Letter M preschool Unit

 We are starting serious homeschooling this year. Call it a trial run to see if this is what we truly want to do for elementary school. My heart says home school for sure, but I wonder how it is going to work. I have yet to be able to find a home school group to try and get involved in. So enough ranting. Here is what we did to learn about the letter M.

Our Bible story this week is Adam and Eve.  We are using The Beginner's Bible, My First Study Bible: Exploring God's Word On My Own! and All-Time Favorite Bible Stories Old Testament.  For our Bible study portion we read the story daily.  Then we choose an activity from the list below.

• retell the story in your own words
• draw a picture of the story
• act out the story
• use story sequencing cards (cards for Adam and Eve can be found here)  

Our Bible verse for the week is:

 Math:
This year we are using pipe cleaner beads to help with math.  These are super simple to make and even easier to use.  Cut a standard pipe cleaner in half.  Use a 1 by 2 inch label or sheet of paper.  Fold it in half sandwiching one end of the pipe cleaner between the paper.  If using labels smooth down.  If using paper be sure to glue the inside together.  One one side write a number.  On the other spell the number.  If you want these to last I suggest covering the paper portion with a sturdy packing tape to act as a laminate.

To use simple give your child one, a few or all of the pipe cleaners and a bowl of beads.  Instruct him/her to place the correct number of beads on the pipe cleaner.  Be sure to have your child read both the number and the word.  This is a great activity to use as independent work. 

This year we are also introducing an abacus.  This week simply ask your child to show certain numbers on the abacus from 1 to 9.  This will help him/her to become familiar with it.

We will also be learning about nickels.  I found a set of large paper coins at the Dollar Tree to help with identification.  Discuss color and size compared to other coins (bigger/smaller, same/different).  If your child is already familiar with the concept of a penny being worth 1 cent, introduce that a nickel is worth 5 pennies.  We use real money and I ask questions such as: how many nickels would be the same as 10 pennies?  If I had 4 nickels, how many pennies would I need to have the same amount of money?

Language Arts
Princess already recognizes all of her letters so we are now working on phonemic awareness (letters make sounds).  Go on a sound hunt.  Set a timer and see how many things you can find that begin with the "m" sound.  (It would probably help to strategically place some things for your child to find such as a map, a toy mouse, etc)

Practice writing your child's name, be sure to emphasize that only the first letter is capitalized.

We will be using the Find the Letter M and the Get Ready for Reading:  All about the Letter M worksheets.  I place these in a plastic page protector and we use a dry erase marker to complete them.  Once the current week is over they all go in a folder that the child can use at any time.

We also made this really cute Mm is for Mountains picture:

All you need to do is trace a large capital M on a piece of green construction paper.  All your child to cut out the M.  While they are doing that you cut out some "snow" from white paper, 3 tree trunks (one small, one medium and one large) and some 3 green, wavy circles (again one small, medium and large).  Once your child has cut out the M allow them to glue it to some blue construction paper.  Then ask your child to find the small (medium, large) tree trunk and glue it to the paper.  Repeat for the green leaves.  Glue on the snow.

Science:

This week we are discussing our senses.  Talk about what they are (sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell) We did a senses experiment.
You will need:  5 plastic eggs, a small amount of gummy bears, mini marshmallows, dry beans, a cotton ball, and a few nickels.

Place each item into its own egg (beans in 1 egg, nickels in another etc).  Close the eggs and number them 1-5.  Print the page below and cut in half to have two sets of 5 ovals (one with numbers and one with pictures)

 

Explain to your child that we are going to use all of our sense except sight.  Your child can smell the egg, touch the egg, shake and listen to the egg.  (even eat what is in some of the eggs at the end!)  Have your child guess what is in each egg.  (If you choose to explain that this is a hypothesis, a guess based upon all of the information that they can gather at the time.)  Have him/her cut out the pictures and glue them to the numbered egg that they think the item is in.  For example if they think that the nickels are in egg number 4, then glue the pictures of the nickels to the egg beside number 4.  Once all of the pictures have been glued, open the eggs to see if they were right.  How did they know?  What made it more difficult to guess?

Social Studies

This week will will be learning about the mailman.  Talk about what a mailperson does.  Different ways they do it (some walk, some drive from mailbox to mailbox, some only work in the post office.)  Visit the post office.  Learn about how to address a letter.  How does the mailman know where to deliver mail (the address on the letter).  Why do they need to know where it came from (in case it gets lost.)  Talk about why we put stamps on our letters (it tells the mailman we have paid to have it delivered.)  Write a letter and mail it.

Phys. Ed.

 

Nothing planned other than outside time while the weather is still warm.

Letter U

Just wanted to share a few things we are doing this week.  We are learning about the letter U so I made this hidden letter page because I couldn't find one online.

 

It is a little different than previous ones I have made in that there are a lot of different letters.  Rather than coloring all of the uppercase letters one color and the lowercase letters a different color to make the letter pop this one only colors the letter of the week to make the letter pop.  I thought it would be to difficult to differentiate between upper and lower case U's.  When completed you can also count how many of the other letters are on the page also.

We are working on number six this week so I created this to put on our learning wall as well.  Print both pictures, have your child color the umbrellas, cut out the boxes and glue them in the correct spots on the first page.

Since today is Librarian appreciation day we are making a card for our local librarian and delivering it to her.  We will be talking about how a librarian is one of our community helpers this week for social studies.

For science we are having a seed race.  I dampened a paper towel, put it in a clear baggie and taped it to our window.  We then put in a navy bean on one side and a pea on the other and labeled the bag.  We were fortunate enough to get an end roll from our local newspaper so we used some of that to create a Seed Science Observer notebook.  Simply cut out several 4 by 5 squares and staple them together to create a book.  Let your little one illustrate the cover.  On the first page I asked Princess A to make a guess about which one would grow first and recorded her answer.  She then drew a picture of what we did.  Over the next several weeks we will observe and record our experiment in the book.  When the plants are big enough we will move them to a pot or into our garden.  Be sure at the end to go back and see if the hypothesis (guess) was right.

For our character training we will be learning to be content by controlling our "wanter" (that thing in all of us that makes us want).  Our Bible verse will be Proverbs 21:26  We will be using a lesson from Ministry to Children titled Manna not Meatballs and talking about how the Israelites did or did not control their wanter.

This week we will be reading

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