Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Lesson Plan for Week of October 29: The Letter J

Welcome to the letter J. 

I had a really hard time coming up with J words!  Finally, I settled on Jellybeans, Jellyfish, Jesus, Jonah and the big fish, and Jupiter (Space).  Then, after I settled, I thought of others!!  Oh well.  Enjoy!

MONDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-I
  • Introduce the letter J.
  • Focus on J is for Jellybeans
  • Paint with Jellybeans, from Housing a Forest
    • Place jellybeans on the heavy paper and spray them with water.  Watch how they melt and use the colors to paint.
  •  Make the Jellybean J, from No Time for Flashcards 
    • Cut out a block J.  Have your child paste it to a sheet of construction paper.  Draw a J with a line of glue down the middle of the J.  Let your child cover the glue with jellybeans.
  •  Games and Printables
    • Do any games and printables from those listed above.

STORYTIME




TUESDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLAN
  •  Do desired printables

STORYTIME




WEDNESDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-J
  • Introduce J is for Jesus
  • Do Desired Printables linked above
  • Have church.  Sing songs, pray, preach :)

STORYTIME




THURSDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-J
  • Introduce J is for Jonah
  • Do the craft, from Camo and Bows 
    • Cut a boat out of one paper plate.  Cut a whale out of the other.  Have your child color them.
    • Cut a long strip of cardboard, thin enough to fit inside a toilet paper roll.  One on side, draw a man who will be Jonah.
    • Tape on toilet paper roll to the back of each paper plate (see her pictures for clarity)
    • Tell the story by putting the Jonah puppet thru the toilet paper rolls during the story.
  •  Color.

STORYTIME




FRIDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-J
  • Introduce J is for Jupiter.
    • This lesson will actually be talking about the whole Solar System.
  • Make Solar System Hats
  • Do desired printables

ADDITIONAL J WORKSHEETS





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Wednesday, October 17, 2012

It's okay to say "Not today"

In case you haven't noticed, things haven't gone exactly according to plan recently.  My days have been full, full, full.  Life is a juggling act; I'm sure you feel that way, too.

It makes me feel guilty to push preschool to the bottom of the list, so I push, push, push and sometimes we hit the mark and sometimes we don't.  And then other things fall by the wayside, too.

How do I juggle it all?  I don't know.

But, I decided yesterday to give myself a break.  I hadn't had a chance to fully prep for "Hat" day and I was feeling overwhelmed and guilty.

We came home from chapel and I was turning over in my mind what I could pull together.  Even though my lesson plan said to pair "hats" with a community helper theme, I just wasn't feeling it.  I had looked over some of the printables last week and just couldn't gather any excitement.  And I was also thinking "but what if I want to use these for Police/Fireman/Doctor day?"  I just wasn't feeling that push to do the lesson.

And so I didn't.

That's right.  I didn't do the lesson.

We've been having nice weather finally and the boys have been spending a lot of time in our dirt backyard.  As soon as we got home from chapel, they ran outside to play.

I looked at the computer, pondering what to print out and prepare and finally I said "Forget it.  I do not have to do this today.  It doesn't matter what the lesson plan says.  It's a plan, not an edict.  The boys need vitamin D and fresh air.  Preschool today is free play!"

I gave myself permission to say "Not today" to our schedule.

It felt so freeing. 

And today we jumped right back into it with a fun Hippo day.  It was okay.
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Monday, October 15, 2012

Lesson Plan for Week of October 22: The Letter I

This week we will be Introducing the letter I with ice cream, igloos, iguanas, and inchworms.  We will also enjoy another fall day filled with pumpkins!

MONDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLANS
  • Remind your child that we are in the fall season.  If they are anything like my child, they have been begging to go to the pumpkin patch.  Today's the day!!!  Take a trip to the pumpkin patch.  If you can, bring home some pumpkins.
  • Paint a Pumpkin
  •  Get in some sensory play by making a Salt Art Pumpkin, from Creatively Blooming
    • Dye 1/2 cup of salt with 3-4 drops of food coloring.  Do additional colors if desired.
    • Draw a pumpkin on a piece of cardboard.
    • Spread glue around the pumpkin with a paintbrush.
    • Using a spoon, sprinkle the dyed salt onto the paint.
    • Pick up and gently shake off the excess into the cookie sheet.
  •  Do desired printables
STORYTIME


TUESDAY

MATERIALS

LESSON PLANS
  • Review A-H
  • Introduce the Letter I
    • Kids love ice cream!!!!  Top off this lesson with an ice cream treat and you'll be Mom of the Day for sure!
  •  Make Puffy Ice Cream Cones, by Teach Preschool
    • Mix 1/4 cup of glue to 1 cup of shaving cream.  Put into a bowl and add a few drops of food coloring.  Allow your child to mix it up with a plastic spoon.
    • Cut an ice cream cone out of brown construction paper and attach it to a second sheet of paper.
    • Have your child top the cone with the shaving cream ice cream.
    • Shaving cream is an awesome sensory experience.  Don't be surprised if your child winds up with his hands in the shaving cream.  If you want, make letters and numbers in the cream.  According the Teach Preshool, it washes off easily.
STORYTIME
 

WEDNESDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-I
  • Introduce I is for Igloo.  Talk with your child about igloo, especially if they don't know what they are.  You can get out a children's encyclopedia and look at pictures of Eskimos and Alaska
  • Make a  Marshmallow Igloo, by DLTK Kids
    • Follow the directions, but use frosting instead of glue.  Don't be surprised if a large portion of  supplies disappear ;)
  • Do desired printables.
  • I couldn't find a whole lot for igloos, so this may be a good day to do some generic I printables, or just play!
STORYTIME
   

THURSDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-I
  • Introduce I is for Iguana.
  • Make Toilet Paper Tube Craft, from The Activity Mom 
    • Color the tube green.
    • Pinch the sides together at one end to make a mouth
    • Cut out a tail and tape it inside the tub.
    • Add eyes and the Letter I.
  •  Do desired Printables
STORYTIME


FRIDAY

MATERIALS
  •  Any and all ideas from Danielle's Place
    • I really like the Inchworm Coloring Page with leaves, and her Bingo Dot Inchworms.  She also mentions that you can start measurements here
LESSON PLAN
  •  Do any additional activities from the links provided.
STORYTIME
 
 
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Friday, October 12, 2012

Following the Plan Friday; The Letter G

I have no pictures to show you!  Can you believe that?  For one thing, it's hard to take pictures while you're busy telling a story and holding a mask over your face, and second, who wants to see pictures of the exact same thing (worksheets) every week?

So, I have to confess that our week wasn't all that exciting (Is this normal?  We really have hit the drudgery days of school, I think.  All four kids, really).

Monday was a holiday that we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Tuesday we did Goats.  That was fun.  I printed out some masks from the Sparklebox, assigned each kid a role and we acted out the story of Three Billy Goats Gruff.  The boys got a big kick out of kicking the troll over the bridge.

I also picked some gems from the dollar store and we included those into our worksheet routine.  Now the boys cover their dot pages with gems before doing the dot markers.

We did Gumballs on Wednesday, hoping that we would be able to go to the library and pick up Goodnight, Gorilla, but we never made it there.  So on Thursday we spent the morning at the park and I had the boys do some of the gorilla activities that afternoon, but we didn't get to do the book.  Bummer.

Today we are going to do our Green activities.  I think the boys are going to love the pudding!

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Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Lesson Plan for Week of October 15; The Letter H

The letter H promises to be a fun-filled week.  Here's the plan:

Monday we will begin the week by Hammering away at the letter H.  Our hat day will include the different hats that our community helpers wear.  Wednesday's Hippo theme takes a look at these hefty animals.  Our Cowboys will enjoy horsing around.  Then Friday, The Hermit Crab gets a Home.

MONDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-G
  • Introduce the letter H.  Children will enjoy walking around making the "Huh" sound in each other's face (ask me how I know!)  If it's cold enough to see your breath, go outside and do it.  Fun!
  • Focus on H is for Hammer.
    • Talk about hammers and tools.  Who uses hammers?  What kinds of things can you do with a hammer?
  • Practice Hammering with the Smashed Baked Cotton Balls, from Time for Play and/or Hammering Golf Tees and Styrofoam, from Happy Brown House.
    • Gage your child's abilities, but you could even provide some wood and nails and have them go at it.  Or pick up a wooden kit from Hobby Lobby or Joann's.
STORYTIME



TUESDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-H
  • Focus on H is for Hat
    • Go through the house and see what hats you can find.  Talk about what kind of hat it is and when a person is most likely to wear it.  
    • Lead the conversation to a talk about our community helpers and how they are identified by the clothing and hats that they wear.
    • Go back through the house and find other things that relate to the hats that you found.  For example, if you found a fireman hat, find a firetruck (or whatever you have in the house).
  • Make a hat using one of the links above.
  • Do desired printables about Community Helpers
 STORYTIME

 

WEDNESDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-H
  • Introduce H is for Hippo.
    • Has your child ever seen a Hippo?  I'm not sure that my littles know what one is!  This would be a great opportunity to pull out a children's encyclopedia and look at pictures, or find information online.  Or, even better?  Head to the zoo!
STORYTIME



THURSDAY

MATERIALS
  •  Items for H is for Horse, from Miss Maren's Monkeys
    • Brown and black construction paper
    • Scissors
    • Glue
    • Googly Eyes
  • Items for Hobby Horse *(this blog is in Swedish, but the picture give you the basic idea)
    • Long cardboard tube or a yardstick
    • Construction paper
    • Scissors
    • Packing Tape
    • Crayons
    • Yarn
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-H
  • Introduce H is for Horse
    • Has your child ever seen a horse?  If you go to the zoo this week, take some time to look at the horses, too.  I'm trying to remember if Jason has ever seen one!
    • You can go a couple of different directions with a horse theme, or do both!  Horses are common on farms, and cowboys ride horses.  Personally, I think I'm going to concentrate on a cowboy theme, maybe even get out some cowboy hats, make some lariats, and walk with a swagger, as we've already done lots of farm stuff, but I'll be looking everywhere for any usable printables.
  • Make  H is for Horse, from Miss Maren's Monkeys 
  • Make a Hobby Horse and act like cowboys!
  • Do any desired printables
STORYTIME



 FRIDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLANS
  • Review A-H
  • Introduce H is for House.
    • Talk about houses.  This would be a great time to read A House for Hermit Crab and talk about the different houses that different things have.  You can also say that toys and things have houses and they like to go there every night to sleep and that is why we need to put our toys away!
  • Make a Letter H house, according to the directions given for the craft you've decided to make.
  • Make a House for Hermit Crab and/or a Cardboard House and play away.
STORYTIME

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Sunday, October 7, 2012

Following the Plan Friday, The Letter F

We started our F week with another Fall day.  The boys made the Fingerprint Fall Tree and the Leaf Sorting Page.  Then we did worksheets.  I started Jason on addition and he did really well with the concept of x + y =Z.  Later during the week, he struggled a lot with trying to count up two sets of dice, though.


On Tuesday we did Frogs.  I made Lilypads and wrote a letter or a number on each one, then spread them out on the living room floor.  I would call out a name, then a letter or number and the person would have to frog jump to the correct one.  They really enjoyed that exercise.

Later we were doing printables and I was so pleasantly surprised by how well Justin is doing!!!  Up til now, he's been kinda tagging along, doing the crafts and lots of coloring, but I haven't forced anything with him.  I let him go at his own pace.  Well, Tuesday Justin was coloring while I was working with Jason.  Jason finished up a worksheet where you had to match up shapes:  there was six shapes on a page, and six cards that have pictures on them, with a shape in the corner.  The object is to put the correct card on top of the shape.  Justin said he wanted to do the worksheet, so I gave it to him, but didn't really explain it to him.  I turned back to help Jason again.  Justin shouted "I did it!"  He had matched all the shapes correctly!  It was amazing.

A few minutes later I gave him a simple tracer maze to do, not really expecting him to do more than just color the page.  I was so surprised to see him correctly trace the line from beginning to end!  He's learning, he's learning!!!!
After he did the maze several times, he then started scribbling...
Wednesday we did Fish.  I purchased some fish cut-outs from Dollar Tree, wrote letters and numbers on them, then put paper clips around them.  I had two magnets, which I used to make fishing poles.  Unfortunately, the paper clips would not stay attached to the magnets very well, unless you went really slowly, so the fishing wasn't as much fun as we had hoped.

After fishing we made Stained Glass Fish.  This might be one of my favorite crafts.  I drew a fish with black marker onto a piece of clear contact paper.  Then I cut out the fish, along with lots of tissue paper pieces.  When it was time for the craft, I removed the backing from the contact paper and the boys covered it with the tissue paper pieces.  When we turned it over, it really did look like stained glass.  So pretty!


I had Jason do a "copy the pattern" page from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  This was the first time he'd done a page like that and he did it like a pro.

Thursdays and Fridays seem to be shaping up as days that we don't do as much school because we are shopping, or at chapel, or something like that.  Jason did do the flag activities, but it was during naptime while Justin slept and I would give instructions in between trying to blog.

 

I am very pleased with the progress I'm seeing in my boys!
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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Lesson Plan for Week of October 8: The Letter G

This is a four day week as October 8 is a holiday.

This week we are going to read The Three Billy Goats Gruff storybook and Good Night, Gorilla storybook to help us on our GOAT and GORILLA days. Then we will explore the world of color with GREEN.  Friday we will have fun with GUMBALLS.

TUESDAY

MATERIALS
  • The Three Billy Goats Gruff storybook
    • Or read it online.  First School was links to different options
    •  SparkleBox has tons of printouts for this story, including story sequence cards and story cut-outs that can be used in the telling of the story
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-F
  • Introduce letter G
    • This will be the Hard G sound.  We will talk about the "J" sound later.
  •  Introduce Goats by reading the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
    • Print out some sequencing cards or story cut-outs and use them during the story.
STORYTIME


WEDNESDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLANS
 STORYTIME


THURSDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-G
  • Introduce G is for Green
    • Likely your child already knows his colors.  This will be a review, and an introduction to writing the names of the colors, as well as the color wheel
  •  Make Green Pudding, by Parenting Patch
    • The concept of three primary colors coming together to make three other color might or might not be too much for your child, but they will certainly love making pudding.  Talk about the color wheel as much or as little as you desire.
  •  Make a Green Collage, by Parenting Patch
    • Give your child some magazines and instruct them to cut out pictures of green things.
    • If the weather is nice, head outside and look for green things.
  •  Do Desired Printables
STORYTIME


FRIDAY

MATERIALS
LESSON PLAN
STORYTIME
**I'll have book recommendations up by Tuesday.  Thanks for your patience!
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Friday, September 28, 2012

Following the Plan Friday: Review Week

We had a fun and busy week of review.  Jason did really well, and like I said on Wednesday, I'm going to up the challenge a little next week and see how he does.

Monday we did the first of our Fall days by doing another Apple day. 
We did the Apple Tree Felt Game from Iowa Farmer's Wife, but I changed it up a little.  I wrote A-E on the apples.  Then, I called out a letter and Jason put all of the apples with that letter on them into the tree.  He did really well.

I finally picked up some bingo markers from Dollar Tree, so the boys were able to do Do-A-Dot pages for the first time.  THEY LOVED IT!!!  Seriously, it was quite a hit.

Completing a trace and color page.






Working on the Stuffed Lacing Apple.  I had them paint a lunch bag, then stuff it with tissue paper.  Then I punched holes and they laced it shut.

I have no recollection of Tuesday and no pictures, except that I do remember making masking tape letters on the tile and having the boys drive their cars along them, use them as balance beams, and move to the correct one when I called out a letter or sound.

Wednesday we had a lot of fun doing review activities and we breezed through almost every single on that I had planned.


We did the Tactile Letters Craft, just B-D (I didn't have any elbow macaroni and I figured we did enough A on Monday).  We did beans for B, cotton for C and dots for D.  My ten-year-old wanted to do it, too.  Good sensory play :)
I gave Jason a set of alphabet cards and a set of letter magnets.  I asked him to set out the cards, then put the letter magnet on the matching card.  For each letter, I named it and made the sound and had him copy me.





Inspired by this pin, I made pages with letters on it, and a legend and asked Jason to cover each letter with the correct colored dot.
For Justin, I made pages with the same letter on it and had him cover the letter with a colored dot.

Similar to the Clothespin Matching Game, I cut off the bumpy part of a paper plate, then wrote the letters we were reviewing around the circle multiple times.  Then I wrote the same letters on colored dots and attached each one to a clothespin.  Jason matched the letter on the clothespin to the letter on the paper plate


More Do-A-Dot pages.  These are great for hand-eye coordination.
On Thursday I took the boys to the park and called it a field trip.  We needed a break and the weather was finally nice enough. 

Friday is our longer chapel day, then when we came home, I let the boys play computer games.  I'm awesome that way.  Seriously, though, I had run out of things to do, so it worked.  Jason did do some of his leftover tracer pages.

Overall it was a great week and I can't wait for all the fun we are going to have next week on the letter F!
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Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Had a Chat with the Kindergarten Teacher!

Sunday night I was able to spend a few minutes talking with Jason's (planned-to-be) Kindergarten Teacher.  It was such a blessing to be able to pick her brain while we spent a few minutes standing in line for birthday cake at a party after church :)

I started the conversation by asking her how her Kindergarten class was going this year.  She teaches K4 and K5 in a combined classroom, which usually consists of the K5 students and one or two K4ers.  Well, this year the balance tipped and she actually has more K4 students!  She even has a super-smart 3 year old.  It's definitely a different make-up.

After we talked about that, I expressed my concern that Jason is one of the only students who will be in his Kindergarten class next year who is not going to K4 this year, that he would be behind the rest of the students next year. 

I was so grateful that she was quick to assure me that there wouldn't be any problems, in fact, Jason might be ahead of them, because "he's getting to be home and learning from momma" (her words!)

Then we talked for awhile about what and how I was teaching Jason.

She asked if I was starting with the vowels first.  Um, no, I just started with A and we are working our way through the alphabet.

She recommended that I teach the vowels first, telling Jason "these are the vowels".  Then, as I add in the consonants, I can add the vowels with them, showing him how they work together to form words, and teaching him how to read!  It was very interesting and made a lot of sense.  I am definitely thinking about how to work this in without losing the structure that we have already set in place.

I also shared with her that Jason told me that he was bored.  Her response:  Up the challenge!

I've been going slow because Jason doesn't know his letters yet, but I am going to start adding in more challenging work, not being afraid to add in words and letters that we haven't officially learned yet.

I'm also going to start teaching Jason addition.  He knows all of his numbers and how to count to ten, so he's definitely ready for the next level.

This week we are doing a review week, which is going really well.  I'll share more details of what we are doing on Friday.

Next week I am going to continue with the plan of doing the letter F, but as I've been prepping, I've been picking more challenging worksheets and activities.  I'm excited to see Jason rise to the challenge.

I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to pick the Kindergarten Teacher's brain, especially while she was "off duty" (we got to church together).
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Monday, September 24, 2012

Review Week A-E

I'm seeing the need to do some review with Jason, so this week we are going to go back and review the first five letters of the alphabet.  I am actually going to do this review THIS week and do letter F next week.

As I mentioned in my F lesson plan, I am going to incorporated some Fall themes into our lessons the next little while, so what better way then to do another Apple day?

Then, the rest of the week, instead of doing a specific word theme, we will be doing lots of review activities.  One thing we need to work on is differentiating between the different letters.

MONDAY

MATERIALS
PREPARATION
LESSON PLANS
  • Sing the alphabet song with your child, pointing out each letter.  
    • We've been doing this almost every day, and will continue to do it.
  • Quiz your child on the letters and sounds that you've learned so far.  
    • We also do this everyday, but Jason seems to want to slack off a little, so I am going to be reinforcing this week.
  • Talk about the season of FALL.
    • Here is Phoenix, it's still 100 degrees, so the thoughts of cooler weather and all that go with it seem very far off still.  However, it's definitely apple season!  Talk with your child about apples, how they are "in season" during the fall, and all of the fun things that you can do with the apples.  I am going to try to make Apple Nachos this time as I didn't get to it when we did A is for Apples.
  •  Do the Stuffed Lacing Apple, from No Time for Flashcards
    • Follow the posted directions
    • OR, instead of painting, use colored construction paper.  
    • You can also, use clothing scraps or something else soft to make the outside of the apple and to stuff it, and have a soft apple!
    • Lacing is a great way to increase fine motor skills, which are important for writing, so look for any opportunity to do lacing with your child.
  • Play the Apple Tree Felt Game, by Iowa Farmer's Wife 
    • Follow the posted directions to make the game.
    • I am going to write all five letters onto the apples, then ask Jason to pick all of the "specific letter" apples.
  • Do any desired printables
 TUESDAY-FRIDAY

Instead of a specific plan, I am just going to list the review work that I plan on doing with Jason this week.  Use what seems appropriate for you.  I doubt we'll get through everything, but I like to have options :)

First, I am going to pull out all of the past activities that were able to be saved, such as the "Find the Bear" and "Find the Eggs" cards, as well as all the lacing cards that we've made.   I also kept many of the "complete the pattern" pages from our various themes, as well as lots of other odds and ends.

I also have a collection of worksheets that we never got to, maybe two or three a week.  So I am going to pull those out and have Jason work on those.

We will revisit some fun activities that we did the first few weeks:
Here is a list of new activities that I have planned for this week.  Again, I doubt we'll do all of it.
I'd also like to do another craft or two, but I'm feeling uninspired at the moment...

What books would you recommend for storytime?

See how the week went by checking out my Following the Plan Friday post!


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Friday, September 21, 2012

Following the Plan Friday; the Letter E

It's Friday again!

Big deep breath!

I don't know about you, but I feel like I'm meeting myself coming and going lately.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that my older son has been needing a lot of help with his schoolwork lately, which we do while the little boys are sleeping, which means that I don't get that quiet time to get my busy work done.  So I am running behind on a lot of "home prep" things right now.  But, must remember priorities, right?  Even though oldest son would rather I just forget the division ;)

Unfortunately, I think some of this has spilled over into Preschool and I haven't been as organized lately.  Jason told me this week that Preschool was boring (ooops!)  Now, I know this is normal, and I also believe that kids have to learn that life isn't always fun, but I am going to make an effort to catch-up on things and be "available and hands-on" again.

This week was E week.  We did not do an Exercise and Energy day this week; we had to do some major grocery shopping that day instead.  I offered Jason some worksheets to do on his own and he refused.  We also didn't get to the story of Queen Esther as Friday is a longer chapel day and then the boys wanted to play some educational computer games.  Hey, it worked ;)

After all that negativity, I will tell you that we had a lot of fun with Egg Day.  The boys love playing "Find the Item", so hiding the eggs was a big hit.  We played several rounds with everyone getting to hid the eggs.  Jason was a master at hiding the eggs; he hid them in some tough spots!  Justin (2 1/2) was so funny because he would hide all of the eggs in the same place, then he would get all excited and lead us to the hidden eggs.

The boys enjoyed making a nest and putting eggs into it.
We also enjoyed Elephant day.  I printed out a colored elephants from Confessions of a Homeschooler and cut each one up into two or three pieces, each in a different way.  Then I gave them to Jason to put together.  It was very challenging and he did an excellent job!

Another thing he did was a color by number page.  I was so impressed by his coloring and how it has really improved.  He tries very hard to stay in the lines.  He's so cute because he sticks his tongue out when he concentrates.  I really wanted a picture, but I had to get too close and then he would notice and stop.




One thing that I wanted to point out, and that you can see by looking at these pictures, is that you don't always have to have the exact materials listed to do a specific project. 

This past week I had absolutely no money to buy materials, so I had to use what I had on-hand.  The instructions for the nest project includes making a bird out of feathers.  I didn't have any feathers, so I just printed a bird from the computer.

When we did Elephant day, I did not have do-a-dot markers or pom-poms for the "E is for Elephant" page.  I searched around and found those disks in Tyler's Math manipulative bag that we get from his school.  They were a little big, but did the job.  I also found some left-over stickers that had elephants in them, so I had Jason put an elephant sticker into each dot.  He was able to get fine motor skill training by peeling and placing the stickers.

So, don't automatically throw out a project if you don't have the extra materials.  Look and see if you can substitute something else.













Next week we are doing a review week.  We are going to revisit some loved activities and do lots of review work.  See ya next week!
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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Lesson Plan for Week of September 24: The Letter F

This week we are focusing on the letter F.

 Since the first day of Fall is September 22, we will start our week with a focus on the seasons and a craft or two about fall.  I will admit that I am finding this a little difficult as Phoenix doesn't experience a "normal" fall, so I'm trying to find things that are relevant to our experiences as well as yours.  (Phoenix has two seasons:  Hot and Hotter.)

 I also want to focus on Fall as more than just a word for this week's letter, so I will be incorporating some other Fall days into the next few months.  This week's Fall day will focus mostly on Falling Leaves.

For the rest of our week, we will celebrate our Flag, jump like Frogs, go Fishing, and talk about our friends and family.  Join in the fun!


MONDAY

MATERIALS
OR

PREPARATION
  • Pick which craft you will do, or do both.  Gather the items for the craft you've picked.  Print out the template, as needed.
  • Print out the Basket Leaf Sorting Sheet.  Cut out leaves in assorted colors, or purchase.  You can write numbers or letters on the leaves, if desired.
  • Print out and prepare any desired printables.
LESSON PLAN
  • Review A-E
  • Introduce the letter F
  • Focus on F is for Fall.
    • Explain to your child that the season just changed on Saturday and we are now in the Fall season!  This may be an easy concept for your child as he can feel the weather getting cooler and see the leaves changing colors and falling.  For others, like us, it may still be HOT and leaves don't change colors until January.  However, the calendar does say its Fall, and we do see pumpkins and apples, and Thanksgiving is coming soon, so we'll have fun with it anyway.  Today we are mostly going to focus on leaves; we will pick up some other fall themes through the next several weeks.
  • Make the Fall Button Branch and/or the Fingerprint Fall Tree Craft
    •  Follow the directions to make the crafts, as desired.
  • Play with the Leaf Sorting Sheet
    •  You can use this to sort the leaves by color.  You can also write numbers and letters on the leaves and have your child find the leaves with the numbers and letters that you call out.
  • Do desired printables.
 STORYTIME



TUESDAY

MATERIALS
  •  Items for Roll and Cover game, by The Preschool Toolbox
    • Printable
    • dice
    • bingo markers, marshmallows, cotton balls, something to cover the flags
PREPARATION
  • Gather items for American Flag with Glitter
    • Set up the cardboard as described in the blog post
  •  Gather items for Star and Flag Match
    • Make stars or purchase some at the Dollar Store
    • Purchase flag toothpicks, or cut some out of construction paper
    • Write letters and/or numbers on the stars and the flags.  The stars and the flags should contain the same letters or numbers.
  • Gather items for Craft Stick Puzzle
    • If you are going to pre-paint the puzzle, do it the night before so that it can dry.
  •  Gather items for Roll and Cover game
    • Print out the game
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter F.
  • Focus on the Flag
    • The children might remember our discussion about the flag and the Pledge of Allegiance during our first week of school.
    • Talk about the flag, and what it represents.  There are 50 stars to represent each state in the union and thirteen stripes to represent the first thirteen states.
  • Make the American Flag with Glitter
    • Follow the directions given to make this fun sparkly craft.  It might be a good idea to do this outside, weather permitting.
  •  Play Star and Flag Match
    • Write letters and numbers on the stars and the same ones on the flags. Have your child match each letter/number on the star to the same letter/number on the flag.
  • Put together the Craft Stick Puzzle
    • You can have your child paint this puzzle first, or you can pre-paint it the night before.
  •  Play the Roll and Cover game.
    • Give your child some dice.  Have them cover the number that they roll with a marker of some sort.
 STORYTIME



WEDNESDAY

MATERIALS
  • Items for Lilypad Hop
    • Green Construction Paper
    • Scissors
  • Items for Frogs on a Lilypad game, adapted from Teach Preschool
    • Green Construction Paper
    • Plastic Frogs (they sell these at Dollar Tree)
    • Dice
PREPARATION
  • Gather items for Lily Pad Hop
    • Cut lily pads from green construction paper
    • If desired, write letters and/or numbers on the lily pads
  •  Gather items for Frogs on a Lilypad game, adapted from Teach Preschool 
    • Use the lily pads from the Lily Pad Hop, or cut out more.
  •  Print out desired printables
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter F
  • Focus on F is for Frog
  • Play Lily Pad Hop
    • Scatter the lily pads around your living room floor.  Your child can pretend to be a frog and hop from pad to pad.
    • Make it a little more challenging by calling out a letter or number and having your child hop to that specific pad.
  •  Play the Frogs on a Lilypad game, adapted from Teach Preschool 
    • Give your child a lilypad, a dice or two, and at least six frogs.
    • Have your child roll the dice, then place the correct number of frogs on the lily pad.
  •  Do desired printables
STORYTIME



THURSDAY

MATERIALS
PREPARATION
  • Gather items for Go Fishing!
    • This will depend on what you choose to use for this activity
  •  Print and prepare desired printables
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter F
  • Focus on F is for Fish
    • If you can, visit the pet store and look at all the fish on display.  Fun and free field trip!
  • Play Go Fishing!
    • Let your child "fish", using whatever you have devised.
    • You can make this challenging by writing letters and numbers onto the fish and having your child try to catch a specific one.
    • Or, make it fun by putting different "surprises" onto the fish, like "get a chocolate chip", or commands, like "roll on the floor".
  • Do the Tissue Paper Fish Craft, from All Kids Network 
    • Remove the backing from the contact paper and place sticky-side-up on a flat surface.  Have your child place pieces of colored tissue paper onto the contact paper to make a pretty fish.
  • Do desired printables.
STORYTIME



FRIDAY

MATERIALS
  • Items for My Family Tree, by DLTK Bible
    • Template
    • printer
    • paper
    • scissors
    • something to color with (if using the B&W template)
    • glue
    • marker
    • OPTIONAL:  photos of the family members
  • Items for Friends Collage
    • Poster Board
    • Pictures of friends
PREPARATION
  •  Gather items for Friends Collage
    • Gather pictures of friends
  •  Print out desired printables
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter F
  • Focus on F is for Friends and Family
    • Talk with your child about the people in his life; who are his family members and who are his friends.
  • Make a Friends Collage
    • Attach the pictures of your child's friends to a poster board.
  • Have a Play Date with some friends, or get together with a family member!
  • Do any desired printables
STORYTIME

 


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