Letter lesson - K

Princess A and I are now working on the Letter K

The sign words we are focusing on for letter K are king, kangaroo, kitchen, kid, and kiss.  Just click the word to view a video of how to sign the word.  The color is pink simply because the sign for pink is a K drawn down from the lips.  (K is an inverted P and P is for pink)

During this week we will be reading about King David from My First Study Bible: Exploring God's Word On My Own! in the stories God Chose His Own Man, I Was a Giant Killer, and I Want to Worship God.  (Be sure and review the sign for king and you can even teach the sign for God if you haven't already).

This weeks song is I wish I were a baby Kangaroo sung to the tune of If your happy and you know it

I wish I were a baby kangaroo

I wish I were a baby kangaroo

for if I were a roo

I'd hop right up to you

I wish I were a baby kangaroo

(from www.dltk-teach.com)

Be sure to hop around (working on gross motor skills) while singing!

And this weeks Bible verse is 1 Corinthians 8:1b

Math:

Since it is spring around here we are spending some time outside counting leaves on some of our seedlings.  (see the science section)  If it is later in the year for you, you could count the petals on some of the flowers, lay a hula hoop in your yard and count all of the bugs you find in that area (or all the rocks, or all the clovers, or all the fallen leaves, etc).  We also put a bird feeder in the tree in front of our learning window.  I researched what kind of birds were common to our area and chose those that were easiest to identify (robins, bluejays and cardinals).  I printed out pictures of each and pasted them onto a piece of paper.  This paper hangs by our window so when Princess A sees one of the birds she puts a mark by it's picture.  At the end of the week count how many of each she has seen and then graph the totals. 

Language:

Princess A LOVED watching this video with Kermit teaching how to make the letter K using her finger and air writing.

Drawing letters in the air is a great way to practice writing letters.  Involving the whole body aids in memory retention.  Use this letter K picture and have your child glue beans to it in the shape of the K.  (When done, count the beans for a quick math activity)   Since we still have a ton of plastic Easter eggs left, I decided to put them to use.  On the top half of the egg use a permanent marker or stickers and attach/write an uppercase letter.  On the bottom half attach/write the lowercase letter.  (Depending upon the age and ability of your child you can make sure the top and bottom are the same color or you can mix them up.)  Scatter the tops and bottoms on the floor and have your child match them up.  Again, use your judgement as to how many letters to use for this game.  You can also use the eggs another way.  Sit with your child and go through a magazine.  Have your child identify pictures of items beginning with the /k/ sound.  Cut them out and place them in your egg.  Don't want to do the eggs?  Create a K collage instead.  See below for some suggested books to read.

Science:

Get in the kitchen with your child, after all it is one of our words this week!  Preschoolers can help scoop flour into a measuring cup (be sure to count how many it takes), stir, dump, pour, etc.  A lot of times they will even eat what they make (a great way to introduce new foods).  Be sure to talk about how things change when you cook them. (The batter was runny and after baking it stays together.)  Crack and egg and show them how it is runny, then fry, boil, or scramble it and see how it changes.  Make sure to encourage your child to make LOTS of observations and even to hypothesize about how/if what you are making will change.  

Since it is spring here, we also did a seed project.  You need a ziptop sandwich bag, paper towel, bean seed (we used a lima bean).  Be sure to use a dried bean seed.  Wet the paper towel and squeeze until it is just damp.  Fold and place the towel in the sandwich bag.  Place a couple of beans in the bag on top of the towel.  Remove as much air as possible and seal the bag closed. We hung our seed bag in our learning window so we could observe it every day.  Things to point out: the roots always grow down and the stem always grows up.  

Social Studies:

Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley?  Basically Flat Stanley is a paper doll that you mail off to someone.  While they have him they keep a journal of sorts about what they do together.  They then mail the original person a postcard of where he is and then they mail him and the journal off to someone else who repeats the process.  At a given time the journal and Stanley are mailed back to the original person.  Why not do a Flat Kate? Chose a girl coloring page and print out your Flat Kate so your child can color it.  Hit up the Dollar Tree for some mini composition notebooks to use as your journal.  Write up your explanation of what is going on and mail it all out.  (You can even pass her around the church or your local preschool group if you would rather.)  When you get Kate back you can show your child where she has been on a map.

Art:

This one takes a little preparation.  Buy some white beans (navy beans, lima beans etc).  Divide them up into 6 different baggies.  Add a few drops of red liquid food color to one, blue to another, yellow to another, mix yellow and blue to make green in another, red and blue to make purple in another, and red and yellow to make orange in another.  Shake to coat the seeds.  Then spread them out and allow them to dry.  Finally, let your child use them to create pictures.  Simply glue them on to paper.  Some of the stained glass coloring sheets would be great to use for this.

Decorate a crown that a king might wear.

Phys. Ed.

KICK!  Play kickball together.  Set up a goal and practice kicking the ball into it.  

And that is all for letter K this week.  Hope you found some ideas to help you along!