.

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.