Friday, February 25, 2011

O is for Octopus (Ocean Animals)

It was O is for Octopus (ocean animals) Week this week using MFW K.  This was  a much better week overall.  I was much more prepared than usual.  I created my own weekly planner pages. I also stocked our homeschool filing tote with all the printables and supplies we needed ahead of time. All of those things helped this week to flow smoothly.  Let's see if I can keep it up.

I also started our new Bible reading schedule following the reading/ theme suggestions from Hubbard's Cupboard.  It was also 'box' week--as we got two new boxes with homeschooling materials for the rest of the year (CLE Math and Intro to Classical Music).

With the weather changing into Spring (some days at least), I've made a renewed effort to spend time outdoors each day.  My goal is an hour each day, but, this week it all depended on the weather.  We went outside and played 4 days out of the week---and made our goal of an hour or over twice.


Okay back to our week---

Bible theme: Abraham from Hubbard's Cupboard

Devotional: O is for Obey Your Parents from 'Big Thoughts' devotional

The words to remember were: 'Even the octopus praises the Lord'

Our read alouds were Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky and A House for a Hermit Crab by Eric Carle


Also reading: In Which a House Is Built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore by A.A. Milne



picking weeds;)

Collecting weeds...ahem..I mean a bouquet


Enjoying the backyard

her sweet bouquet

burning energy

Little Bear is almost 2.

having snack outside

Reading about animals in the ocean

What is this?

....why it's a hotdog octopus of course;)

coloring their ocean animal puppets

Bud coloring his puppets

Sissy and her 'House for a Hermit Crab' puppets

Bud lined his up


finishing his last one

What a difference a day makes--outside with jackets and hats.

Little Bear sitting with Bud in time out;)

Working on phonics

the number chart that came with his math curriculum

Looking through his math activity book


Other books:

McLimans, David




Ryan, Pam Munoz.













Ocean Animals booklet

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/books/animals/ocean/


Mama Jenn's WTR illustration/narration sheets
http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2010/08/words-to-remember-mfw-kindergarten.html

Linking to:

Preschool Post @ Homeschool Creations



Weekly Wrap-up @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The big preschool post

This week I had three different people ask or talk to me about things to do activity-wise with preschoolers. I always recommend Before Five in a Row and then go on to say something like 'there is so much available online'.  This post is a place I thought I can point friends to if they ask about some of my favorite resources.

So, I have included links specifically for the nursery and preschool crowd;)  This is not an exhaustive list by any means.   However, these are the sites that I have used or frequent for ideas, materials and the like.

Have fun browsing!

Favorite Sites

Totally Tots

Homeschool Creations/ Preschool Resources

Christian Preschool Printables


DLTK's Growing Together

First School

Homeschool Share
http://www.homeschoolshare.com

I usually check Homeschool Share if I'm looking for an activity for a particular book.  They have amazing lapbook and activities available.


For  many more great sites (early concepts for preschool)—I usually look at the lists on Homeschool Resource List Site:


Blogs/Sites that have lesson plans/schedule/themes

Hubbard’s Cupboard
2 year old, 3 year old and pre-k plans and more

Brightly Beaming/ Letter of the Week
infants, toddlers, pre-k, early elementary and more

Confessions of Homeschooler/ Letter of the Week

1+1=1

Pre-kinders

Graham Family Ministries
printables, and 2 & 3 weekly lesson plans

Teacher’s Book Bag Exploring Letters in Your World

ABC Jesus Loves Me
3 & 4 year old curriculum

Step by Step

Walking by the Way/ Read to Me & ABC
Delightful Learning/ ABC Fun and Before Five in a Row activities


Book Lists




Favorite Books/ E-books regarding preschoolers

Before Five in a Row and Five in a Row by Jane Claire Lambert

Slow and Steady Get Me Ready by June Oberlander

Rod and Staff ‘About Three’ and more activity books:

Graham Family Ministries: Learning for the Littles and Growing in Wisdom

Linking to: Hip Homeschool Hop

Hip Homeschool Hop Button

Friday, February 18, 2011

D is for Dinosaurs

The past few weeks have had it's ups and downs with bad weather and illness.  But, we've turned a corner!  Signs of Spring are starting to show and hopefully we'll put these stomach bugs and sore throats behind us.

So I'll post what we have for D is for Dinosaur week using MFW K.  Bud was not too crazy about Dinosaurs.  I thought he would love it---but, no--he doesn't like the ferocious looking meat-eaters thank you very much;)  We did have some really good discussions from reading some of the books on our book list.  We had some fun crafts and messy art projects.

The Words to Remember for D is for Dinosaur were: Big and Small God made them all


We used Enchanted Learning for a lot of the crafts and printouts.



We read:

Ken Ham's What Really Happened to the Dinosaurs

A Picture Book of Dinosaurs by  Claire Nemes

DK's "Meet the Dinosaurs"

to go along with Syd Hoff's Danny and the Dinosaur


They woke up on Valentine's morning to heart shaped waffles and a note on their plates from Mommy and Daddy--with a few other goodies, too;)

Bud really enjoyed coloring and writing the names of some of the dinosaurs.

That's Stegosaurus with a really big G in the middle;)

Sis trying to get the hang of color by number.


Shapes dinosaur

Making paper plate dinosaurs....Little Bear getting in on the act of course.

I threw in color mixing with white to make light colors like: baby blue and lavender.

Painting

The whole crew busy painting
Now they just have to wait until it dries to put the paper plate dinosaurs together.
I've mentioned our devotional that uses the alphabet--so here's a pick of our D devotional.


Linking to:

Preschool Corner @ Homeschool Creations

Weekly Wrap Up @ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Friday, February 4, 2011

T is for Turtle

Last week was T is for Turtle week in our MFW K curriculum.  By the way, I highly recommend it--it is fantastic.  This was a fun week for Bud.  He really enjoyed the books that we read for this unit.

The words to remember were: I do not give up; I persevere.   Those words to remember brought up a lot of discussion.  I have been able to refer to it often since we covered this topic.  I love the connections Bud is making with MFW.

We focused on The Hare and the Tortoise (Aesop's Fables).

Some of our favorites were:

The Hare and the Tortoise retold by Helen Ward.  This is a beautifully illustrated book.  Great detail of the animals.  This is one inappropriate word.  (s----d).  We skipped over it....and I actually read a different version and showed them these illustrations.

Diego and the Baby Sea Turtles by Lisa Rao

Terrific Turtles by Anders Hanson (Sandcastle books)

In addition to the MFW K activities, we enjoyed articles and printables from the following:

http://www.dltk-teach.com/fables/tortoise/index.htm

The kids also went to a pet store with Dad to look at turtles.  There was only one there and it was hiding...but they enjoyed looking at the aquariums and other animals.  We learned the difference between sea turtles and a tortoise.  And learned different features of a turtle.  

We also used Mama Jenn's great copywork pages.




Turtle shape cut and paste

Coloring in action

Bud's finished product....Titus the Turtle



This kid looooves color by number sheets---looking it over with a bowl of Blue Bell.

Re-enacting the Tortoise and the Hare race.  They made tortoise and hare finger puppets.



His finger puppets ready for the race

Sissy's puppets
Looking through a Turtle book
Working on his copywork page



Linked to:
Preschool Corner @ Homeschool Creations
Weekly Wrap-Up@ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers