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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Monday, September 17, 2012

It IS Important

I'm sorry that I don't have a lesson plan ready for you today.  I don't know exactly what happened, but I got very behind on the blog last week (life, I guess).  I promise that I will have it up by Wednesday at the latest.

I do have something to leave with you today, though:

Recently, due to a list of events that I won't go into here, I've been kind of thinking about the possibility of going back to work:
  • Just putting Tyler into a public school; maybe he'll get the therapy and such that he needs (ha, ha)
  • Just putting Jason into K4, which seems to be the trend this year.  What if I don't and he's behind the rest of his classmates next year?
  • Just putting Justin into daycare. 
  • After all, I'm college educated and have great experience.  I should be able to get a good job and help with our rising expenses.
While in my heart I know the truth, these thoughts do run through my mind.

This morning my boys and I were sitting in chapel, waiting as the student body filed in.  My daughter's teacher stopped and leaned towards me.

"I just want to say 'Thank you' for being a stay-at-home mom.  It really is important."

I was very surprised and just said an awed "uh, thanks!" as she walked away.

Then I just closed my eyes and thanked God for a word fitly spoken.

I don't know why she thought to say that to me today, but it was the right words at the right time.

Being a stay-at-home mom IS important.
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Sunday, September 16, 2012

Following the Plan Friday (er, Sunday): The Letter D

We had a great week of D projects!

The favorite by far was the Dino Dig.  I put sand into plastic shoe boxes from Dollar Tree, then buried dog bones, also from Dollar Tree.  The weather was unusually cool, so we were able to play on the front porch.  The boys had a great time digging in the sand.




On duck day we went to a nearby park to feed the ducks.  There were over 30 ducks there and they were not shy!!!  Forget the idyllic "standing on the bank throwing bread into the river".  We stood right next to our van and threw the bread while the ducks quacked all around us.  None of them attacked, thankfully.  Quite an experience.  Picture taking was impossible.

On Dog day the boys made dog ears, dog tags and tails.  We played "obedience school" and the boys LOVED the Feed the Dog game.  I wrote letters on the "bones" and said "Okay, feed the dogs all the As".  It was fun!

The boys also enjoyed painting dump trucks on Dump Truck Day.




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Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Dealing with Don'tWannaItis, Part 2

Last week I told you that I suffer from don'twannaitis.

I also shared one of the cures that I have found for it:  curling up on the bed and taking a short nap.

Today I want to share the other thing that has helped me to get things done when I have don'twannaitis:  just doing the next thing.

I always know what the next thing is because I have set a routine in place.  I know what load of laundry I'm washing, I know what room in the house needs to be cleaned, and I know which household prep item has to be done.  I have a menu for dinner and I know what days we go to church and I will need to iron clothes.

I don't like schedules, because I have found that life doesn't always hold true to a specific time frame.  But I love routines, knowing what is going to happen next.

When I am feeling tired and sluggish, it quickly leads to being overwhelmed.  I can't tell you how many time I've stood in the middle of a messy room and thought to myself "I don't even know where to start".

When this happens, I stop, breath and think:  What day is this?  What do I have planned for today?"  Then, I can go and do it, knowing that item is what my next thing is.

Knowing what the next thing is helps to alleviate any guilt, helps you to focus on one specific thing, and gives a sense of accomplishment when you are finished with that item and you know that you accomplished exactly what you were supposed to.

Next week I'll share what some of my routines are.
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Monday, September 10, 2012

Lesson Plan for Week of September 17: The Letter E

Welcome to the letter E.  Wow, we're five letters into this already!  Can I confess that I had a hard time finding five things that started with the letter E to focus on this week?  And they don't all start with the same sound :(  Hopefully I don't confuse the kids too much.

We will start the week off studying our Eyes and Ears.  Then we will talk about Eggs.  This one will be fun if your kids like Hide and Seek.  Wednesday we will focus on Elephants.  Thursday we will release lots of Energy by Exercising.  Finally, we will turn to God's word and the story of Queen Esther.  Hope you have fun!
 
MONDAY

MATERIALS
  • Children's Bible
 PREPARATION
  • Gather items for Elmo Cut and Paste Face Activity
    • Print out Elmo Face Printable
    • If you are going to cut it out before, do that now
  • Gather items for Eyes on E Activity
    • Draw a block E on a piece of paper
  •  Gather items for Listening Ears Craft
    • Print out a left ear and a right ear (I had a hard time finding matching ear images, so you may need to photoshop one)
  •  Print out Coloring Page
LESSON PLAN
  • Review letters A-D
  • Introduce the letter E
    • We are going to focus on the short e sound, like in egg, however some of these words do use the long E or other sounds
  • Focus on E is for Eyes and Ears
    • Talk with your child about their face.  Let them look at themselves in the mirror and point out their eyes and ears.  Make silly faces in the mirror.
    • Talk about the function of the eyes and ears.
    • Who made the eyes and ears?  God!  The Bible says that we are made in his image.
  • Do the Elmo Cut and Paste Face Activity
    • Have your child put together Elmo's face by gluing the pieces of Elmo's face onto a piece of paper.
  • Do the Eyes on E Activity
    • Let your child look through old magazines and cut out pictures of people's eyes.
    • Have the child glue the pictures to the letter E.
  • Do the Listening Ears Craft
    • Have your child color the ears.
    • Attach the ears to the paper plate.
    • Cut the paper plate in half.
    • Attach the pipe cleaner to each half of the plate.
  •  Color the "I Am Thankful" pictures
STORYTIME



TUESDAY

MATERIALS
PREPARATION
  • Gather Items for Egg Hunt
    • Print out and laminate eggs, if needed
  •  Gather Items for Egg Nest Craft
    • Draw a nest outline on a piece of construction paper
    • Draw egg shapes on another piece of paper.  Cut out, or have your child do it.
    • Cut out a beak for the bird
  •  Print out worksheets
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter E
  • Focus on E is for Egg
    • Hide plastic eggs or paper eggs around the room and send your child on an egg hunt.  Then, let them hid the eggs and you find them.  My boys loved this when we did it with bears a few weeks ago.
    • Talk about where eggs come from, the different animals that lay eggs, the different sizes (robin eggs versus dinosaur eggs), different colors.  Talk about how we cook with eggs, whether or not your child likes eggs, what dishes have eggs in them.
  •  Make an Eggs Nest, from Ceres Childcare and Preschool
    • Give your child a length of brown yarn.  Have them cut it into pieces and glue it into the nest outline.
    • Allow your child to cut out the eggs, if desired
    • Glue the eggs into the nest.
    • Add some feathers, eyes and a beak to make a mama bird.
  • Do Printables listed above
    •  The Egg Color and Match Game can be laminated and cut out and then used as a Memory game. 
STORYTIME



WEDNESDAY

MATERIALS
PREPARATION
  • Gather items for Letter E Elephant Craft
    • Print out printable
    • Cut out the pieces, if desired, or have your child do it during the craft
  • Print out Elephant Tracing Page
  • Print out any desired printables
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter E
  • Focus on E is for Elephant
    • Does your child like Elephants?  Talk about all things Elephant
STORYTIME



THURSDAY

MATERIALS
PREPARATION
  • Prepare for any activities that you are going to do.  Refer to the websites that you take activities from for instructions
  • Print off any worksheets
LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter E
  • Focus on E is for Energy and Exercise
    • My kids have tons of energy; how about yours?  Today we are going to focus some of that energy into doing fun exercises.  Talk with your child about the importance of exercise and how energy works.
  • Do lots of exercising!
    • I'm going to let you decide based on what supplies you have, the space you have, and whether you can go outside or not (I'm praying it's finally cool enough for us to go outside!).  Set up obstacle courses, prepare games, or whatever you desire.  If you don't have space and the weather is nice, set up a play date at the park.
  • Do the What is Being Active Worksheet, and any other desired worksheets.

STORYTIME



FRIDAY

MATERIALS
PREPARATION
  • Gather items to tell the story of Esther
    • Print out the puppet template from lds.org
    • Color as desired
    • Laminate the page
    • Cut out each figure
    • Attach the figures to craft sticks
  • Gather items to make a crown and a royal scepter
  • Gather items for Praying Hands craft
    • Print out a Bible Verse
  • Print out the Esther Coloring Page
 LESSON PLAN
  • Review the letter E
  • Focus on E is for Esther
    • Ask your child if they know the story of Queen Esther.
  •  Read the Story of Queen Esther to your child.  You can use the Bible, a Children's Bible or a Printed Story.
    • Use the stick puppets to act out the story.
  •  Make a Royal Crown
    • Using construction paper, cut out a crown to fit your child's head.  You may need to combine more than one page.
    • Allow your child to decorate the crown.
    • They can pretend to be Queen Esther or King Xerxes.
  • Make a Royal Scepter
    • Decorate an empty paper towel tube
    • Attach a small ball, or a ball of paper, or something from your collection to the end.
    • Pretend to be King Xerxes allowing Queen Esther to come into his throne room.
  • Make Praying Hands Craft, adapted from Sowing Mustard Seeds
    • Fold a piece of construction paper in half
    • Cut out the paper in the shape of a hand (maybe use your hand as a template), being careful to place the outside of the hand right at the folded edge.
    • Trace your child's hand onto the larger hand.
    • Open up the linked hands and paste a Bible Verse about prayer into it.
    • Talk with your child about the importance of prayer.
  • Color the Esther Coloring Page
STORYTIME

 

See how this week went for us by clicking here

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Friday, September 7, 2012

Following the Plan Friday: The Letter C

Welcome to another addition of Following the Plan Friday.  This week we focused on the letter C.

Well, actually, we started C last week.

Monday, a week ago, we did our Cats theme.

Oh, let me tell you this:  Jason had a blast cutting animal pictures out of magazines.  See, two weeks ago I was prepping for the week's lessons.  The kids were playing and doing various things.  I started cutting animal pictures out of magazines (I knew there was a reason for those free magazine subscriptions!).  Jason asked me what I was doing, and then asked if he could do it.  He absolutely loved finding animals, calling them out to me, and cutting them out.  It was a wonderful, impromptu learning experience and connecting time for us.  I will definitely be adding more of this type of thing into our days.

So, Monday we sorted cats from other animals and did a bunch of Cat Printables.

Monday was also the first day of school for my daughter, so we began our new schedule of getting up and out the door in the morning do drop her off at school and to participate in chapel.  You can read about our new routine and what our days look like in my Day in the Life post.

Tuesday we had to stop at Walmart on the way home from the school and so we were late getting back and starting school.  Tuesday night is our mid-week service at church, and I knew that I needed to get things ready for my mom's arrival the next day, so I scratched the plans to paint with cars and have a carwash and instead, gave the boys the cars and some blocks.  They had fun making structures for their cars to drive around.  We didn't get any more school done that day :(

The boys playing with cars and blocks.

Wednesday my mom came and we didn't get any school done that day either.

By Thursday I had decided to scrap the week and start again the next Monday.  We had a blast visiting with my mom.

So, school began again this past Tuesday.  I picked up the Cars theme again and we did the painting with cars activity.  My boys loved this and it looked so cool.  I used black poster board and started out with white paint.  We then added yellow and purple.  The boys also enjoyed going into the bathtub for a "car wash".
Jason also painted the cars.



Jason also did his printables.  I was amazed to discover that somewhere along the line Jason learned his numbers.
My mom said he looks asleep here, but he's just concentrating really hard :)

Wednesday we had another 4-year-old join us for the day.  I held off on Preschool until Justin went down for a nap, then I had both 4-year-old boys do the lesson.  They breezed through my plans and wanted more, so I printed off twelve pages of tracing.  They shared and stayed busy for 1.5 hours!!  It was great!

Trace and Color Cow
Thursday I borrowed a Candy Land game from a friend.  Once the boys saw it, they refused to wait until the next day to play it, so we switched and did our Candy lesson instead of Caterpillars.  Jason has loved playing Candy Land and is a good sport even when he gets sent all the way back to the cupcake!

I would place a number on the dish and he had to add the correct number of candies to the bowl
Color by number candy dish
Friday we had furniture delivered (hurray!), so we just did an abbreviated lesson while waiting for our new table.  The boys glued pom-poms onto a C to make caterpillars.

Justin's Caterpillar
Our favorite books this week were If You Give a Cat a Cupcake and Cows to the Rescue

They hated It Looked Like Spilt Milk.

What'd you do this week?
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