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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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Christmas Tree Rhyme

I found a cute little Christmas tree rhyme and created this printable to go with it to use. The rhyme isn't mine, don't really know who created it so if you know, please let me know so I can give credit. The images are mine and you are free to use them for personal use only.

5 Little Christmas Trees
5 little Christmas trees
standing all alone
feeling very sad
because they didn't have a home
the chop went the axe
and down went the tree
and it went home with a happy family.

(continue with 4, 3, 2, 1)

No little Christmas trees
standing all alone
Their hearts were very happy
'cuz they all found a home!

Please be sure to click on the image to open it in a new screen. Then right click and save. After we cut and glued ours, we "laminated" them with some packing tape to help them to last the entire season. Hope you like it!

Letter S

Been a while since I have shared our journey through the alphabet.  This week we are on Letter S

Which is basically a fist with your thumb held in front.  We are focusing on the sign language words sing, snake, sun, strong, and sister.  The color this week is brown, our number is five, and our shape is a rectangle.  Click on any of the words to visit Signing Savy and watch the video of how to make the sign.

Our Bible Story this week is about Samson.  We are reading from both the The Beginner's Bible  (p. 146) and My First Study Bible  (p. 106) as well as our Bible (Judges ch. 16). 

The song/rhyme this week is the 5 Little Turkeys.  You can find the song and a free printable to go with it here.  When Princess A and I do songs like this we count up to the new number, i.e. "one waddled off and then there were four.  1, 2, 3, 4 little turkeys....".  This helps her to review her counting skills. 

This weeks Bible verse is Isaiah 55:6

Math:

I decided to introduce Princess A to a bar graph this week.  We used the Pepperidge Farm Colors goldfish.  I poured a handful out on the table and then had her sort them according to color.  After we sorted them we counted them and then colored the bar graph for each color.  Using the bar graph we determined which color we had the most of and which we had the least of.  Then she got to eat her fish!  You could use this opportunity to introduce the sign for swim if you wanted to.  You can download my free printables for this here.

We also sang the 5 little turkey song a LOT.  Once she got over the eating turkey thing (which actually ended up about eating the stick turkeys we made and not about eating real turkeys once she talked about it!) she really liked this one!

Language:

Princess A is getting pretty good at recognizing letters so this week I decided to do a letter hunt with her.  Print out the page here and place it in a plastic sleeve protector.  Then have your child use a dry erase marker to find all of the capital and lower case S's in the poem.  Read it together. 

If your child is up for it you could also do this hidden S worksheet together.  Princess A really enjoys finding the hidden letter and this is usually the activity we do to introduce the new letter.



click the image above to enlarge it and then print the image

Please see the widget at the end of this post for some other suggested books for the letter S

Science:



Take your little one outside after dark and look for stars.  Introduce the North Star and maybe even identify some constellations together.  Make your own constellation projector.  Visit Imagination Soup for instructions.  Don't forget to remind your little one that God created all of the stars (Gen. 1:16) and that God has a name for each of them (Psalm 147:4)

Social Studies:

Since one of our words this week is sister, I chose to focus on family this week.  We talked about what a family is and what our responsibilities are to our family.  I chose not to introduce specific Bible verses for these, but I made sure to tell her things such as, "God tells us that we should obey our moms and dads" and "God tells us that families take care of each other".  Use your best judgement as to what your child is ready for.  Then we drew a picture of our family.  Let your child lead in this activity.  If he/she adds people that are not in your biological family it presents an opportunity to talk about God's family.  If he or she leaves out a sibling, then you can talk about the different people that make up a biological family.  Lots of room here for you to discuss.  You might want to date and save this picture as well as record your child's thoughts on who was included and why, i.e. grandma is in our family because I love her.

Art:

Finger paint.  Let your fingers slide through the paint.  Talk about how slippery it is.  If you don't already have finger paint here is a great recipe:

in a 2 qt sauce pan put 1/3 cup cornstarch.  Slowly stir in 2 cups cold water while stirring.  Bring to a boil over low heat.  Stir constantly until it thickens and becomes almost clear.  Pour into small containers and add food coloring to each container.  Stir to blend.  Allow to cool completely.  Add about a teaspoon of liquid dish soap to each container to help prevent it from staining.  Stir.

Want to avoid the mess?  Get a gallon size ziplock bag.  With the bag laying flat place a dollop of each color in a corner (red in one corner, blue in another etc).  Close the bag almost all the way.  Insert a straw into the open area and suck as much air as you can out.  Seal the bag.  Tape it closed to prevent little fingers from opening it.  Now let your little one squish and slide the colors together.  Be sure to talk about what you observe when two colors mix.

Phys. Ed.

Here is a great way to review colors, shapes, letters, numbers, just about anything.  This week we are reviewing shapes.  I drew a different shape that we have studied on several pieces of paper.  (Circle on one, triangle on another, rectangle on another etc).  If you want these to last then laminate them.  Set the papers in a circle on the floor and then turn on your little ones favorite music.  Stop the music periodically and have your little one tell you what shape he/she is standing on.  You can alter this by changing the pace every time you stop.  One time you tiptoe, another you hop, another you walk, etc. 

Hope you and your little one enjoy the letter S activities.  Have any other ideas?  I would love it if you would share them in the comments!

 

Thanksgiving Printable

Princess A loves all of the counting songs she hears.  5 Little Monkeys, 5 Little Pumpkins etc.  So for Thanksgiving I searched for a turkey one and came across a cute little poem/song

Five little turkeys standing by the door,

one waddled off and then there were four.

Four little turkeys under a tree

one waddled off and then there were three

Three little turkeys with nothing to do

one waddled off and then there were two

Two little turkeys in the noon day sun

one waddled off and then there was one

One little turkey better run away

for soon will come Thanksgiving day!

Now, I have to be honest here.  Princess A didn't understand why the turkey had to run away so I explained that a lot of families eat turkey for Thanksgiving.  I honestly didn't think it would upset her since her daddy hunts and she has been exposed to the whole process of "what a cute deer, can I pet it?" to butchering, to "Daddy, this deer tastes yummy".  Turkeys however, are a different story for her!  She got so upset and repeatedly informed me, "that's not nice" and "that will hurt the turkey".  Fortunately I am more of a ham gal.  Just have to be sure to avoid pig songs that end with the pig on the table!

I decided to turn this into a little puppet action.  Wish my camera wasn't on the fritz and I could show you pictures, but it is.  So you just have to imagine cute little turkeys on top of popsicle sticks.  And seeing as how all of these little rhymes are floating in my head I decided to make it easy on myself and put each line on the back of a turkey so I didn't have to memorize another song!  They are super simple to put together and only require a printer, a glue stick and 5 popsicle sticks.  If you want to make them last you can use some packing tape or contact paper to "laminate" them after you put them together.

You can click here to download the free pdf.  Would love it if you left me a comment if you decide to use this!

Summer Activities

School is almost out for the year for the big kids (H and J Sunflower) which means I now will have THREE kids to keep entertained in some sort of productive, educational, and meaningful way.  Fortunately I stumbled upon this awesome idea from the Happy Home Fairy:

The Happy Home Fairy has shared not only the printable wrap for your can, but sheets with some fun Summer activities to print as well.  I love that each activity has a "DO" item and a "SNAP IT" challenge where you take a picture of what you do and keep a summer album.  There are home, in the city, and community service activities included.  So check out the What Can I Do? Can, find a can around your house and make your own!