3-2-1! We're Blasting Into Outer Space!!!

     After a crazy weird week for us last week it was nice to be back to a normal routine. As you can guess, this week we learned all things that are part of outer space. Outer space can seem harder for little ones to understand mainly because other than the moon and the stars and the sun it is hard for them to comprehend. They cannot see it so it is not easy to understand. That is why I find some youtube videos and nasa videos much more helpful for them to begin wondering about what is all out there floating around that God created. Learning about outer space is important if only because it does help them open their imaginations up even more. Even for adults outer space is huge. Thinking about what it is like out there is somewhat daunting. As a teenager and college years I loved to get away with a small group of friends and l8e down on blankets or back of trucks or wherever and stare up at the stars on late Summer nights and wonder up at outer space, trying to figure out the meaning of life. My amazement of this started out younger by the fascination of the moon. I am sure most of you all can relate to the awesomness of outer space. Young kids enjoy learning about space, and planets, and the moon. My kid quickly said his favorite planet is Neptune because it is blue, his favorite color.
     Along with learning about outer space my kid and I also focused on the letter Vv and color yellow.

Monday:Intro Uppercase V/Intro Outer Space and Our Solar System
Books: My v Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Eight Spinning Planets by Brian James
My First Dictionary
The Pre-schooler's Bible (Specifically the Creation Story)

Songs: It Takes A Village by Raffi
Veggie Tales Silly Songs With Larry youtube playlist
He's Got the Whole World In His Hands
The Solar System Song on youtube

Activities:
Intro upper-case V and Vv vocab words from picture dictionary. Work on uppercase V coloring page.

Play veteranarian

Intro outer space by using the Creation story. Now just because I am introducing this topic with the creation Bible story does not mean everyone has to. I chose to do it because I want my kid to know that no matter if it happened in a "big bang" or not, as Catholics we believe God was the one who was in charge. He said let there be light and there was.

Show my kid the solar system song video.

Using two paper bowls and green and blue paint we made our own planet Earth. Once it dried we taped the two bowls together.

Also we took turns pretending to be the sun and planet earth. The sun stands still while planet earch spins around the sun.

Tuesday:Intro Yellow/The Moon
Books:The Velvateen Rabbit by Margaret Williams Bianco
Moonstruck by Gennifere Choldenko
Yellow by Sharon Gordon

Songs:
I see the moon and the moon sees me.
God bless the moon and God bless me.
I'm A Little Vacuum (Tune of: I'm A Little Teapot)
I'm a little vacuum hear me vroom!
Over the floor and all across the room.
When I get all revved up see me work.
Cleaning up the carpet and sucking up the dirt!
The Yellow Submarine by the Beatles

Activities:
Review Vv vocab with picture dictionary

Pull out the vaccuum cleaner to let my kid explore how it works. My child has always been terrified of the vacuum so letting him be the one to get up close and figure out how it turns on and off with him in charge helped him be less afraid. He even helped push it while it was on which is a big deal dor him. He normally freaks out and has a bit of a melt down if it is turned on in the same room as him.

Intro color yellow. Use different shades of yellow paint for a yellow collage.

Intro the moon. Recall how the earth spins around the sun. Explain how the moon circkes around the earth. We go to the beach to visit my parents every year so i also explained how the moon helps keep the water on the beach from getting to high or too low. Since he has been to the ocean and remembers it clearly this was actually a fun fact for him.

Use playdough and toys to make craters like on the moon.

Wednesday:Intro Lowercase v/The Sun and Stars
Books: Energy From the Sun by Allan Fowler
A Visit to the Bakery by Sandra Ziegler
Stars by Don L Curry
Curious George Rides A Bike by H. A. Rey

Songs:
Oh Mister Sun by Raffi
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Vacation Song
(Tune:She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain When She Comes)

Oh we're going on vacation on a plane
VROOM!
Oh we're going on vacation on a plane
VROOM!
Oh we're going on vacation
Yes, we're going on vacation
Oh we're going on vacation on a plane
VROOM!
(You can insert bus, or car, or boat instead of plane if you want)

Yellow by Coldplay

Activities:
Review Vv vocab words. Intro lowercase v and coloring page

Play with play vegetables in corn kernals

Play with water in kitchen sink and use yellow food coloring for the color yellow

Intro stars, sun, constellations...use cut up stars or star stickers to let your child create his/her own constellations.

Thursday:Day Off for Health Check-up appointments...our school district took Monday off for President's Day...the beauty of being homeschooled we switched our dayoff this week for today.

Friday: Vv Vocab Review/Astronauts and Rockets
Books: Rockets and Astronauts by Karen Walace
Odd Velvet by Mary E. Whitcomb
Yellow All Around Us by Sarah L. Schuette

Song:
Violen song (Tune of Row Row Row Your Boat)
Play play play a tune
On your violen
Very loud and very soft
Play it once again

Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! We're Flying to the Moon on youtube

Activities:
Review Vv vocab words and work on Vv vocab coloring pages.

Play indoor volleyball...only with a soft ball and focus more on how the child interactively plays more than technique.

Yellow pom pom sorting. After the child picks out all the yellow pom poms have fun creating a pom  solar system.

Play with yellow playdough

Intro astronauts and rocket ships. Play dramatic play by pretending to go on a journey through outer space. Make a pretend rocket ship and if you go to the moon move and jump slowly (or if you are willing make your own "moon stepping stones for added balance), if you go to mars move around super fast because it is hot, or go to neptune and pretent to shiver because it is so cold, or go to jupiter and spin around and get dizzy because it is the fastest planet or crawl low to the ground meteor because it is not in an orbit per say... set up the play tents and pretend it is a space station... everytime you go to another journey remember it is a great time to practice counting backwards to blast-off!

These are just a few fun ideas to help introduce thw idea of outer space to younger kids. What crafts or other activities can you think of? Have fun exploring together!

Valentine Fun

   

     This post has taken WAY to long to be posted and there are several reasons why. The first big one is the fact that my kid came down with a fever Monday and then woke up Tuesday sick to his stomach. Wednesday a family emergency came up that kept me side tracked. Thursday we learned some confusing and sad news and then we had family visitors all week-end. Needless to say it was a very crazy week. We still learned things, but it was all haphazard. I will share with you the things we did get to do for this year's Vakentine's Day theme of the week, but to be honest I did not get many photos taken. We also focused on the letter Uu last week and the color red.

Books We Read
My u Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
The Story of Valentine's Day by Clude Robert Bulla (only the pages about St. Valentine)
Knuffle Bunny Free: An Unexpected Diversion by Mo Willems
A Special Friend For Valentine's Day by Patricia Stone Martib
Red by Sharon Gordon
The Ugly Duckling by Polina Lovsin
Our Valentine Book by Jane Belk Moncure
Llama Llama Red Pajama
Unlovable by Dan Yaccarino
Valentine by Carol Carrick
My First Valentine's Day Book by Marian Bennet
Sea Urchins by Lola M. Schaefer

Songs We Sang
Up, Up, and Away In My Beautiful Balloon (youtube)
A Tisket A Tasket
I youtubed Valentine's Day Song Playist for kids and used those songs for us this time to make it a bit easier on me during the wacky week last week.

Activities We Did
Colored our uppercase and lower case Uu coloring pages
Introduced Uu vocab words from our picture dictionary
Played keep it up with some balloons
Did a red painting using different shades of red and then finished with some red glitter
Threw plastic balls underhanded
Played with red playdough
Made a handprint valentine place mat
Used utensils to play with playdough and shaving cream
Played in the sink and used red food coloring in the water
Worked on some valentines.
Made Valentine cupcakes
Made a heart collage
Played indoors with the umbrella
Worked on the Uu vocab coloring page
Did some upside down fun learning how to do handstands...
Had a valentine's day dance party....
Played I spy Red

What fun activities did yall do with your littles for valentine's day? Can you think of other fun Uu activities or ways to make learning colors fun???

Learning With Aesop

 

  Happy Friday everybody! I hope you have had a pretty good and fun week with your family. This has been a pretty chill week for us since we have had rain everyday this past week. I am glad I scheduled this week to be an review week. I was able to use a,whole lot of our favorite sensory activities to go along with all the letters we have covered so far this year. I also thought it would be interesting to indroduce Aesop Fables to my child since we just completed a week of fairy tales and another one of nursury rhymes before that. I thought adding in a week of even newer stories would keep my son's interest. He learned lots of new vocabulary words since Aesop Fables have a more advanced use of language. Here is what our week was like.
Also you can check the menu options bittom on the top right of this to find the link for my archives. You can find photis of pretty much each activity throughout my blog post entries.

Monday:Uppercase A-T Review/ Vocab Review of Letters Aa-Dd/The Bear and the Bees
Books:Animal Orchestra by Ilo Orleans
The Bear and The Bees-Aesop Fable
Carribean Alphabetby Frane Lessoc
Pooh and The Dragon by Ann Braybrooks

Songs:
A-Apples and Bananas by Raffi
B-Baby Mine
C-Church Bells by Carrie Underwood (my kid loves this song. Pretty much the only reason I chose this one)
D-Hey Diddle Diddle

Activities:
Review Aa vocab words
A-made art with paint
Review Bb vocab words
B-build with blocks
Review Cc vocab words
C-play with corn kernals
Review D vocab words
Went to the zoo and played on the real drums there as well as looked for the animals that started with the letters A,B,C, and D.

Tuesday:Review Ee, Ff, Gg, and Hh vocabulary/The Heron
Books:Eeyore Be Happy by Don Ferguson
A Rain Forrest ABC by Amanda Doering
Berenstain Bears and The Gift of Courage by Jan and Mike Berenstain
The Heron-Aesop Fable

Songs:
E-Eagles Wings
F-Five Little Ducks by Raffi
G-The Corner Grocery Store-By Raffi
H-You Be In My Heart- Kenny Loggins

Activities:
Review Ee vocab
E-play in water for empty/full
Review Ff vocab
F-fingerpainting
Review Gg vocab
G-Glitter fun
Review Hh vocab
H-Play with hair gel packets

Wednesday:Lowercase a-t Review/Ii, Jj, Kk, and Ll Vocab review/The Vain Jackdaw
Books:I'll Never Let You Go by Smritu Prasadam-Halls
The Vain Jackdaw-Aesop Fable
Peek-a-boo Kisses by Bernie Saltzberg
Lucy and Tom's ABC by Shirley Hughes

Songs:
I-Inch Worm by Kenny Loggins
J-Jesus Loves Me This I know
K-Let's Go Fly A Kite from Mary Poppins
L-Jesus Loves the Little Children

Activities:
Review Ii vocab
I-Instrument Fun
Review Jj vocab
J-Play with people and jet airplane
Review Kk vocab
K-Play kitchen fun
Review Ll vocab
L-locomotiv fun

Thursday:Mm, Nn, Oo, and Pp Vocab Review/ The Ox and the Frog
Books:The Real Mother Goose ABC by Patty McCloskey Padgett
Clifford and The Grouchy Neighbors by Norman Bridwell
The Ox and The Frog -Aesop Fable
Eat Your Peas, Louise! by PaGeen Snow

Songs:
M-Do You Know the Muffin Man
N-All I Really Need by Raffi
O-This Old Man
P-I Am A Promise

Activities:
Review Mm vocab words
M-play with magnets
Review Nn vocab words
N-Play with dry noodles
Review Oo vocab words
O-play with dry oatmeal
Review Pp vocab words
P-Playdough

Friday:Qq, Rr, Ss, and Tt Vocab Review Day/The Hare and The Tortoise
Books: The Christmas Story From The Preschoolers Bible (Mary, Queen of Heaven)
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney
S is for Snowman by Kathy Jo Wargin
The Hare and The Tortoise -Aesop Fable

Songs:
Q-Do You Know The Question Man  (from the Qq activities tab in the archives)
R-Somewhere Over the Rainbow
S-You Are My Sunshine
T-Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Activities:
Review Qq vocab words
Q-Play with dry quinoa
Review Rr vocab words
R-Play with dry rice
Review Ss vocab words
S-Play with Shaving Cream
Review Tt vocab words
T-Play with play hut tents

What Aesop Fables do you think your child might enjoy???

Once Upon A Time...

     Once upon a time there was a land that where there lived a little family in a little cottage. This cottage happened to be in a land that had been hit hard with a strong blast of winter arctic air.  The trees dripped in magnificent icycles that hung from the tips of the branches, the ground was covered in white snow that glistened in the sunlight so brightly it hurt their eyes to look out at it's shimmering beauty. The air was so cold that it took their breath away. Not even soft warm coats and thermal underwear seemed to keep the chill out for them to enjoy the bright sunlight for very long. It was the kind of cold that was great at keeping all the people in their homes and even the winter creatures cooped up in their burrows and nests.
     Now the family in the little cottage had a mom, dad, and very active little boy and they were very antsy for the day the neverending cold would end so they could enjoy running around to explore the beauty of the outdoors again. Since it was nearly impossible to do much of that the momma of the family decided it might be fun to spend these cold indoor days enjoying and exploring other worlds by reading a magical book filled with stories all about worlds that had a magical powers. Worlds where a gingerbread cookie comes to life, or a duckling goes on a journey in search of acceptance only to find it is a swan and not a duck at all, or a family of talking bears that comes upon an intruder sleeping in their home. In this book there were also stories of three brother pigs who end up scarring away a big bad wolf and of giants and magic beans. A place where the imagination knows no limits. The place I am speaking of is the world of fairytales ofcourse. Fairytales are magical abd because of that fact the family had so much fun exploring those worlds that they did not fully realize how fast the icy cold blast outside was finally subsiding and the snow had begun melting and the animals emerged from the warm homes until they were woken from the fairytale storybook spell by the sound of a robin singing it's song outside their window encouraging them to come out and play. The momma decided it was time to put that magic book safely away until the cold ever decided to come back again.
      Ok ok ok, so maybe I am not the most creative of children's story book authors, but I had fun thinking my silly little story up. That is a big part of what makes teaching with fairytales so much fun! The ones I ended up focusing on happened to be ones I already owned. Maybe you will be interested in some of the activities we did to help bring them alive for younger kids. We also focused on the letter Tt this week.

Monday:Intro Uppercase T/The Gingerbread Man
Books: My t Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
The Tale of Peter Rabbitby Beatrix Potter
The Gingerbread Man by The Clever Factory
My First Dictionary

Songs:I'm A Little Teapot
Teddy Bear Teddy Bear
Gingerbread song on youtube...the five gingerbread men

Activities:
Intro Uppercase T/Intro Tt vocabulary from picture dictionary/Uppercase T coloring page

Play with train

Plash trash man (an activity I introduced in the vocations theme week last fall)

Work on dino puzzle because of the T-Rex part

Intro The Gingerbread Man. Make gingerbread men cookies together.
Play tag if you have enough room.

Tuesday:Intro Good vs Evil Opposite Concept/Intro The Ugly Duckling
Books: My Trip to the Zoo by Mercer Meyer
Scuffy the Tugboat by Gertrude Crampton
The Ugly Duckling by Polana Lovsin
My First Dictionary

Songs:Twist and Shout
The Ugly Duckling video on youtube by Walt Disney

Activities:
Review Tt vocab picture words from the picture dictionary

Play with tool set

Work on tool puzzle

Role play/dramatic play with the dr. set to use the thermometer. Show how the real thermometer works.

Intro The Ugly Duckling. Use plastic Easter eggs for sorting and matching. If child is interested you can also play a game where you have your child close their eyes. While they are closed hide one of the colored eghs and then see if they can guess which one is missing.

Wednesday: Intro Lower Case t/Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Books: Loose Tooth by Lola M. Schaefer
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robert Southey
My First Dictionary

Songs:Twinkle Twinkle
Goldilocks and the Three Bears song on youtube

Activities:
Intro lowercase t/review Tt vocab words from picture dictionary/lowercase t coloring page

Play with the treehouse doll house

Play with dinosaurs, particularly the t-rex one

If there is enough room bring in trike from outside  (if too cold) to play with.

Intro Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Make oatmeal (or porridge if you want) together for lunch.

Thursday:Scissor Skills and Tracining Practice/The Three Little Pigs

Books:Trucks by Gail Saunders-Smith
The Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
The Three Little Pigs by Mei Matsuoka
My First Dictionary

Songs: Tomorrow from the Annie musical
Whose Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf song from Disney

Activities:
Review Tt vocabulary from picture dictionary

Practice tracing work page

Practice scissor skills

Play with trucks and salt and sugar. Watch the different tracks the trucks make in the salt and sugar or sand if that is ehat is preferred.

Work on truck puzzle together

Use triangles of different sizes, shapes, and colors. We used our foam shapes to do this. Seperate the shapes into sizes or colors. Count out the different numbers of each category you ended up choosing. We seoerated them into size then had my kid point out one from each color and counted how many of the color there were.

Intro The Three Little pigs. Use duplos to build a house of bricks and play the part of the story wherethe wolf tried to blow it down...

Find other objects in the house that are light enough that they can move when you blow at them. See which ones the child can blow the farthest.

Friday:Tt Vocab Review/Jack and the Beanstalk

Books: From Tadpole to Frog by Jan Kottle
Clifford's Tricks by Norman Bridwell
Jack and the Beanstalk by The Clever Factory
My First Dictionary

Songs:Thankfulness song from Veggie Tales
Jack and the Beanstalk song from YouTube

Activities:
Review Tt vocab picture words and work on vocab coloring page

Pull out our play tents and tunnel to play with

Play with race car track

Work on the Clifford puzzle together

Intro Jack and the Beanstalk. Play with the dry beans.

What fun fairytale themed avtivities do you love to do for young pre-schoolers?