Down On the Farm

      What a week we have had in our little home. We have had a sweet and playful visitor with us. A cute schnouzer dog named Roanie. She has definitly been a fun addition for us. Also without a fully fenced in back yard, having her here with us has made me be even more active to make sure she received the exercise and attention she needed.

     Wednesday happened to be my husband's and kid's daddy's birthday. Spending a much deserved week trying to focus on him too made another added layer to our week. He is a strong, loving, sweet, funny, dedicated, honest, loyal,  faithful, God-loving man and much more than these words describe. We love him so much!

     This week, with it being spring and just finished celebrating a beautiful Easter week-end (for those readers of mine who celebrate Easter I prayed you all had beautiful week-ends too), I thought, why not do a farm week? It is that time of year farm animals are having babies, and farmers are getting things prepped for planting. All sorts of new life can be witnessed on a farm. Also there are so many tactile activities to go along with this theme that make it so much fun for kids to learn with.
     Along with a farm themed week we are focusing on the lovely letter Cc and color grey.

Monday: Practice Uppercase C/Intro Different Kinds of Farms
Books: My C Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss
A Visit to the Dairy Farm by Sandra Ziegler

Songs:
Cowlit Night by Raffi
We're On Our Way to Grandpa's Farm

Activities:
Intro Tracing Uppercase C/Review Cc vocab words

Play with chalk

Intro differnt types of farms
Play with dry oatmeal

Park day

Tuesday:Intro Color Grey/Farm Machinery
Books:Corduroy  by Don Freeman
Eeyore Be Happy by Don Ferguson
The Rusty Tractor by Joy Cowley

Songs:
Can You Count the Stars nursery rhyme
Old MacDonald

Activities:
Review Cc vocab words

Play with toy clock

Play with cars and car track

Intro farm machinery
Play with toy tractors

Intro Grey. Grey paint collage

Wednesday:Practice Lowercase c/Farm Crops
Books:Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault
Maisy's Morning On the Farm by Lucy Cousins

Songs:
Pat-A-Cake
The Farmer and the Dell

Activities:
Practice tracing lower case c. Review Cc vocab words

Daddy's birthday card making

Daddy's birthday cake baking

Intro farm crops. Corn/carrot/cucumber print painting

Play with grey water

Thursday:Sorting/Matching/Farm Chores
Books:Clifford at the Circus  by Norman Bridwell
Chicken Little by George Bridge
Farmyard Beat by Lindsey Craig and Marc Brown
Elephant Crossing by Toshi Yoshida

Songs:
Pussy Cat Nursury Rhyme
B-I-N-G-O

Activities:
Review Cc vocab words. Work on sorting/matching page.

Play with corn kernals.

Play with shaving cream.

Intro farm chores...make our own homemade butter. 1 pt of heavy whipping cream, 1/4 cup sugar, 1tsp cinnamon. Blend in a food processor until butter is formed. About 5 min.. we started trying to shake a little of the heavy whipping cream in a baby food jar. We got impatient with that as we kept shaking, but nothing was happening after five minutes of heavy shaking. Put it in a food processor and was done in five minutes.

Coloring with grey coloring crayons and grey chalk

Friday:Tracing Cc Review/Farm Animals
Books:The Berenstain Bears and the Gift of Courage by Jan and Mike Berenstain
Cock-a-Moo-Moo by Juliet Dallas-Conte
Click-Clack-Moo by Doreen Cronin

Songs:
C is for Cookie
Cluck Cluck Red Hen by Raffi

Activitues:
Review Cc vocab words and tracing letter Cc.

Bake cookies

Sensory play with fruity pebbles cereal

Intro farm animals... farm mom/baby animal matching game.

Zoo Day. Spot all the grey animals.

These are the fun ideas I found that worked well for my child. What activities can you think of to go along with a farm themed or letter Cc themed week???

Making Holy Week Accessible For Little Ones

     

     To all my reader friends who celebrate Holy Week I pray you have all had a prayerful one. For those of you who happen to not have a clue what I mean by Holy Week it happens to commemorate the days of Jesus life and death leading into Easter. Out of respect for Good Friday I decided to wait until later today to post this so I could spend the majority of my week focused on Jesus and His suffering. I still wanted to get it up though in case you might be interested in mqking the handprint activity book together over the week-end.

     To help bring the ideas down to a pre k level all my Holy Week ideas actually were taken from Catholic Icing's blog post about Holy Week in Handprints. I am writing this here so I do not have to repeatedly write Catholic Icing after each activity. I am also using my phone, as I do not actually own a computer or laptop, so figuring how to put the link to that specific post is tricky for me. That blog pops up pretty easily though when googling the post I mentioned above. Since my kid is just shy of 3 1/2 I stuck with her abbreviated page choices.

     Along with focusing on Holy Week we also worked more on the letter "Bb" and the color white. Also, I hardly took any photos as a lot of these activities were done in my previous "Bb" acrivities week, with only a few changes, and because when you google the handprint activity you will see photos ecplaining the crafts on that blog.

Monday: Practice Writing Uppercase "B"/ Intro to Holy Week and Easter 
Books: My b Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
Jack and the Beanstalk by The Clever Factory
Easter by Lynn Peppas

Songs:
Baby Bumblebee
The Palm Sunday Song

Activities:
Intro Uppercase "B". Review Bb picture vocab words. Practice tracing uppercase "B."

Play with wood blocks

Play with dry beans

Easter donkey handprint activity

Tuesday: Intro Color White/ Jesus Teaches That Church Is A Place for Prayer
Books:
The Monster at the End of this Book by Jon Stone
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell Hoban
White by Nancy Harris
The Easter Surprise by Janet McDonnell

Songs:
Bathtime song by Raffi
What Wounderous Love Is This?

Activities:
Review Bb vocab words

Bubbles

Foam blocks

Intro white. White painting on black construction paper.

Holy week handprint activity.

Zoo day

Wednesday: Practice Writing Lowercase "b"/ Spy Wednesday
Books:
Busy Wheels by Peter Lippman
Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
The Berenstain Bears and the Real Easter Eggs by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Songs:
Wheels On the Bus
At the Name of Jesus

Activities:
Review Bb vocab words. Practice tracing lowercase "b."

Lego blocks

Bus puzzle

Play with shaving cream for color white activity

Intro spy wednesday. Do the spy wednesday handprint activity.

Park Day

Thursday:Sorting/Matching/Holy Thursday
Books:
Jonah and the Big Fish by The Clever Factory
Stop That Ball! by Mike McClintock
The Story of Easter by Patricia A. Pingry

Songs:
Baby Beluga
At That First Eucharist

Activities:
Review Bb vocab words

Work on matching/sorting activity page

Balloon fun

Bocce ball fun

Play with white playdough

Intro Holy Thursday and why it is so special. Explain a little about the different things that will happen during Mass so that the child will be looking for them to happen during Mass later in the evening. Work on Holy Thursday footprint activity.

Friday: Bb Tracing Review/Good Friday
Books:
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Robert Southey
Curious George Rides A Bike by H. A. Rey
The Easter Angels by Bob Hartman

Songs:
Five Little Monkeys Jumping On the Bed
Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?

Activities:
Review Bb vocab words. Practice tracing both uppercase and lowercase Bb.

Practice making the bed

Play with water beads

Play with cotton balls for color white

Intro Good Friday. Explain why it is a sad day, but also why it is still good. Explain the special things that will happen at church service today so the child is more interested in the service and more willing to participate. Work on Good Friday handprint activity.

These are just some ways to bring Holy Week more to a 3 1/2 yr. old's level. What activities can you think that can help young ones actively participate in the holiest week of the year?

Turning Something Creepy Into Something Fun

     Oh what a busy, gorgeous, warm spring week it has been for us. Lots of sun and even some water fun has been had, and I even ended up with a slight sunburn. It's the Irish in me. My kid already has a tan. It comes from the Italian part of him I guess. Along with warmer weather comes pesky bugs, but if it means freedom to be outside with little prep work (layering upon layering of winter clothes) than I will not complain to much. I hope your week has been just as warm and sunny as we have had.
     This week I figured what better way to follow a theme of bugs than of creepy crawlers. I am talking spiders, centipedes, millipedes, snakes (ok so they are a reptile, but they CREEP me the heck out and so I threw them in here too, earthworms...anything that likes to squirm around in dark wet places was explored. I am not a fan of these creatures. Spiders and snakes scare the jeebies out of me. These activities I did have fun with along with my kid.
     As I mentioned in my last post we are finished with our first go around introducing the alphabet. This next time you go through the vocabulary words you should see a huge growth of what your child will vocally point out. The first time was seeing what they may pick up with you. This next time through is sitting back and seeing what they will recall on their own first before helping them with their tougher picture words. Also, another big difference this time around is actually working with them to start tracing out the uppercase and lower case letters. Some kids still need lots of fine motor skills strengthening at around age 3 1/2 and so writing with a pencil will be tough. Some kids strive with pencil work, but struggle in other ways. If your kid has a hard time with pencils, maybe only have them trace like three letters each with the pencil, but see if they do better tracing in sand, or shaving cream, or whatever sensory play you are doing. Also do lots of practicing with their fingers in the air the motions they will follow when writing out the letters throughout the day. As they first start out at this phase do not expect them to be perfectly following the tracing lines. What matters is they try and follow with right motions. Most likely your kid's tracing will be very big, but as long as they still end up with something resembling the letter in the right proximity than that is what matters. A will look a lot less like A for your child than when they finish with Z where Z will be a lot more clearer, if that makes sense. Do not stress, but make it fun as much as possible. Also, I have done a post on different orders of how to introduce the alphabet incase you were curious. Honestly, you can follow the alphabet from beginning to end again if you want, or if you are needing a new order you can check that out under the label Learning Theories..there are several posts under that label so you might stumble on something interesting and new too.

    This week we started with the letter Aa again along with learning about the color black.

Monday: Practice Uppercase A/Spiders
Books:My a Sound Box by Jane Belk Moncure
The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle

Songs:
Apples and Bananas by Raffi
The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Activities:
Intro letter A again. Practice writing uppercase A with broad arm stroke. Review Aa picture vocab

Make applesauce dough. There are tons of recipes out there, so you can figure out the one that sounds easy for you.

Play astronaut just like our astronaut game from our space themed week.

Intro spiders. Spider web fun activity. Take yarn and tape it on a door to make a big spider web for your child to have fun pretending to be the spider as he/she runs back and forth the spider web... We do not have a big family so this next idea did not work as well for us, but if you have a larger family sit in a circle together and pass a ball of yarn around to make a family spider web.

Tuesday: Intro Black/Centipedes and Millipedes
Books: Andy Alligator by Sarah Albee
Black by Nancy Harris

Songs:
Alligator and Monkeys
(Tune of 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed)

Five little monkeys swinging in a tree, one little monkey teasing mr. Alligator said hey, you can't catch me.
Along came mr. Alligator quiet as can be snapped that monkey right out of the tree.
(Then 4, 3, 2, 1)

The Centipede Song
(Tune of Polly Wolly Doodle)
Said the centipede as he gave a little squirm
Has anybody seen a leg of mine?
If it can't be found I'll have to hop around on the other hundred ninety-nine.
Hop around hop around
On the other hundred ninety-nine.
If it can't ne found I'll have to hop around on the other hundred ninety-nine

Activities:
Review Aa vocab words and arm movements for how to make uppercase letter A

Free art coloring time

Abacus play

Black pom pom sorting.
Use pom poms to make millipedes together.

Watched a short youtube clip about centipeds and millipedes.

Park Day

Wednesday: Practice Lowercase a/ Snakes
Books: On Noah's Ark by Jan Brett
A Snake Is Totally Tail by L. S. Johnson

Songs:
Veggietales Who Built the Ark
A Silly Slippery Snake
(Tune if you're happy and you know it)
Oh I wish I was a silly slippery snake
Oh i wish I was a silly slippery snake
Oh I'd slither across the floor
And I'd slither under the door.
Oh I wish I was a silly slippery snake

Activities:
Intro writing lowercase a with broad arm strokes. Review Aa vocab words

Build noah's ark with blocks

Play with airplane

Play with black colored tub of water outside

Intro snakes. Make paper plate fingerprint snakes

Thursday: Sorting/Earthworms
Books: Blackout by John Rocco
Animal Orchestra by Tibet Gergely
Worm Loves Worm by J. J. Austrian

Songs:
Animal Fair
Herman the Worm

Activities:
Review how to write lowercase a with broad arm strokes. Reviee Aa vocab words

Zoo day. Fun animal exploring day


Almond sensory play

Black painting fun

Intro earthworms. Make dirt pudding together.

Friday:Aa Review/Ticks
Books: Curious George At the Aquarium by Margaret and H. A. Rey
Bug Safari by Bob Barner

Songs:
Animals In the Ocean by the kiboomers on youtube
Ants Go Marching One by One

Activities:
Practice tracing out again both uppercase and lowercase Aa. Review vocab.

Visit a local aquarium

Do some aerobics together

Take potting soil and cober plastic creepy crawly toys. I found some at our local dollar tree.

Library day.

What fun activities do you have that can make creepy crawlers less creepy???

Seeing the Beauty in Some of God's Smallest Creatures

     It has been an incredibly interesting week learning all about the interesting insects of our area. Insects are a fun topic of discussion and learning for kids, but especially for young boys. Getting up close to bugs is muddy dirty work and boys tend to love getting up close and messy. There are SO many insects to learn with which nakes it a fun theme to pick. I guess you could also call thie an Eric Carle appreciation week, but that is mainly because I just love his books for kids at this age. They are fun and colorful, and he likes to use insects as his main characters in a lot of his books. Also for more of the study of the insects I used a book I found at The Dollar Tree called Bugs by The Clever Factory. Putting that here instead of repeatedly posting it for each day.

     Along with exploring the world of insects it has also been a big review week since last week we ended pur first conplete round of tge alphabet. As far as all the books we read together this week, I honestly used whatever books we already own that fir with whichever letter we focused on. Because of that I am not gonna show any of the review books I used as they have been listed in past posts for each letter. Use what books are in your home or local library whenever you are looking for books about the letters of the alphabet.

Monday:Uppercase Letter Review/Aa-Ee Vocab Review/Butterflies
Books:The Very Hungry Catterpillar by Eric Carle

Songs:
A-Ants Go Marching One by One
B-Baby Bumblebee
C-Cha Cha Slide
D-Five Little Ducks
E-Eagle's Wings

Activities:
A- play with abacus
B- butterfly footprint activity
C- play with chalk outside
D- get dizzy and dance
E- fun exploring

Uppercase review activity- make a paper filled with all the letters of the alphabet...some uppercase and others lowercase. See what uppercase letters your child can find.

Tuesday:Primary Colors Review/Ff-Jj Vocab Review/Ladybugs

Book: The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle

Songs:
F: Friendship song from the girl scouts
G: Ghostbusters
H- Hokey Pokey
I-Iguana Song (from my post on the letter I)
J-Jesus Loves the Little Children

Activities:
F- Play with foam blocks
G-Grouchy Ladybugs Glitter activity. Take a half apple and dip in red paint for ladybug body. Fingerprint on black spots. Finish with glitter.
H- play with people and play houses
I-practice with iron (unplugged ofcourse right now)
J: take jars and prinary colored pom poms. Sort pom poms into jars by color...then if they are interested still by size...

Wednesday:Lowercase Review/Kk-Oo Vocab Review/Bees and Wasps

Books:
The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle

Songs:
K- Let's Go FlyA Kite
L: This Little Light of Mine
M: Five Little Monkeys
N- All I Really Need by Raffi
O-Octopus Garden by Raffi

Activities:
K-Killer Bee Footprint activity
L-Ladder Fun
M-Magnets
N-Dry Noodle Sensory Play
O-Outside backyard fun

Lowercase Review Project- use paper you did on monday for uppercase review, only have child focus on lowercase letters this time.

Thursday: Secondary Colors Review/ Pp-Tt Vocabulary Review/Dragonfly
Books:Pooh and the Dragon by Ann Braybrooks

Songs:
P-Purple People Eater
Q-Quarterback Song (can be found in my Qq actvities post
R- Somewhere Over the Rainbow
S- Baby Shark
T- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Activities:
P- Park fun
Q- Sensory fun using quinoa
R- Rainbow activity
S- Simon Says
T- Truck fun

Secondary color activity- play outside with buckets of and primary colored water and different containers to let the child mix differemt combos and make secondary colored water.

Friday:Uppercase and Lowercase Letter Matching Fun/Uu-Zz Vocab Review/bug Review Fun
Books: by Bob Barner

Songs:
U-Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid
V- Veggie Tales Theme Song
W-Witch Doctor
X-Xylophone Song (from my Xx activities post)
Y- YMCA
Z-Zippidy Doo Dah from Disney

Activities

U- Umbrella Fun
V- Vaccuum Inspection
X- Xylophone
Y- Sensory fun with yarn
Z- Fun With Zig-zags

Play matching game with all uppercase and lowercase letters...make 1 set of paper cards with uppercase letters and 1 set of lowercase. Take turns helping match the right pairs together.

Insect Activity...go outside with a container filled with plastic insects (I found some at our Dollar Tree) and bury them in potting soil for kids to dig and find.  As the find a new one review what it is with them.

These are the fun ways we reviewed our alhabet and explored insects. Starting next week we will move from the introduction phase to beginnings of writing the letters out phase. I will focus more on that in a different post.