Sunday, September 29, 2013

September Week 4

Lesson Plans
Alphabet: Dd
Number: 2
Colors: Red, Yellow, Green
Theme: Fall Leaves
Bible: Creation Day 3



Alphabet:

 
Letter of the week box: drum stick, dots, dog, dinosaur, diver, dolphins, diaper, and diamond wood puzzle.

Before E opened the box I played the UTube video "The D Song", by Have Fun Learning. This was a great intro to the letter of the week. Half way through the video E was eager to open the box, so I paused the video and we went through the letter of the week box. As he pulled out an item I gave the name of the item and emphasized the beginning sound. Ex: "that is a dog, /d/ /d/ /d/ dog." And had him repeat the name of the item back to me. This time I really saw him making a connection between the items and the letter D.

Dd Snack: 

I gave E the Dd snack, a dried date. He tried it, but he didn't care for it. I didn't think he would, but I didn't have any other Dd snack ;)

Letter Dd craft:

After we looked through the box and E was done playing with the items, we made the letter Dd craft. E did really well placing the dots along the letter D line!

Letter Dd activities:


What's inside the sensory tub:
-Dirt (baking soda, water and food coloring)
-wooden and plastic Dinosaurs
-two Divers 
-shovel and scooper for Digging
-letter D

My thought was to have dirt for him to dig, but I didn't have enough baking soda, so I added more water then I had planned for. It looks like a muddy swamp then dirt ;) E didn't care, he loved it!

I didn't want to add actual dirt, I wanted something "clean" and easy to clean up. I found this recipe for "Dirt" on Pinterest by Learn Play Imagine


Numbers:


Our focus this week was on number two. 

Number Activity:
E counted two green leaves, two yellow leaves, two red leaves and matched them onto the corresponding tree trunk.

Number Craft:
I helped E glue two fall leaves on the large number 2.


Colors:


Most of the activities during the week envolved the colors red, yellow and green. This is a fun hands on sensory activity we did with these colors. I made homemade paint (recipe below) and found green, yellow and red objects for him to sort in the muffin tin.

Homemade paint
Ingredients:
Water
Cornstarch
Food colors

In a measuring cup measure 1cup of water and add 1cup of cornstarch. Mix the water and cornstarch very well. Then pour the mixture into ice cube tray (or whatever type of container you are using). add the food coloring to each ice cube section and stir.
 
That's it! :)


Theme:


The ideal activity would have been to play with a real pile of leaves, but we dont have a tree with big beautiful fall leaves. so this was second best and E had a blast! He threw the fall leaves in the air and made leaf piles to jump on. This kept him entertained for quite some time!

Songs we sang:
(Tune: the wheels on the bus)

Song #1:

The leaves are falling 
Down down down (repeat 3x)

The leaves are falling 
Down down down
Down to the ground


Song #2

Let's make a pile 
With the leaves (repeat 3x)

Let's make a pile
With the leaves
To jump on top

Song #3

What color of leaves
Do you see (repeat 3x)

What color of leaves 
Do you see
Falling to the ground?


Bible:


Memory Verse of the Month: "in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth." Genesis 1:1

Memory Verse Song: "God is Creator" by Seeds Family Worship

We are continuing to talk about that God is Creator. This week we focused on the third day of creation. On day three of creation God said, "Let the land produce vegetation."

For the Bible craft E placed the fall leaves on one of the tree trunks and on the other trunk he made a yellow apple tree. E loved sticking yellow dots on the apple tree. As you can see there are a LOT of apples on the tree :) {In advanced I cut and glued the dirt and tree trunks and prepped the trunks with double sided tape}. 


We had a great fall week! Happy fall! Next months theme is transportation and pumpkins!




Thank you for your support and stopping by! Hope these activities inspire you!

Blessings,
Erica


Saturday, September 21, 2013

September Week 3

Lesson plans
Alphabet: Letter Cc
Numbers: 1
Colors: Red, Green, Yellow
Theme: Apples
Bible: Creation Day 2


Alphabet:


Letter of the week box: camera, cup, comb, clock, calculator, crayon, candle, can, coin wallet with coins, cow, cookies,  and car.

Cc snack: corn

We looked through the letter of the week box and talked about each item emphasizing the beginning sound. Ex: "That  is a camera, /c/ /c/ /c/ camera." After E was done exploring with the letter Cc items we made the letter Cc craft. I added the glue on large C and my son E placed the cotton balls on it.

Letter Cc Activities:

Cotton-ball Toss:
This is a simple game to put together. All you need is two cups and cotton balls. We played two versions. One version is to toss the cotton into the cups and second version is one person throws the cotton ball and the other person catches it in the cup. E enjoyed tossing it in the cup more then catching. 



E LOVED this sensory tub activity! I finally pulled out our sand and water table from storage and E enjoyed playing with the cars in the clouds!

What's inside the sensory tub:
-sky (water tinted with blue food coloring)
-clouds (cotton balls and mounds of shaving cream)
-small transparent cars from the dollar store
-large plastic cup and small blue measuring cup.


You don't need to add a lot of cotton balls to the sensory tub, because once they absorb the water they expand and stretch. As you can see in the picture above.


Theme:



E loves apples! He was excited about this week's theme. I bought different types of apples for him to see. I bought one red, green, pink and yellow apple. We talked about the different colors of apples and we cut them open to investigate the inside. I shared with him that apples have seeds inside and from those seeds new apples will grow. I cut one apple to show the "star" that hides inside. He thought that was "awesome." Then we cut some apples to eat! We dipped them in honey Greek yogurt...yum!


Later in the day we made an apple craft. E had the sniffles this week so he wasn't too interested in the craft. He dabbed a
few bingo dots on one, a couple yellow circle stickers on another and the last one was green paper that we ripped apart and glue on the paper plate. I then glued the stem and leaf on each apple.


These apple prints were fun to make. E enjoyed not only making prints with the apples, but also loved sticking his feet and hands inside the homemade cornstarch sidewalk paint! This awesome idea and recipe is by Learn Play Imagine. You can get the recipe by clicking the link below:





Sometimes you may plan an activity that your little one will not have much interest in and that's ok. That's what happened when I planned the apple color match activity. I placed three colors of apples (Pom Pom balls) in three sizes small, medium, and large in an apple shaped colander. The objective was to match the apples to the corresponding bowl color. E was not feeling well and just didn't care much for the activity. So I turned it into a sensory tub and he LOVED that! The sensory was soothing for him since he was not feeling well.



There were cars inside the apple sensory tub too! Boys need to have cars! :)

Field Trip: my ideal plan was to take E to an apple farm for him to pick apples, but the closest farm is 2.5 hours! It was not going to work this week to take E. especially since he was under the weather with the sniffles. So, we opted to take a trip to a friends house who has an apple tree in their back yard! It was perfect! E was able to see an apple tree close up and pick an apple. They had chickens too! Thanks friend!


Numbers: 


We focused on number one this week. E glued one apple on the number one. 

The number one activity was to place one object (either a glass pebble, wooden bead, or a button) on the one green apple, the one red apple and the one yellow apple. This is one-to-one correspondence. 


Bible:


Memory Verse of the Month: "in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth." Genesis 1:1

Memory Verse Song: "God is Creator" by Seeds Family Worship

We are continuing to talk about that God is Creator. This week we focused on the second day of creation. On day two of creation God said, "Let there be a vault between the waters.." God called it "sky."

We listened to the memory verse song as E helped me place the clouds and water on the blue card stock paper. {In advanced I precut the clouds and the water}. 


Wow, what a fun filled week! Next week our theme will be Fall leaves! I love this season, it's my favorite! 




Thank you for your support and stopping by! Hope these activities inspire you!

Blessings,
Erica



Click here for more apple themed activities:




Love to hear from you!


Saturday, September 14, 2013

September Week 2

Lesson Plans
Alphabet: Bb
Colors/shapes: The Shape House
Theme: Homes
Bible: Creation Day One
Gross Motor: Bubble-wrap Bounce Bop
Sensory: Homemade Finger Paint

Alphabet:


Letter of the Week Box: bear, bowl, buttons, beads,book, black bat, boat, blue bucket, brush, baseball, block, bird

Bb Snack: Banana 

Bb Craft: Buttons on letter B

Bb Activities: Blowing Bubbles and Bubble-wrap Bounce Bop

E enjoyed going through all the Bb items in the box. 

{*Funny side note: when he took the bat out I said,"that is a  /b/ /b/ /b/ bat." He looked at me puzzled and said, "no es a eagle!" I chuckled and said, it looks like an eagle (with its opened wings) but it's a bat." He looked at me and said, "ok mommy." Then walked over to the baseball and swung the black bat at it!! I laughed and laughed and said, "it's not a baseball bat it's an animal bat." I was not quite sure how to explain that one! Makes sense, since the only "bat" he knew was a baseball bat!} :)

Once we talked about all the Bb items we made a Bb craft. I drew a big B on a piece of card stock and had E glue buttons on the B.

The next day we reviewed Bb and went out and blew bubbles. E loves bubbles!


Theme:



This week we talked about all the different types of homes. Homes for animals and for people. We made the Shape House. This is a fun activity to review colors and shapes!

We read these books:
 Who Lives Here is about animal homes. My House/Mi Casa discusses all the rooms and parts of a home, as well as, the different types of homes people live in.


Bible:


Memory Verse of the Month: "in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth." Genesis 1:1

Memory Verse Song: "God is Creator" by Seeds Family Worship

We are continuing to talk about that God is Creator. This week we focused on the first day of creation. On day one of creation God said, "Let there be light,"and there was light.

We listened to the memory verse song as E placed the white tissue squares on the black card stock paper. {In advanced I precut the tissue paper squares and used a utility (Exacto) knife to cute squares on the black card stock paper.} once all the tissue squares were on the paper we shined the flash light through the holes. You can also hold the card stock paper up to a light or window.


Gross Motor:


I bought a roll of bubble wrap at the dollar store, brought it home and rolled it out on the living room floor. E loved this activity! He bounced, ran up and down, rolled around on it and tried to pop the bubbles. I found "The Bounce Song", by Kids Tv 123 on UTube. We played the song over and over as he bounced and bopped! He seriously played with it all week long! I eventually tapped it down with masking tape so it wouldn't bunch up.

This was a perfect letter Bb activity. 


Sensory:


We ended the week making a batch of finger paint. This recipe was VERY easy and QUICK! I found this recipe on Pinterest by Easie Peasie:

3 tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup corn starch
2 cups water

Combine ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until mixture thickens. Cool, pour in small containers and the add food coloring. Enjoy!






Thank you for your support and stopping by! Hope these activities inspire you!

Blessings,
Erica



Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Bulletin Board Ideas for the Year

Arts and crafts for the year! These are some of the bulletin boards I did with my preschool students last year. Each craft is related to the month's theme or holiday. 

{I could not find a pic of the finished bulletin board of September and Oct/Nov. For September, I added the Shape House the students made along with their All About Me person. Pic of the Shape House coming soon, E will be making it this week!  For Oct/Nov I added Indian corns the students made with the Shapely Scarecrow. I will be making the Indian corn with E next month. Pic of the Indian corn coming soon, as well.}

Blessings,
Erica 





Sunday, September 8, 2013

September Week 1

Lesson plans
Alphabet: Aa
Numbers: 1-5
Theme: Parts of the Body 
Bible: Genesis 1:1, God is Creator
Gross Motor: Hopping 
Fine Motor: Beading 


Alphabet:


As E would take an item out of the box I would give the name of the object while I emphasized the beginning sound. Ex: "That's an apple. /a/ /a/ /a/ apple." We talked about each object and that they start with Aa.

For the tracing worksheet I pointed at Aa, I gave name and sound. I traced one of the letter Aa for him to see how it's done. We traced the same one together and he traced the last one on his own. He then colored the apple on the coloring worksheet.

Letter Aa snack: apple. He ate the whole thing, core and seeds lol!



Numbers:


Fun and easy way to teach numbers and number value. In addition, you can also incorporate color recognition and fine motor development. This was a
Pinterest inspired activity!



Theme:


This activity took a lot of prep time, but it was worth it! E did a great job matching all the body parts. This worksheet will be available for free download on Teachers Pay Teachers shop! Still working on getting the shop up and running. Check for it next week :)

Books we read before doing the My Body activity:


Songs we sang: "Head and Shoulders" and  "God Made Me"



Bible:


Scripture: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 

Song: "God is Creator", by Seeds Family Worship.

{I love Seeds Family worship! They take scripture verses and put them in a fun catchy tune for children to sing and memorize God's Word! Love it!}

I read page one of My First Bible. E helped me put the visual together as we heard and sang along to "God is Creator" song.



Gross Motor:


Song: "Hop Skip Kip," by Have Fun Teaching

This song was a hit with E! He loved the beats! It made him hop! We played the song all week. He enjoyed hopping and skipping along! I even got a sweat on, hopping along with him ;)




Thank you for your support and stopping by! Hope these activities inspire you!

Blessings,
Erica


Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Week 1 Sneak Peak

The letter of the week is Aa. This is one of many learning activities I am doing with E this week. He is learning through all the senses: sight, touch, listen and taste! ;) 

(Alphabet worksheets coming soon to my Etsy and Teachers Pay Teachers shop!)