Week 3--Thursday

We don't do "school" every day, so this week we finished in four days instead of five since it was the end of the week and I just wanted to be done with it.

* NUMBER 3 - add to poster along with three small triangles (our shape of the week), add stickers to counting book, count beads into ice cube tray, take one bead out and have Eli finding the missing spot, "slap" game (this time I added a new element to the game: Eli slapped for number 3's, I slapped for number 2's, AND we raced to slap for the SkipBo cards.)

10 Commandment Train - Commandment 3


Handwriting practice: letter C tracer page

* Bible hero: Caleb. Read story. Add picture. Words--courageous, determined, faith

--Dinner break--

THEME

Book: Ten Cows to Texas by Peggy Mercer

Fingerplay: This Little Cow

This little cow eats grass.
This little cow eats hay.
This little cow drinks water.
And this little cow does noting
But lie and sleep all day.

Activity: color by number picture (turn any coloring page into a color-by-number by just writing numbers onto the picture and adding a color code)
Activity: homemade farm puzzle again (see Monday's lessons)

finished learning poster

Week 3--Wednesday

LETTER C - talk about sound, look at collage (we'd already made this one awhile ago), find more letter C's to add. Hannah glues scraps to letter outline. (actually she glues where I draw small stars and then I end up sticking the paper on. So don't be fooled by how nice it might look, because I did help.)
Activity: trace letter C with finger, then decorate with do-a-dot markers
Heavenly helpers handwriting practice for Eli. Hannah colors letter C coloring page.

THEME
review everything on poster first

Book: Sailor Moo Cow at Sea by Lisa Wheeler

Poem: The Cow by Ann Taylor

Thank you, pretty cow, that made
Pleasant milk to soak my bread
Every day and every night,
Warm, and fresh, and sweet, and white

Do not chew the hemlock rank,
Growing on the weedy bank
But the yellow cowslips eat;
They perhaps will make it sweet.

Where the purple violet grows,
Where the bubbling water flows,
Where the grass is fresh and fine,
Pretty cow, go there to dine.

* Nursery Rhyme:

Hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle
The jumped over the moon
The little dog laughed to see such a sport
The dish ran away with the spoon

Craft: cow paper craft


* = add to learning poster

Week 3--Tuesday

* SHAPE: Triangle. Add shape to learning poster. Take a house walk finding triangles. Workbook page. Had I thought about it ahead of time, I could've taken these pictures first and then had Eli try find what they are pictures of. Kind of a treasure hunt game.
Triangles worksheet: I put together some pictures of road signs and had Eli circle the ones that are triangle-shaped. Throughout the week we've had fun finding them when we're driving.
Activity: Homemade triangle puzzle for Eli. I just used two triangle blocks, positioning them in all kinds of different ways, traced around them, and colored. Then Eli figures how to turn and flip the triangles to match the picture. (I made this a few weeks ago and it was a perfect time to pull it out again) Hannah just plays with remaining blocks.
THEME

Review vocabulary word and facts.

Book: Cock-a-Moo-Moo by Juliet Dallas Conte

Poem: The Purple Cow by Gelett Burgess

I never saw a purple cow.
I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

Song: The Cow by Katrina Lybbert (tune: The Farmer in the Dell)

The cow wakes up at dawn,
The cow wakes up at dawn,
Moo, moo, a great big yawn,
The cow wakes up at dawn.

The farmer milks the cow,
The farmer milks the cow,
Moo, moo, be careful now,
The farmer milks the cow.

The cow eats up her hay,
The cow eats up her hay,
Moo, moo, O happy day,
The cow eats up her hay.

The cow plays with her calf,
The cow plays with her calf,
Moo, moo, they sing and laugh,
The cow plays with her calf.

The cow and calf now sleep,
The cow and calf now sleep,
Quiet please, don't make a peep,
The cow and calf now sleep.

Bible story: read about Pharaoh's dream

Activity: find all the skinny cows, worksheet.

Week 3--Monday

* THEME: C is for Cow. (add letter C and cow picture to learning poster)

* Vocabulary word: mammal--a type of animal that makes milk

Cow facts:

• An adult male cow is called a bull.
• An adult female cow is called a cow.
• A baby cow is called a calf.
• Cows eat corn, hay, barley, grass, and wheat.
• Cows give us milk, meat, and leather.
• Milk can be made into other dairy products like butter, cheese, and yogurt.

Book: The Big Red Barn

Poem: Little Calf by Katrina Lybbert

"Good morning, little calf," gentle mother said,
"It's time to get up from your sweet hay filled bed."
Little calf jumped, stamped his feet, swished his tail,
And followed his mother past a shiny milk pail.

Out into the backyard, holding his head high,
Little calf looked up to the blue, blue sky,
Birds flying past chirped a joyful song,
Little calf smiled, and felt happy all day long.

Song: Old McDonald Had a Farm

...and on his farm he had a bull...with a moo, moo here...(make the sound deep and loud)
...and on his farm he had a cow...with a moo, moo here...(make the sound high and loud)
...and on his farm he had a calf...with a moo, moo here...(make the sound little and soft)

Activity: farm animal "puzzle". Make your own puzzle. I printed and colored this picture, cut it apart randomly, and let Eli put it back together. Warning: do NOT try to do this with a Hannah around! Since the pieces don't actually lock together, it doesn't take much for it to get all messed apart again. It works for Eli though, and he had lots of fun doing it again and again!
* Memory verse: Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind to one another."

Memory verse song by me (tune: "Around the Mulberry Bush")

Ephesians four verse thirty two
Be kind to one another
Share God's love with everyone
Be kind to one another.

Craft: I just printed a plain cow coloring page and then had the kids sponge paint black spots on it.
* = things that go on learning poster

Week 2--FRIDAY

Review last week's poster.

Review everything on learning poster and 2nd commandment.

THEME

Book: Butterfly by Mick Inkpen

Poems/Songs--repeat any favorites from previous days

* Add butterfly and poem to learning poster.

The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled upon a leaf.
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell asleep.
While she was sleeping,
She dreamed that she could fly.
And later when she woke up,
She was a butterfly!

* Bible hero: Bartimaeus. Read flash card (I got a Bible heroes card set at the Dollar Store for $1 the other day). Then read story printout. Add Bartimaeus picture to poster along with word FAITH. Read Bartimaeus poem from Bible book. (I found this cute old book at Goodwill once for only 99 cents, and I love it!) How can we have faith like Bartimaeus did? When we're hurt or sad, we can have faith that God will help us. The Bible tells us that God works all things for good and for His glory. Read What is Faith? happy day book (ours is the old version though)

Share our learnings: Draw outline of a butterfly. Let kids water color paint it. After it dries then write text: God made you as beautiful as a butterfly! And mail to Grandma!

The first one Eli painted he kept painting in the same spot too much until it was bleeding through the paper. So I explained that I wanted him to paint on new spots each time, and he did such a great job! Beautiful butterfly!

Learning poster at the end of the week:

Week 2--THURSDAY

* Introduce NUMBER 2--add sticker to counting book, number games...

Activity: Part one, Eli counts two beads into ice cube tray spots. Part two, secretly add a third bead to one of the spots and have Eli find it.

Game: A new game I made up, "Slap Jack". Using our SkipBo cards I flip pretty quickly through the cards and when Eli sees a "2" he slaps it and gets to keep the card. In the end we count how many he got and play again. (by having him keep the number 2 cards I could then not use the entire stack of SkipBo cards. I could just use a small stack of the other number cards) The second time we played it, then I slapped for number 1's while Eli slapped for number 2's. He loved it.Add to 10 Commandments Train--Commandment 2THEME

Book: The Butterfly Garden by Else Holmelund Minarik

Song: The Life of a Butterfly (tune: "Skip to my Lou")

I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

Now all together, let's do all three!
A caterpillar, a chrysalis, a butterfly, three!
Move your body like this with me,
The life of a butterly, darlin'!

Craft: footprint butterflies and decorate--trace feet: left foot for right butterfly wing, right foot for left butterfly wing.

Eli's creation

I actually did my own to ease my temptation to help Eli too much

* = add to learning poster

Week 2--WEDNESDAY

Introduce Letter B--sound. We've already made a collage for this letter before, so find more letter B's to add. Hannah glues scraps onto big letter B. Heavenly helper's workbook page.
THEME
Review what's on learning poster so far.

Book: The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Poem: untitled

Let's go to sleep," the little caterpillar said,
As they tucked themselves into their beds.
They will awaken by and by,
And each one will be a lovely butterfly.
~Author Unknown

Song: The Caterpillar Song (tune: "I'm a Little Teapot") I had a hard time fitting this words to this tune, but we went with it anyway.

Once I was a caterpillar
crawling on the ground.
Then I spun a chrysalis,
and wrapped it all around.
Then one day the sun shone,
and warmed me all inside,
Slowly slowly I emerged,

I could no longer hide.
I soaked in the sunshine
for a long long while,
Then I tried my brand new wings,
And it made me smile!

Now I'm a little butterfly,
colorful and bright,
You might see me if you look
outside when it's light.

Activity: butterfly memory game for Eli/matching for Hannah
Activity: do-a-dot art with butterfly worksheet

we were having so much fun with the new do-a-dot markers we did this little guy too

Bible lesson: Review memory verse and song. Jesus in the tomb.
After Jesus died they wrapped him up, put him in a tomb, and three days later he came out again brand new. Read Bible story.

Craft: waxed paper butterfly. this didn't turn out nearly as nice I'd hoped. It would be prettier with pinks and lighter colors but we didn't have those to grate apart.

Week 2--TUESDAY

Click here for MONDAY'S LESSON.

* Introduce color: BLUE--show 3-5 objects, then take walk around house finding blue things, continue throughout week wherever we go

Activity: Color worksheet

THEME

Book: Pooh Encyclopedia about butterflies p.174

Activity: Which butterfly is different?
Worksheet: Maze (Eli), Coloring page (Hannah)

Finger play: I'm a Butterfly (tune: Pop Goes the Weasel)

I spin and spin my chrysalis (circle fingers on palm)
Then go to rest inside (close fingers and rest hand on palm)
When I come, I've changed indeed (open fingers slowly)
Look! I'm a butterfly! (fingers fly away)

Song: The Fuzzy Caterpillar (tune: Itsy Bitsy Spider)

The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled upon a leaf.
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell asleep.
While she was sleeping,
She dreamed that she could fly.
And later when she woke up,
She was a butterfly!

Bible lesson: Romans 12:2 Just like God transforms the caterpillar, God transforms us! He renews our minds and helps us to think like Jesus. When we believe in Jesus, we live a whole new life, sharing love and joy with others!

Craft: egg carton caterpillar
Isn't this adorable?! Eli actually did a really great job painting this on his own. I only helped with the part in between two different cups.

Week 2--MONDAY

Instead of including the whole week's plans in one post, I thought I'd break it up a bit. You can still view the whole week by clicking the week category on the sidebar. Enjoy!

Monday
*THEME: B is for Butterfly

*Vocabulary word: chrysalis--another word for cocoon; where the caterpillar changes into a butterfly

Read Butterfly facts page

Book: Caterpillar's Wish by Mary Murphy. Eli loves this book and we've already checked it out from the library about four separate times before. Great excuse for another!

Poem: The Fuzzy Caterpillar (author unknown)

Once there was a caterpillar fuzzy as could be,
He ate and ate and ate all the new, green leaves.
And when he was finished and could eat no more,
He made himself a chrysalis that didn't have a door.

While inside this chrysalis, he began to change,
The fuzzy caterpillar would never be the same.
After seven days, he broke out and my oh my,
The caterpillar he had been was now a butterfly.

Song: The Butterfly Song (tune: Up on the Housetop)

First comes a butterfly and lays an egg,
Out comes a caterpillar with many legs.
Oh see the caterpillar spin and spin,
A little chrysalis to sleep in.
Oh, oh, oh look and see.
Oh, oh, oh look and see.
Out of the chrysalis
My oh my,
Out comes a pretty butterfly!
-Author

Activity: Sequencing cards--first put them in order, then match words to pictures

* Memory verse: Proverbs 15:1 "A gentle answer turns away anger."
Bible lesson: God wants us to be gentle-spirited like butterflies! Gentleness is a fruit of the spirit, along with love, joy, patience, kindness, self-control, and many others. Instead of getting angry and fussy with our friends, even when they hurt us, God wants us to choose gentleness instead, as a way of sharing God's love with others. Think about how nice it feels when someone says or does something kind. It makes it hard to stay angry anymore. So God wants us to be gentle and kind with others all the time. It's hard to do on our own, but God can help us! Dear God, help me to be gentle like a butterfly, showing kindness to others. Amen.

Memory verse song (tune: Jesus Loves Me) by: Me!

A gentle answer turns away...
Anger and helps my joy to stay.
Instead of choosing to get all mad
I'll be kind and make God glad.

Proverbs fifteen one!
Proverbs fifteen one!
Proverbs fifteen one!
Being gentle is God's way.

Craft: paint blob butterflies

* = things that go on learning poster

LOTS MORE TO COME!

Week 1

In the last post I shared our school routine. And now here's what we really did, well not exactly because we didn't finish the first week so we carried into another week. Seems like a lot of planning and then it only takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes to do all of it, but we sure have fun! And we'll figure it out the more we go through this!

THEME: Apples!

MONDAY
* THEME: A is for Apple. Post letter A and an apple picture on learning poster.
* Vocabulary word: apple core--the center part of an apple. Post word, definition, and small picture on poster.
* Book: Strawberry Shortcake's Field Trip
* Poem (found here):

If I were an apple
And grew on a tree
I think I'd drop down
On a nice boy like me.
I wouldn't stay there
Giving nobody joy
I'd fall down at once
And say, "Eat me, boy."

* Action Rhyme (found here):

Way up high in the apple tree (stretch arms up, hands open)
Two little apples smiled at me (keeps arms above head, close hands into fists)
I shook that tree as hard as I could (arms still up, "shake" tree)
Down came the apples (bring fists down toward stomach)
Mmmm, they were good! (rub stomach)

* Activity: Apple of God's Eye. Draw a glittery apple and paste Eli's picture inside. Once dry add to poster.

TUESDAY
* Shape: square--find 3-5 objects to show, walk around house chanting "Squares, squares, they're everywhere!" Actually we continued that through the whole week, and wherever we went we'd look for squares, especially in public restrooms.
* Super squares worksheet from this workbook (My Little Heavenly Helper, Preschool. From Dollar Store for $1) Squares coloring page for Hannah.* Song: Do you know the apple man?

Do you know the apple man, the apple man, the apple man?
Do you know the apple man who likes to sing with me?

Oh he loves the letter A, the letter A, the letter A.
Oh he loves the letter A and likes to sing with me.

*Review vocabulary word.

WEDNESDAY
* Learn Letter A and sound--say several words out loud and ask if it starts with the letter A, point out letter around house, practice tracing letter, worksheet (Eli practices handwriting and Hannah colors an apple coloring page)
* Review poster.
* Read about Johnny Appleseed.
* Poem #1:

Eat an apple
Save the core
Plant the seeds
And grow some more!

* Poem #2 (found here):

Thank you Johnny Appleseed.
We owe you quite a lot.
For the apples that you planted
With a Bible and a cooking pot.

Your seeds were planted far and wide.
You gave a helping hand.
A friendly word you had for all,
Across our frontier land.

Thank you Johnny Appleseed.
We owe you quite a lot.
The lovely trees and apples,
And the lessons that you taught!

* Song: Johnny Appleseed Song.

THURSDAY
* Introduce number 1. Add to learning chart along with a picture of 1 square (shape of the week) next to it. Put ONE sticker in counting book. Using our Mancala beads, two colors for each child, we started by just putting one bead in each hole of an ice cube tray. Then Eli worked on doing patterns, alternating the colors as he put them in the spots. And with Hannah we got out two bowls and practiced color sorting. Then Eli did this worksheet that I made for him, while I Hannah did a coloring page.* Introduce First Commandment to commandment train.* Review learning poster.
* Read: Pooh encyclopedia about apples
* Finger play:

Five red apples hanging on a tree (five fingers held up)
The juiciest apples you ever did see!
The wind came past and gave an angry frown (shake head and look angry)
And one little apple came tumbling down (put one finger down)
Four red apples, etc.

* Handwriting worksheet for Eli. Coloring page for Hannah.
* Activity: finger print apple trees with poem

These are special apples,
Hanging on this tree.
I made them with my finger prints.
They are a part of me!

FRIDAY
* Read about Bible hero: Abraham/Isaac story and add to learning poster along with the key values obedience, trust, love.
* Review learning poster.
* Activity: Make a collage of letter A's and pictures starting with the letter A. This was good repetition as we cut out a million letter A's from magazines (I had pre-found the words/sentences) because even after doing "A" all week, he was still calling it a "B"! So this repetition helped him get "A" stuck in his head. While Eli did this project Hannah just practiced gluing scrap pieces of paper onto a big letter A.* Activity: Color a "surprise picture". Using masking tape make a letter A on a piece of paper (press it down as lightly as possible). Then have the child use the side of a crayon to color all over the paper. Then carefully peel off the tape and see the surprise Letter A!* Activity: Number hunt. Make an assortment of fun-colored numbers, with a majority being the number of the week. Hide them all over the house. Then have child go around with a bucket finding the numbers. Only number 1's go in the bucket, and the other numbers are for Mommy. We play this again and again.
* Activity: make a spreadsheet with 2 green, 2 red, and 2 yellow apples (6 separate squares). Print and cut them apart into 6 cards. With Eli we laid them out and played a memory game again and again. And with Hannah we just worked on matching.* Share our learnings: make homemade applesauce to share with daddy

Hmm, we didn't quite do all of those activities on Friday. We spread them out across 3 days or so since we didn't finish the lesson all in one week because of a weekend trip. But Friday is kind of a review day, so we did one activity for each element on our poster.

The Format.

Like I mentioned before, I'm trying to follow the layout of Brightly Beaming Resources, but with minor adaptations. Here's the plan we're trying to follow. I wasn't sure about doing a small poster each week, because I didn't know what we'd do with it afterward. But when I saw a whole package for cheap at the Dollar Store, I thought we'd just go with it. And it is actually nice. Now I just need to rig a way to hang it up during the week. So anyway, here's the plan, but you'll see when I post what we actually did that we did even more adjustments:

MONDAY
*Introduce the weekly theme with pictures and post one or two on your learning poster.
* Choose one story to read based on the theme.
* Share a poem based on the theme with your child.
* Do a gross motor skills activity with your child. (usually just a project of some kind)
* Introduce vocabulary word and post a picture for it on your learning poster.

TUESDAY
* Introduce shape/color of the week.
* Collect 3-5 everyday objects of that shape/color and share with your child.
* Walk through home looking for the shape/color.
* Put a drawing of the shape on your learning poster. Or for a color week, let your child color in a coloring book or on a printout.

* Review theme and vocabulary word.
* Read a story, share a poem, and sing a song based on theme. (this one is hard for us to do every day)

WEDNESDAY
* Introduce the letter for the week.
* Have child color a printout of the capital letter.
* Teach your child to trace the letter with his finger. You can trace in pudding, finger paint, a shallow tray filled with rice or beans, etc
* Point out the letter in signs, cereal boxes, etc.
* Post the letter on your learning poster.

* Review weekly theme and vocabulary word.
* Read a story, share a poem, and sing a song based on theme.
* Review shape.

THURSDAY
* Introduce number for the week.
* Show your child the appropriate number of objects to count. Sort that many small objects into ice cube tray spots.
* Show your child the written number and put on your learning poster.
* Add the correct number of stickers to your counting book. (I cut several sheets of paper in half and then folded them to make a small book. The written number both as symbol and as a word on one page and then a spot for the stickers on the opposing page.)
* Walk around the house counting objects up to the number of the week.

* Introduce commandment for the week and add to 10 commandments train. I liked the cute train idea but preferred the wording I'd seen somewhere else. So I saved the picture as a screen shot so it would be a JPG file instead of a PDF file, then opened it in Photoshop, put a white box over the old text, and added a new text box on top with the wording of my choice.

* Review everything on learning poster.
* Read story, share a poem, sing a song based on theme.

FRIDAY
* Learn about a Bible hero and add a picture to your learning poster.
* Review everything on poster.
* Read story, share a poem, sing a song based on theme.
* Share an idea you've learned this week. ie: write a letter to Grandma, make something for someone, etc

Okay, that's the general layout, but you'll see in the next post what we really did! =) Then it'll look a whole lot more fun!

Yet another!

Hello, friends! I don't mean to start yet another blog! But I'm trying to start a home school preschool routine, with both kids (Eli's 3 and Hannah's 19 months), so come here to check out what we're doing! We haven't decided if we want to home school or public school yet, but since Eli's 3 and not enrolled in a preschool this year, I thought it might be fun to do something organized at home. You know I do love planning! I want to try following the format of Brightly Beaming Resources but to themes of my choice and adding in Biblical ideas. We've done one week so far, theme of APPLES, so stay tuned for my lesson plan and links! We're all having fun, and as soon as I even say the word "school," Hannah says "Okay!" and dashes off to her pot seat at our playroom table, eager to start! Isn't it fun when it's fun! =)