Mini Old Testament Vacation Bible School Week

     This week I decided to have some fun while learning about Old Testament Bible stories. All of our Bible stories I used this Bible:

but please use whatever Bible you would like. Also the wonderful thing about doing Old Testament stories for a theme is the fact that there are SO many stories to choose from. You may not want to use any of the five I decided to focus on with my kid. That is cool too. I am not trying to advertise this bible either. I just did not feel like repeatingthe title five different times so I just put it up here. Infact, if you have a better Bible for 3 yr olds please share with me. This one I scored at a local used book store for a dollar. According to the clerk I was the first person in that shop after it was put on display and so it was almost like it was meant for me to buy.
     Thursday was also a special day. It was the anniversary of my son's Baptismal day. To make that day feel special we ended ourday with a bundled up family walk through our neighborhood to get a closer loook at some of the houses with lights already put out. We then gave our son his favorite treat, a chocolate doughnut. Then let him play for as long as he wanted in the water in our kitchen sink. He LOVES playing in water. He brings some of his toy dishes and favorite foam shapes to play with and he is happy for a long time as long as mom or dad is nearby to interact with him while he plays.
     Along with learning with the Bible we were focused on the letter Nn and number 9.

Monday:Intro Uppercase "N"/The Story of Noah
Books: My n Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
The Stories of Noah from the Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs:Let's Make Some Noise by Raffi
Arky arky- Searched on youtube for a version I liked.
Who Built the Ark by Raffi

Activities:
Intro uppercase letter N. Introduce the N vocab words. Uppercase N coloring page

Play with dry elbow and rigatoni noodles

Intro Noah. Read the story from the children's bible.

Rainbow color fingerpaint fun

Tuesday: Intro Number Nine/The Story of Nehamiah
Books:Nine Men and A Hen by Barbara Gregorich
The story of Nehamiah from the children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs:Let's Do the Numbers Rhumba by Raffi
Father Abraham from Wee Sing

Activities:
Review Nn vocab words from the picture dictionary

Napkin water color painting fun

Intro Number Nine and number 9 coloring page

Intro the story of Nehamiah

Pull out the playhouses. Pretend they are the city of Jerusalem. Work together to build a wall with the bigger blocks we own and then play together in the safe a beautiful city of Jerusalem.

When your child is done then take the time to do some fun with seperating and counting. Count out 9 of each different shaped blocks. Have your child help seperate them into different piles and then count the number of blocks in each pile.

Wednesday: Intro Lowercase n/The Story of Ruth and Naomi
Books: The Napping House by Audrey and Don Wood
The Story of Ruth and Naomi from the Children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Who Did Swallow Jonah from Wee Sing

Activities:
Review Nn vocab words from picture dictionary. Intro lowercase n and coloring page.

Play Nurse

Intro Ruth and Naomi. Read the story from the children's book.

Pull out our bigger wooden beads and wirk on stringing them together to make necklaces.

Thursday:Tracing and Scissor Skills/The Story of Job
Book:The Nutcracker by Rachel Isadora
The Story of Job from the children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: All I Really Need by Raffi
Little David Play On Your Harp by Wee Sing
If You're Happy and you Know It Praise God *the sane as if your happy and you know it, but replace clap your hands, stomp your feet, and shout hooray with praise God.

Activities:
Review Nn vocab words

Practice tracing with work sheet

Scissor skills play

Play with hammer and nails from tool bench

Intro the story of Job...
After words talk about different scenarios like how do you feel if you are given a cookie?
How about if you are wanting mommy or daddy to play but they are busy getting dinner ready?
Go on with different scenarios. Afterwords remind them of Job's story and how we should try to remember to praise God im every moment because God has plams for us all. Sometimes it is hard waiting to find out, but no matter what if we keep Him close He will have our backs just like He did with Job.

Friday:Review Nn Vocab/The Story of Daniel
Books: The First Noel by Janina Domanska
The story of Damiel from the children's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs:
The First Noel
Free choice of Songs from this past week

Activities:
Review Nn vocab words and vocab coloring page

Play with cooked noodles

Intro the story of Daniel

Make paper plate lion masks

What other old testament bible stories have you chosen to focus on with your young pre schooler?

N Is For Noodles

   

     Noodles. Oodles and oodles of noodles. Noodles are one of the best foods to use for pre schoolers and even younger for sensory play. I wrote an entire post about the importance of sensory page, when you can find by looking at my archive list of previous posts over to your right.

     Cooked noodles are a great first tool to use for babies to explore with, as well as pre schoolers. Cooked noodles are very eatible, they are slippery, squishy, and are also able to be used to form symbols and shapes in a fun way. Add collr to them and it adds another layer to the sensory experience.

     Dry noodles can be used for painting with, lacing through string, counting, seperating, and other art projects. They are also great for dumping and measuring in sensory bins. Children enjoy the fun times spent with this type of play.

     When children play with noodles they are working their brain muscles, as well as their fine a gross motor skills. They are exploring and experimenting and discovering through their own imaginations what they can do with the noodles. They can learn in a different way anout shapes while using cooked spaghetti noodles, or counting as they seperate different shaped noodles into piles, which is an early mathematics lesson. They are figuring what can fit inside a rigatoni noodle or what objects hold the most elbow macaroni noodles. These types of activities are science experiments for them. Socially kids enjoy sensory play nearby others because it is fun to watch what another kid/afult has thought to try while they are busy trying out their ideas.

     What ways can you think up for how important the work of playing with noodles is for your child?

Teaching Numbers

   

   Oh what a Monday. It is always a little rough getting back into a routine after a holiday week-end. It seemed more difficult for me this time around than for my kid. It was a fun filled month for us filled with lots of special family memories. Nothing like caffeine to help get through this Monday.
     Today I thought I would delve more into depth on the importance of numbers and math. Introducing numbers is so important for this age group. It is building the foundation they need to learn more difficult math concepts later on. For three year olds I think it is most important to focus on three different areas of math: counting, number recognition, and quantification.

      Counting is important as it helps children learn order. Give plenty of chances throughout the day for your child to count with you. Usually as children get closer to age four they are capable of counting to thirty with little help as long as they hear counting happening in some way everyday. We always start out morning off with our calendar routine, and then throughout each activity we find ways to incorporate counting. If we take turns saying the numbers it makes my child more excited to count instead of overwhelmed and frustrated.
   
     Number recognition is basically when the learn to recognize the symbol that represents that number. That the number nine is also 9. This is why my sonnand I are working on a new number each week. Counting is an easier concept for kids at three to understand,  but learning the symbols for the number is trickier. I would expect by age for that children should be able to recognize numbers up to 20 fairly easily if worked on throughout the year every day.
 
      Lastly is quantification, or as some say subsitizing. This is when the child realizes that groups of objects are matched to the number symbol in their group.... dots on a dice, objects seperated into groups then matching the groups to the correct number symbol. This teaches organization in a more hands on way. If you look at my past lesson plans you will see many activities my son and I work together doing. This is truckier than the two above. Usually kids will still need a little bit of help keeping on task, but by age 4 they will need less hands on help.

     As kids get into later pre school age simple adding and subtracting can be added into the mix, but for now that is just a plus if you see your kid getting into that mindset. Math can be a fun way to pass time by for you and your little one, OR it can be the hair pulling moment of the day. Trust me, for us it is often rougher than full on fun depending on the activity. Just keep at it though because the more we can help them eventually want to learn counting and math on their own the more glad we will be we pushed through. They will be proud of themselves and the watching that lightbulb moment of when they get it, well, it is pure magic to be able to share.

The Importance of Reading

I watched this video and just had to share.

M Is For Music

   

       This week has been all sorts of crazy for me and my family that I have gotten all mixed up with my blog. I realize I am a day late again on putting up a post. Thanksgiving was a wonderful busy week for us. I hope all of my readers that celebrate Thanksgiving had a fun family time together.

     

     This past week as you know, we focused on the letter Mm. Music is SUCH an inportant part of a child's overall development. It is the one language, as far as reading music goes, that is universal. Children find comfort when hearing favorite songs. 

     The biggest areas music helps improve the most is language and literacy. Once a child is old enough (usually four at the earliest for the piano) for learning an instrument it has a large impact on helping children understand math easier. Among those big areas children also grow in each seperate growth area. They use all their bodily muscles, fine, and large motor skills. when acting out motions during song and also through dance.  They learn social cues from watching the other kids interact with music. Experimenting with sounds different instruments make is science for them. Some children are like my son and are musical learners which means they need music to learn new concepts. 

    Early pre-school children love simple songs with lots repitition and familiar tunes. That is one reason I tend to pick songs with similar tunes. It is easy for ny kid to pick up and has information about the weekly theme to help him learn new information easier. They also love to sing because they love experimenting with their voices. Music is good for the soul. No wonder people of all ages find music to be a way to brighten our lives a little more.

Giving Thanks to The Lord for He is Good

      HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! I hope your week-end is filled with fun and sweet memories and laughter.

     I am so sorry I missed posting yesterday. It was my last full day with my parents visiting us. They left us today. I wanted to fully enjoy our last day together.

     This week was a short but busy learning week since it is Thanksgiving week-end. I thought I would post more about what we did today in case you are looking for something to help keep your younger ones busy without as much tv time. Tv tine is cool too, but in case you wanted a little bit of free time for them without it.

Monday: Intro Uppercase M/Intro Number 8/Intro Thanksgiving
Books:My "m" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Seven Little Mice Go to the Beach (I replaced the number 7 in the book with number 8, and I forgot to write the author's name down before taking the book back to the library. My bad)
Thanksgiving by Lynn Peppas
Silly Tilly's Thanksgiving Dinner by Lillian Hoben
My First Dictionary

Songs: Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed
Three Blind Mice
All I Really Need by Raffi
Over the River and Through the Woods

Activities:
Intro Letter M/Color uppercase M coloring page

Fun with mirrors

Intro number 8/coloring page

Play with mega legos.

Take m&m's. Have child help seperate into 8 of each color before sharing them together.

Intro Thanksgiving.

Set up a play tee-pee. Play with corn kernals and sunflower seeds.

Tuesday:Intro Lowercase "m"/Practice Tracing Lines/Practice Scissor Skills/Intro Pilgrims and the Mayflower
Books: Go to Bed Monster by Natasha Wing
The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone
Thanksgiving Day by Gail Gibbons
Countdown to Thanksgiving by Jodi Huelin

Songs: Monster Mash
Over in the Meadow by Raffi
A Thanksgiving Song (Tune of Row Row Row Your Boat)
The pilgrims sailed away far across the sea.
They cane to America so they could be free.
The native Americans helped them plant the corn.
Then they shared a great big feast. Thanksgiving day was born.

Thanksgiving Feast (Tune: Are You Sleeping?)
We eat turkey. We eat turkey.
Oh so good. Oh so good
Always on Thanksgiving. Always on thanksgiving.
Yum yum yum
Yum yum yum.

Replace turkey with other favorite thanksgiving day food.

Activities:
Review m words from picture dictionary
Intro lower case m. Lower case m coloring page

Sort 8 of each size marshmallows. Maje narhmallow monsters using toothpicks and icing.

Practice tracing lines work sheet.

Trace with hair gel ziplock bags.

Practice cuttingwith scissors

Intro pilgrims. Play pretend pilgrims and traveling on the Mayflower. Pretend the bed or couch is the ship.

Wednesday: "Mm" vocab review/Turkey fun/Intro Mary, Jesus' Momma
Books:Mouse's Birthday by Jane Yolen and Bruce Degan
My First Thanksgiving Book by Jane Belk Moncure
Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey
My First Dictionary

Songs: Do You Know the Muffin Man?
Let's Be Thankful (Tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)
Let's be thankful for this day, for our friends, and for our play.
Let's be thankful. Let's be glad
For our food and the things we have.
Let's give thinks for you and me and for our food and family.

If You're Thankful and You Know It ( Tune of If You're Happy and you know it)
Sing the song if you're happy and you know it. Just replace the word happy with thankful.

Activities:

Review "Mm" vocab words and do "Mm" vocab word coloring page

Magnet fun

Family handprint turkey canvas wall art activity.

Talk about what thankfulness means. Talk about the things your child loves and how important it is to thank God for those blessings, not just on Thanksgiving, but everyday.

Intro Mary. Why us Catholics find Mary worthy of respect. How she helps us keep close to God and Jesus.
Pray a family Rosary together.

What ways do you help make Thanksgiving fun for your kids?
   

Learning theorists and play

This post is very short as I have been busier than I anticipated. Next thing I realized is that it is almost 11:00 and I forgot to put a post together. I found this little graph that mayches some of the more populare learning theorisists to different groups of "play." Maybe you all will find it interesting.

Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs! Dinosaurs!

     This week is one of my personal favorite topics. Dinosaurs. I have always beenfascinated with dinosaurs. Personally my favorite is the apatasaraus, but hey, each dinosaur was cool.
     Also this week we had my parents come visit us feom out of state. I did not really focus on taking photos of our activities as much as ones with my kid and his mimi and papaw so this week there are just not as many.
     As a Catholic honestly as long as you make sure to believe that the world was created by God than honestly there is no written doctrine stating we should believe in the big bang or if young world creationism is correct. It all happened by God's power whichever way you choose to believe.
     Along with dinosaurs we learned about the letter "Ll" and number seven.


Monday: Intro Uppercase "L"/Intro Dinosaurs
Books:My "l" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
How To Raise A Dinosaur by Natasha Wing
My First Dictionary

Songs: This Little Light of Mine
Oh How I Love To Be A Dinosaur (Tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic)

Oh how I love to romp and stomp and chomp throughout the land
Oh how I love to romp and stomp and chomp throughout the land
Oh how I love to romp and stomp and chomp throughout the land.
Oh it's great to be a dinosaur.
Oh how I love to be a dinosaur
Oh how I love to be a dinosaur
Oh how I love to be a dinosaur
I love to romp and stomp and chomp throughout the land

Activities:
Intro Uppercase "L." Intro "Ll" vocab picture words in dictionary. Color uppercase L coloring page

Play Red Light Green Light

Intro Dinosaurs. Talk about how they lived a long time ago. How big they were. How they had rough scaley skin and were cold blooded and what that means...

Work on dinosaur puzzle

Tuesday: Intro Number Seven/Herbavores
Books: Seven Loaves of Bread by Ferida Wolff
Dino Swimming by Lisa Wheelet
My First Dictionary

Songs: Jesus Loves Me This I Know
Jesus Loves the Little Children
Do You Know the...(Tune of Do You Know the Dinosaur)
Do you know the stegasaurus, the stegasaurus, the stegasaurus? Oh do you know stegasaurus? He had plates on his back.
Do you know the apatasaurus...He had a really long neck
Do you know the triceratops...he had three big horns

Activities:
 Review "Ll" picture vocab words

Smelled and tasted fresh lemons and limes

Intro Number seven/seven coloring page

Intro Herbavore Dinosaurs

Dino egg hunt: took 3 different colored plastic easter eggs, 7 of each color, and placed them around the living room. Used coordinating pieces of construction paper to use as the dino nests. Helped child find and the eggs and figure out which eggs go in which nest. Counted the eggs together after all are found and sorted.

Wednesday: Intro Lowercase "l"/ Carnivores
Books: Young Lions by Toshi Yoshida
Dino Wrestling by Lisa Wheeler
My First Dictionary

Songs: Let's Make Some Noise (be loud) by Raffi
Tune of The Wheels On the Bus
Oh the t-rex had really sharp teeth, really sharp teeth, really sharp teeth. Oh the t-rex had really sharp teeth and ruled the dino land
Oh the raptor had really sharp claws, really sharp claws, really sharp claws. Oh the rapter had really sharp claws and ruled the dino land.
Oh the pteradactyl had a really sharp beak, a really sharp beak, a really sharp beak. Oh the pteradactyl had a really sharp beak and ruled throughout the land.

Activities:
Review "Ll" picture vocab words. Intro lowercase "l" and do coloring page.

Ladybug apple print painting fun: cut apple in half. Dip it into paint and press on paper for ladybug body shape. Add black dots....

Work on plain animal puzzle because of the lion piece.

Intro carnivores.

Trace matching dino footprints of my kids toy dinosaurs to show one way carnivores would hunt their prey. If you have a copier you can make several copies and then hide the matching toy dinosaurs. Have the child follow the footprints to find what dinosaur they belong too.

Use toy dinosaurs and use them to make their footprints in playdough.

Thursday: Practice Line Tracing/Practice Scissor Skills/ Dino Facts Review
Books: The Lord's Prayer by Richard Jesse Watson
Dino Soccer by Lisa Wheeler
My First Dictionary

Songs: Our Father by Michael W. Smith
Our Father Song by Matt Maher
Tune of Five Little Ducks
One dinosaur went out to play
On a bright and sunny day
He had such enormous fun
That he called for another dinosaur to come
(Call out) Dinosaur
(Pat hands on floor) Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Repeat until you reach 7
7 little dinosaurs went out to play
On a bright and sunny day
When they heard mommy dinosar yell it's time to eat they hurried back for her tasty treat!

Activities:
Review "Ll" words in picture dictionary

Intro Lord as another title for God and Jesus
Intro Our Father. Explain the story of how Jesus told us to say this prayer and that is why it is called the Lord's Prayer.

Practice tracing lines witg work sheet

Practice scissor cutting skills

Review dino facts we have learned

Seperate dino foam stickers in their matching dino families. 7 foam stickers in each family. Count the different dino family members together. I found dino foam stickers at our Hobby Lobby.

Friday: Letter "Ll" Vocab Review/Fossils
Books: The Lady With the Alligator Purse by Nadine Bernarx Westcott
Llama Llama Red Pajama by
Fossils by Claire Ewart

Songs: Mary Had A Little Lamb
Tune of Oh My Darling Clementine

Great big dinosaurs. Great big dinosaurs
Lived so long ago
Some liked land, some liked water, some liked to fly through the air.

Great big dinosaurs. Great big dinosaurs
Lived so long ago.
Some had horns, some had spikes,
Some had wings like a bat.

Great big dinosaurs. Great big dinosaurs
Lived so long ago.
Some ate plants. Some ate meat.
Now they are all extinct.

Activities:
Review "Ll" vocab words from picture dictionary and do vocab color page.

Play with lego locomotive blocks

Intro fossils. Explain what they are. Use dino rawhide bone treats and dry rice and dry paint brushes and let children play archaelogist and excavate for "fossils."

Watch dino sponge kit expand in the water.

These are some ideas I came up with to have fun while learning about dinosaurs and the letter "Ll" and number seven. Do you have any added ideas to share with the other readers? Please share if you do in a comment.

L Is For Laughter

     Whenever my child finds something truly funny it is hard to ignore what it is. I always find myself pausing what I am in the middle of to go and find out what has cauded his infectious giggles. No matter what it is he is laughing over I find myself joining in on his fun which then ends up with both of us laughing hard and enjoying the moment which is started by the sound of my child's laughter. It is one of my very favorite sounds ever. Only a few sounds top it.

Intro Into Literacy Processing Theory

   
   

The term literacy was first used by the learning theorist Marie Clay. Literacy is the term used for how children learn to read and write.
      The main area I want to focus in on is the term emergent literacy. Emergent literacy is the very first stage of children beginning to learn to read and write. It starts from early infancy up until age six. Reading to children is the most important factor to children learning to read amd write easier as they get older. For young children the idea of reading has more to do with a need to learn more about new situations. It is learned through processes rather than just in the isolated circumstances of a set time to sit down and focus on reading. The more one integrates language, words, sounds, and freedom of use of writing utensils the quicker children will become invested in learning even more about letters, phonics, books, words as a whole, and also trying to create what they see. You see reading and writing are learned simultaneiously for emergent readers, but writing tends to be easier to achieve than reading.

     For the early pre-schooler children are able to focus more and are able to learn how books should be treated. Board and cloth books can still be used, but should be a small percentage of the time. Story books with paper pages and a sinple storyline that focuses on only a few characters are the best for this age group. Stories with rhyming in them and a short paragraph or two per page and fun photographs as well as a little silly will make children more excited. The more emphasis the reader can put into making each character unique is also going to entertain children and engage them. Making sure to point at the words as a familiar story is being read will help children begin to recognize words with symbols. Also allowing the children to finish sentences in a favorite book is also a way they can become invested in learning to read. Allow children the time to draw and color whenever they seem interested. The more practice they get with drawing, scribbling, tracing, and more than the quicker you will see scribbles tyrn more into symbol drawing which will make learning to write a lot easier for children.

All Weather Comes From God

      This week I thought it would be fun to learn more about weather.  Weather is such a fun theme. There are many types of weather to choose from and some fun interactive activities can be used to help young children understand the weather concepts.
     As Catholics certain acts of God I do not understand. Weather is one of those things. Sometimes weather seems wonderful, other days it is filled with destruction. A few months ago I read a very interesting G. K. Chesterton book, The Man Who Was Thursday.  It was kind of focused on the mystery surrounding why God allows certain weather things to happen in one place and other things happen in a different place. It was filled with mystery and a good read, but it took me half way to think I was comprehending it. Anyway, as I was thinking about what weather topics to delve into more with my child this book kept popping back into my mind....

Anyway, along with weather week it is the letter "Kk"  and number 6 week. Every timeI write this little section I always feel like I am a character on Sesame street.....

Monday: Intro Uppercase "K"/ Meteorologist/Clouds
Books: My "k" Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Meteorologist by Saundra J Christian, M. Ed
My First Dictionary

Songs: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
I'm Just A Little Black Rain Cloud from the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Weather Song (Tune:oh my darlin, clementine)
What's the weather
What's the weather
What's the weather like today?
Is it sunny? Is it windy?
Is it rainy? It is cold?
(Repeat, but use different weather conditions...stormy, hot, foggy, etc.)

Activities:
Intro uppercase K and do the coloring page.

Go ouside and have fun kicking different sized balls. See which size can be kicked the farthest...

Practice karate skills

Intro weather week...review meteorologists and how important that are as far as weather goes.

Explain clouds. Watch a pre-k video on youtube that helps explain the different types of clouds. Use paper, glue, and cotton balls to have your child create his own cloud shapes.

Use cotton balls for sensory play. Preyemd to be snow clouds and use the cotton balls for snowflakes.

Work on weather puzzle.

Tuesday: Intro Number Six/Intro Wind
Books:Curious George Flies A Kite by H. A. Rey
A Windy Day by Lola M. Schaefer
My First Dictionary

Songs: Let's Go Fly A Kite from Mary Poppins
A Rather Blustery Day from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh


Activities:
Review "Kk" picture wotds from dictionary

Introduce number six and do coloring page

Kite sorting/counting activity. Cut out different colored or sized kites and six matiching bows for the tails. Have the child sort the bows into the correct piles than work together to put them with the correct kites. Count the bows after they are put on the kite tails

Intro wind. Go outside and blow bubbles together and watch the wind blow them away. Try and listen to the sound of the wind. If it is very noticeable open a conversation up about how it feels.

Play meteorologist...buy green felt and poster board. Glue the green felt onto the poster board to make our own green screen...cut out weather symbols for kids to use to play meteorologist in a more hands on way. Make it even more personal by adding a cutout of the child's state on there to help add a geography lesson too.

Wednesday:Intro Lowercase "k"/Rain
Books: Supersaurus Saves Kindergarten by Deborah Underwood
A Rainy Day by Lola M. Schaefer
My First Dictionary

Songs: Kitchen Sing Sing by Raffi
If All the Raindrops Were Lemon Drops and Gum Drops
Rain Rain Go Away

Activities:
Review Kk picture vocab words. Do lowercase k coloring page

Play with the play kitchen

Have child help prepare lunch in the kitchen

Introduce rain. Remind how clouds are made up of water so when they get full the water comesdown as raindrops.

Use dry rice and metal dishes to make the sound of rain

Thursday: Practice Tracing/Practice Scissor Skills/Storms and Tornadoes
Books:Ten Kisses For Sophie by Rosemary Wells
The story of Hesus calming the storm from child's Bible
My First Dictionary

Songs: Knees Up Mother Brown by Raffi
Head Shoulders Knees and Toes
Weather Report by Raffi

Activities:
Review Kk picture vocab words.

Use old keys and playdough. Let children make ket shapes in the play dough

Practice tracing lines page

Practice scissor skills

Intro storms and storm safety. Talk about tornadoes and how they are formed. Practice tornado drill/turtles.

Tornado water activity: take two 2 liter bottles of soda. Fill one up with water 3/4 way full and use food coloring and glitted for added fun. Use lots of duct tape to tape the two bottles openings together. Swirl the water around to make the tornado/cyclone.

Friday: "Kk" Vocab Review/Snow

Books:Curious Kittens by Ray Volkmann
A Snowy Day by Lola M. Schaefer
My First Dictionary

Songs: If I Were King of the Forrest from The Wizard of Oz
I Just Can't Wait to Be King from The Lion King
If All The Snowflakes Were Candy Bars and Milkshakes....

Activities:
Review "Kk" picture vocab words and color the vocab coloring page

Decorate crowns and play king for a day. Explain how important it is for kings to recognize kindness. Being kind is very important. Explain what kindness is and give scenarios to act out ways to choose kindness.

Intro snow and how when it is cold weather water from clouds gets cold and becomes snowflakes

Play snow cloud with cotton balls and pretend the cotton balls are snowflakes

Have fun with shaving cream for a mini winter wonderland on the table.

K Is For Kitchen

   

   

The kitchen, atleast from my own perspective, is filled with the best memories. Family gathered around for dinner and sharing stories. There was  always something delicious smelling coming from the stove area. It was always busy with people coming and going. For young children it is so great to start out good memories in the kitchen. When you allow them to interact with you in prepping meals you are giving a wealth of knowledge to them.
     When cooking in the kitchen children become more involved and interested in food choices. Depending on us adults, children will be able to be more open to trying out new and healthier meals. Ofcourse I must say with the exception of children with sensory issues involving them in the food prep stage will not necessarily fix their pickyness over night, but it will help them begin to be more interested in attempting to try newer textures they did not seem open to before.
     Cooking is a science. Children tend to love measuring things with adults and dumping and mixing up ingredients. They love seeing the outcome of how all those ingredients turn out. Experimenting, hypothosizing and imagining what things will end up looking, tasting, and smelling like. These are questions that can naturally arise while working together on a meal. Along with a science lesson all the measuring, pouring, and mixing adds more strength to their fine and gross motor skills, which will help them as they learn to write as well as strengthen their hand-eye coordination.
     Literacy is also a key componemt of cooking in the kitchen. Children are quick learners and if they see and hear us reading off cooking directions they will learn the importance of needing to read to know how to cook new things.
     Social interaction and collaboration happens aswell when kids are introduced to cooking. They will learn that usually cooking is something that can be done in a family but also needs good teamwork.
     When children get to play with a play kitchen then they have all the free time to breakdown what all they learned when working at the real thing. When peaking in on their play you can hear the vocab they learned from working with you, and see how they work with kitchen appliances from how they watched you work with them. They can use their own imagination for creating their own recipes. Really it can be fun to take a moment to appreciate what they have begun to comprehend about nutrition and cooking safety, and following instructions, as well as add in their own creativity.

 There are so many more reasons why the kitchen is an enriching learning experience for young children and should not be trivialized. Can you think of other ways cooking with your child is educational?


   

Technology and the Early Childhood Student

   

     I was born an 80' baby and toddler. I grew up as a 90's kid. I spent my teenage and collage years in the new millenium. Life has changed so much since the days of getting to run around outside with the neighborhood friends until the street lights went on and it was time to go inside. The days of hours and hours of imaginative free play have begun to fade away into kids who have watched commercials to remind them to get their 60 minutes of exercise outside. It was so odd to me to see a commercial geared towards kids to make playimg outside unplugged as a fun thing to do. Growing up technology was more a rainy day activity and the computer, well i believe I was seven years old when I remember my mom and dad being able to get financed for a computer. Before the internet was a thing. The sound of the very slow dial up connection is a soumd that I do not think I could forget. Too slow to really want to mess with. Outside was where the fun was at. Technology was definitely not something pushed like it is today. I remember getting my first cell phone at ahe twenty and it was an old school flip phone. Now I see elementary school kids running around with cell phones of their own like it is how it always has been. That is not to say I am putting down the advances in technology. The fact does remain that my kid's generation is one that will never know a life without computers.

     A big part of me is happy to not have a pc computer or a i pad in our house because I want my kid to enjoy soe of the magic of a mostly tech free childhood can be, and yet I know how much it cam help to enhance his learning. There is a fine line between using technology to help enhance a kids learning and just letting the child be taught by a screen. I am very picky about when and why I use our tv for Anthony to watch. Rainy days there may be a little bit more use or week-end mornings. Normally though I try hard to limit him to an hour of rv. At three I can tell when too much has been allowed for him. It is during those times there are mors meltdowns over turning it off. The tv shows I do allow though are basically pbs kids shows, veggie tales, and other educational dvds and some of the old school disney cartoon movies. My kid knows that my phone can play music, stale pictures, and as facetime for mimi and papaw. Other than that he does not care much for it because I do not have space ro download games. That is not to say sometimes I wish I did have an i pad for educational games.. especially when waiting at the dr.s office and what not. Eventually we will get a pc in our home and our child will quickly learn the valuableness of it, but right now seeing him more excited to be outside in nature and exploring through human interaction  is so refreshing and invaluable to me. Each family is different though. What works for us mqy not be in your family's best interest. That is cool though. It is why getting to be at home helping my kid learn and grow in his way is so wonderful. Each person learns in a unique way. Technology used correctly can be so helpful.

What are your thoughts on kids and education and technology today? How do you use it to help your child's learning journey?

There Is No Better Way To Become A Saint Than To Learn From Their Examples

     This week has been such a crazy hectic week with doctor appointments to get to, physical therapy sessions, and morning play group. Add these things to the craziness that Halloween and All Saints Day week brings I am just ready for the week-end. Hopefully you all had a little less hectic week. With all the crazyiness I am actually relieved I made this another review week. Since we did lots of review the majority of the activities we worked on are repeats of activies you can find more specifics to in all my past weekly theme posts. Because of that fact I did not take hardly any photos.

     I know there are Catholics out there who are not huge fans of celebrating Halloween and there are also non -Catholics who do not celebrate All Saints Day. No biggie. There are things in this week for both.

Monday:Why We Celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day/Review "Aa" and "Bb" Vocab Words/Review Uppercase Letters A-J

Books: A is For Apple by Tiger Tales
Animal Orchistra by Tibor Gergely
There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bat by Lucille Colandro
Halloween by Molly Aloian
My First Dictionary
Saint story from child's saint book

Songs: Apples and Bananas by Raffi
Baby Beluga by Raffi
Purle People Eater
When the Saints Go Marching In

Activities: Review the letter "Aa" and "Bb" vocabulary from the picture dictionary

Art fun

Bubble play

Free block play

String beads

Review uppercase letters. Play matching game and take turns finding the matching letters. At this age I leave the cards face up for them to search for the matches.

Intro Halloween. What it is and why we celebrate it.

Intro All Saints Day. Explain what it is and why it is important. Explain how God wants us all to be saints. How every person who make ot to Heaven is a saint.

Tuesday: Jack O'Lantern Fun/Review "Cc" and "Dd" Vocabulary/ Review Numbers 1-5
Books:Corduroy by Don Freeman
The Ugly Duckling
1 2 3 by Villie Karabatzia
My First Halloween Book by Colleen L. Reece
Clifford's Halloween by Norman Bridwell
My First Dictionary
A saint story from child's saint book

Songs: Sally the Camel
Five Little Ducks
5 Little Pumpkins
For All the Saints

Activities: Review "Cc" and "Dd" vocab words.

Play with shaving cream

Play with corn kernals

Playdough fun

Review numbers 1-5. Write numbers 1 -5 on seperate pieces of paper. Have the child do a new action move on their way to whatever number you call out.

Pumpkin carving fun. Initially I was going to have my kid paint his pumpkin, but he had no interest in painting it. I finally carved it into a shape sorter jack o'lantern. He had days of fun playing with his pumpkin puzzle.

Play with pumkin insides

Jack o lantern activity. Cut out shapes for your kid to put together his own paper jack o'lantern

Wednesday: Ghost Fun/Review "Ee" and "Ff: vocab/Review Lowercase letters a-j
Books:Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John.Archambault
Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
Halloween by Gail Gibbons
Franklin's Halloween by Paulette Bourgeois and Brenda Clark
My First Dictionary
A Saint Story from a child's Saint book

Songs: Willoughby Walloughby Raffi
5 Green and Speckled Frogs
Monster Mash
With All the Saints In Glory

Activities:

Review "Ee" and "Ff" vocabulary words with picture dictionary

Dried beans sensory play for empty/full

Review lower case a-j with the same type of matching game as Monday

Foot print ghosts-with a halloween type background use white paint on child's feet to make cute ghosts.

Halloween trick-or-treating night

                       The Incredible Hulk

Thursday: All Saint's Day Fun/Review "Gg" and "Hh" Vocabulary/Practice Tracing and Scissor Skills 
Books: God Made You Special by Greg Fritz
Eeyore, Be Happy by Don Ferguson
The Perky Little Pumpkin by Margaret Friskey
My First Dictionary
A Saint story from a child's Saint book

Songs: God Is Bigger Than the Boogie Man from Veggie Tales
Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli
Ghostbusters
Heffalumps and Woozles
Littany of the Saints

Activities:
Review "Gg" and "Hh" vocabulary words

Play with gak

Play with the hair gel packets

Play with saint peg dolls

Dress child up as a Saint for All Saints Day Mass

                      St. Anthony of Padua

Friday: All Souls Day/Review "Ii" and "Jj" Vocab/ Review all Aa-Jj Vocab Activity
Books:Insect Detector by Anita Holmes
The Lemon Drop Jar by Christine Widmen
My First Dictionary
A Saint story from a child's Saint book

Songs: Jesus Loves Me This I know
Inch Worm by Kenny Loggins
The Witch Doctor
We Walk By Faith

Activities:

Review "Ii" and "Jj" picture vocab from dictionary

Put up the both the uppercase and lowercase letters "Aa" through "Jj" throughout the house. Help the child review each letter's vocab coloring page and then find the right letters the work pages matched with.

Play with insects in a sensory table

Work on jigsaw puzzles

Introduce All Souls Day. Pray a family Rosary together in honor of family members who have passed away.

How did you all celebrate Halloween and All Saints Day. Any cute costume ideas for future reference? Please share your ideas.

Happy All Saints Day!