Be Careful! It's A ZOO In Here!

     This week it has been all about zoo animals and their habitats. We have touched base on jungle animals, dessert animals, creatures of the oceans and many more. Zoo week is a fun one. Teaching respect for all of God's creatures big and small is a step in the direction of helping my child have respect and show kindness to all of humanity from the littlest ones to the oldest.
     This week has been a tad less active mainly because I learned I injured my sciatica nerve and perfictis muscle (in normal human words a muscle in my behind) and under doctors orders to rest as much as possible. Funny as a mom of a very active almost three year old. I scaled back on a lot of the activities I wanted to do, but stuff happens. We still had a good week of learning together.
      Also we learned about the Holy Spirit this week. I do not expect a kid this young to understand much of this concept of my family's faith, but it is still important to introduce these things to him.
     This week we have been focusing on the letter "Hh" and number 3.

Monday- Wetlands Animals and Habitat/Intro Uppercase "H"
Books:My h Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
Never Play Music Right Next to the Zoo by John Lithgow
Over In the Wetlands by Caroline Starr Rose and Rob Dunlavey
My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
Going to the Zoo by Raffi

Activities:
Intro to the letter "Hh." What uppercase H looks like and what sound it makes. Introduce the Hh words in the picture dictionary you are using.
Uppercase H coloring page
Use our real stethoscope to help hear whata real heart sounds like
Heart painting activity.
Fun with making handprints with the paint.
Play with our zoo play house with play animals.

Tuesday: Intro Dessert Animals and Habitat/Intro Number Three/Intro Holy Spirit
Books: When Sheep Cannot Sleep by Satoshi Kitamura
In The Dessert by David M. Schwartz
Journey Through the Dessert by Specs Art
The Story of the Descent of the Holy Spirit
My First Dictionary

Songs: Sally the Camel
The Gloria from the Catholic Mass parts. This song, for my non-Catholic readers, is a song that celebrates the Trinity. You are welcome to google it if you are curious what it is like.
Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli

Activities:
Review "Hh" picture vocab words.
Intro the number three. Practice sorting and counting to three with animal crackers.
Work on the number 3 coloring page.
Intro to the Holy Spirit. Explain how it is the third special name we use for God. Read the story of the decent of the holy spirit upon the apostles after Jesus died on the cross.
After reading talk about the three symbols that the Holy Spirit used to help the people in the upper room. There was a dove, fire, and wind. Show a picture of a dove, and lighta candle to help your child see a tongue of fire, and then turn on a fan and blow bubbles to help explain wind. After this I played the song Holy Spirit by Francesca Battistelli which was incredibly sweet to watch my kid completely relax with. After it finished he sat up and said to me "Do it again, Honey." He apparently felt something with that song just as I do everytime I hear it. We then sang the Gloria together.
Played in the sand together for the dessert type of habitat.

Wednesday: Intro to Forrest Animals and Habitats/ Intro Lowercase "h."

Books: Robert the Rose Horse by Joan Heilbroner

Journey Through the Forrest by Steve Cox

My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: Bumping Up and Down by Raffi

Five Green and Speckled Frogs

Activities:

Review "Hh" picture vocab words

Intro lowercase h and coloring page

Play tools and most specifically the hammer 

Dramatic play with all sorts of different hats 

Play with the flourist water deco beads for sensory play.

Thursday: Intro to Jungle Animals and Habitat/ Intro to Plains Animals and Habitat/Practice Lines and Scissor Skills

Books: Hello Hello by Miriam Schlein

Journey Through the Jungle by Steve Cox

My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: Hokey Pokey

5 Little Monkeys

Activities:

Review "Hh" picture vocab words

Use hair gel packets made from last week to practice writing straight lines with and build up the fine motor skills.

Practice scissor skills

Mr. Potato Head Play

Zoo animal and tools (hammer) puzzle work

Play with the sensory water beads

Park Day

Friday: Intro to Ocean Animals and Habitat/Intro to Arctic Animals and Habitat/"Hh" Vocab Review

Books: The Cat In the Hat by Dr. Seuss

Ocean Babies by Hiroe Nakat

Journey Through the Oceans by Steve Cox
Baby Animals In the Snow by Scholastic Books

My First Dictionary "Hh" words only

Songs: If You're Happy and You Know It

Octopus Garden by Raffi

Baby Baluga by Raffi

Activities

Review "Hh" vocab and vocab coloring page

Seashell painting

Play with sand and sensory water beads

Build a zoo out of blocks

Zoo day

                         (Hh is for hippo)

What activities do you have for turning your home into a week of zoo learning fun??? Or additional activites for the letter "Hh?" Let me know! One of my friends mentioned using a lightbox for the waterbeads to add even more scensory stinulation. I hope to figure that out the next time I use these.

"Hh" Is For Doll HOUSE Play

 

    I have written a previous post on all the benefits of using dramatic play for young children and their learning process. In this ppst I wanted to talk more in depth about how important a doll house (yes, boys have just as much fun playing with doll houses as girls, but if the term doll house is not your fav we just call them play houses here with our son.) can be used as a tool for helping children learn. Doll houses are very nostalgic for so many people. I know I can recall endless hours spent up in my childhood bedroom spent engaged in playing with my doll house. I loved being able to control what went on in my own house. Maybe you have similar memories of playing with your own growing up?

     When children play with doll houses they can break down things that are going on in their own families. They use them to try to understand how to problem solve disagreements through making the little people role play different interactions. They also begin to understand more about what household things are needed for certain everyday tasks and where they belong. Bath time needs a bath tub and is done in the bathroom and not in the kitchen... gotta cook dinner for the family over in the kitchen. Bedtime routines can be heard while the child us putting the kids to bed. You can hear how they think disagreements should be handled if they have the little people fight over the television. They build their vocabulary as they pretend to be the mommy or daddy. While playing doll house they are also using those fine motor skills as they move the people and furniture around. It may be helpful to get a glimpse of how they view their homelife while listening in on their doll house play. This type of dramatic play is different from dress up role playing in a sense because instead of pretending to be one thing, with the doll house they are role playing multiple people so their brain waves are being exercised even more as they try to be in more than one person's shoes. It is hard work doing that for them.

Introduction to Maria Montessori's Learning Theory

 

   

I know I mentioned something about a Montessori  type school in a past post on the constructive learning theory. I thought I would take a minute and talk about how Maria Montessori's learning method plays into this theory, as well as a few ways she found to help om her own.
     Maria Montessori is one of the few learning theorists that we learned sbout in our early childhood classes who was female. Her beliefs about education is why those who decide homeschooling may not be for them, but love the idea of the freedom of learning should see if a montessori school may be nearby as these schools most closely resemble a homeschooling day to day life than public and private schools do.
     Montessori believed children learn best through exploration and play. The most important time for a child to learn is under the age of six which is it a lot easier to find early childhood montessori programs, but there are schools set up for older ones too. The children are put in 3 different age groups, but some schools use 4. Infancy through age six are kept grouped together with the same teacher for their time period there. Ages six through twelve are all kept together with the same teacher, although some schools have started to group six to nine seperate from nine through twelve. And finally the teenage year age groups are taught together with the same teacher. These age groups are done purposefully because she believed that the younger children will receive an abosrbant mind through watching and working with the older children much better than from a "teacher."
      Her curriculum has five key points. Sensory and perceptual development, self-help skills, language skills, physical and motor skills, and social and emotional growth. Her schools have teachers who are more like mentors, there to observe when a child may need help, but not to tell them and instead show without words. There is about three hours worth of active learning in a school day with teachers introducing new concepts and ideas, but the best teachers in this set up other than the children is the environment of the classroom. The classroom should be filled with the things that are close to naturalistic as possible and focused on the concepts the teachers are hoping for the children to be able to explore and learn from together and on their own.
     This learning and teaching style has now begun to move into a pre school Catholic religious ed program called Catechisis of the Good Shepherd. You may find you have a parish nearby that offers this or you may end up feeling called to help start one up for your parish. Teachers for this program must go through the catachesis training before being able to teach.

Everything Will FALL Into Place When You Put God First

     This week is, as far as teaching goes, is probably one of my top five favorite themes to play with. This has surprised even myself because those that know me know I really cannot stand Fall and Winter. I am very much a Summer fan. I live for long hot days and warm nights. Fall symbolizes the end of my favorite season. So loving the fall theme seems odd, but it is filled with so many fun ideas. That and the beginning of football season, and the best time of the year to binge watch Gilmore Girls (not that those are relevant to teaching but still remain true). Tie in the fact that for me this time around it is the same week as the letter "Gg" and I have had the most fun with the activities. There are so many ways of going about what to plan. I am sure there are activities you all have thought up that did not cross my mind. Along with Fall and the letter "Gg" we learned about the number 2. I have been an excited momma so it may be a good thing I cannot drink coffee (I know I know, I am weird, but I am ok with that fact).

Monday- What Happens In Nature During the Fall/Intro to Uppercase "G"
Books: My "g" Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
A Book of Seasons by Alice and Martin Provenson
My First Dictionary "Gg" words only

Songs: Goosey Goosey Gander (Mother goose)
Autumn Poem
Autumn winds begin to blow
Colored leaves fall fast and slow
Twirling, whirling all around
Till at last they touch the ground

Activities
Intro letter "Gg"
Uppercase "G" coloring page
"Gg" vocab words
Fall tree door decor activity- I used clear comtact paper and fake leaves. I drew a tree trunk on the unsticky part of the contact paper. Tape the contact paper to the door sticky side facing you. Then decorate thectree together by sticking the fake leaves onto the sticky side of the contact paper. I ended up also having to use double sided tape for some of the leaves.
Fall tree painting activity- take a piece of paper and use the paint bottles, not a paint brush for this activity. Drip out a line for the tree trunk towards the bottom of the paper. After that help guide your child to drip out in globs different fall colors for leaves above the tree trunk. Use clear plastice wrap the same size of the paper you used. Carefully place it on top of the globs of paint, then let your child push down on top so the paint runs together and spreads around to make a fall tree.
Pretend fall tree play-use the left over fake leaves and pretend you are fall trees by tossing them up in the air and watching them fall together.. or play leaf fight with the leftover fake leaves.
Introduce what the seasons are then zone in on fall. What happens in fall with nature...days get shorter, it gets colder, plants begin to let go of their flowers and food gets harvested and tree leaves change colors and fall off...

Tuesday: Fall Activities/Intro Number 2
Books: Grandpa Gazillions Number Yard by Laurie Kellar
A Year For All Seasons by Monica Stevenson
The story of Noah's Ark from his Bible... the animals went 2 by 2
My First Dictionary the "Gg" words only

Songs: These Are Grandma's/Grandpa's Glasses
Five Little Pumpkins poem
5 little pumpkins sitting on a gate
The first one said oh my it's getting late
The second one said there are witches in the air
The third one said but we don't care
Thr fourth one said let's run and run and run
The fifth one said I'm ready for some fun
Then whoosh went the wind
And out went the lights
And the five little pumpkins rolled out of sight.

Activities:
Intro number 2
2 coloring page
Review "Gg" words
Garbage toss game and play garbage man (garbage day for our neighborhood). Use up some crumpled up paper and a can and toss the garbage into the can...use dunp truck to collect the garbage and take it to the dump.
Red Light Green Light- practice stopping and going. Run around together and randomly yell out red light and make sure you both stop together. Green light when you are ready to go again. After a little bit let your kids take control of when to stop abd go.
Talk about the different fall activities and holidays that happen. Refresh about nature with Fall.
Gummy bear sorting- put one of each different colored gummy bear in a seperate container. Help your child figure out where the matching ones go. Count together the 2 gummy bears in each color.

Wednesday: Fall Safety/Intro Lowercase "g"

Books: Goldilocks and the Three Bears by David Crossley

My Love For You All Year Long by Susan L. Roth

My First Dictionary "Gg" words only 

Songs: Corner Grocery Store by Raffi

Autumn Time Is Coming

(Tune of Frere Jaques)

Red leaves falling

Red leaves falling

On the ground

On the ground

Autumn time is coming

Autumn time is coming

All around

All around

Orange leaves falling

Orange leaves falling

On the ground

On the ground

Autumn time is coming

Autumn time is coming

All around

All around

Brown leaves scattered

Brown leaves scattered

On the ground

On the ground

Autumn time is now here

Autumn time is now here

All around

All around

Activities:

Intro lower case "g" and review vocab words

Lower case "g" coloring page

Gold glitter glue goo- take 2 5 oz bottles of clear elmer's glue...mix it with a bigger sized jar of the super tiny gold glitter

Play gas station attendant with trikes and hose. If warm use the water as gas. If too cold just pretend.
Play pretend Guardian Angels to the recmscue 

Practice with a doll house how to lock/unlock doors with keys 

Talk about ways to stay safe suring the fall...with spiders being out more it is important to start talking about how to watvh out for them....

Thursday: Fall Clothes/Line Tracing and Scissor practicing Day

Books: Where's God by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Turn Turn Turn by Pete Seger

My First Dictionary "Gg" words only

The story of David and Goliath from his Bible

Songs: Scarecrow Scarecrow

Scarecrow scarecrow turn around

Scarecrow scarecrow touch the ground

Scarecrow scarecrow reach up high

Scarecrow scarecrow touch the sky

Scarecrow scarecrow bend down low

Scarecrow scarecrow touch your toes

God Is Bigger Than the Boogie Man by veggie tales

The Gloria from Mass  ( those of my readers who are Catholic know this so I will not type out the words, but those who are not and are curious you are welcome to google it. It is about the Holy Trinity...God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.)

Activities: Review "Gg" vocabulary

Talk about why God is important 

Play David and Goliath with the crumpled paper from the garbage toss game. Take turns being David and Goliath

Practice tracing work sheet

Practice scissor skills

Make hair gel packets for sensory play. Squeeze hair gel and food coloring into ziplock bags. I chose fall colors for ours. Then put the bags over white paper and then trace shapes/letters/numbers/designs in the gel packets. Save for future use.

Play with corn kernals

Guitar fun

Talk about the different clothing that is worn in fall time

Zoo day-look for animals with "Gg" like giraffes or gila lizard...

Friday: Fall Animal Activities/"Gg" Vocab Review

Books:Clifford and the Grouchy Neighbors by Normam Bridwell

Animals In Fall by Martha E. H. Rustad

My First Dictionary "Gg" words

Songs: Octopus Garden by Raffi

Little Acorns
Five little acorns sitting in a tree
Along came Mr. Squirrel as hungry as could be
Then the fall winds blew and rustled all the leaves
Down came all the acorns and Mr. Squirrel was pleased

Activities:
Review "Gg" vocab words
Color "Gg" vocab worksheet
Play pretend ghosts
Glitter art- bring out glue sticks/glue and let the child make designs on paper with it then show him/her how to sprinkle on glitter to make his design glittery. I suggest using lots of newspapers for a faster and easy as possible clean up...
Sunflower seed tactile play
Talk about animal activity in the fall
Go outside and play pretend squirrels harvesting acorns...use balls or something else like that as the acorns. If rainy hide them around the house for the chils to find.
Play hibernation... use music for spring/summer. When it stops the child has to find a place to hibernate for winter...
Park day if nice outside.
Giraffe/zoo animal puzzle play

(My kid with his "acorns" he gathered up)

     As you can see there really is a lot of possible activities you can do for a fall theme as well as the letter "Gg." I know there is more activities I have not thought of. What ideas can you add to this theme that you did not see in this post? Share them with me, please!

"Gg" is for Games

   

     If you have been following this blog for awhile than it is not too surprising that we are working with the letter G. When double checking myself about  about what I remembered learning about for the importance of structured game playing I found not as much info out there as everything else I have refreshed my memory on. Structured games in 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 year olds looks pretty different in a lot of ways than how we should approach structured games for older kids. Structured games are basically any game that has set rules of play. The most popular type of sttuctured gamed are active and allow lots of body movement. Also there are some sit-down games and these are not always baord games so much. Honestly, I would not recommend board games yet for this age group, but because each child is different and are more ready than others than I would definitely wait until age three. You as the parent would know if your child is ready for all the things board games entail.
     So what makes games so important for little ones? The fact that through game playing children learn how to take turns. They learn to have self-control because they have to follow the rules. Depending on the type of game being played it will work gross and/or fine motor skills. Games help with social cues. They help children strengthen cognitive skills. Another important reason games are helpful  is how they can strengthen math and verbal cues. Playing games also can help with literacy skills. These are just some ways playing games is work for kids and not mindless timewasters.
     Structured games, as I said earlier all have a set of rules that need to be followed. Games should be modified at this age to where winning and losing is not what matters, so should actually be downplayed during the game. What should be cheered on the most is watching them as they follow along and cheer for listening, and following the rules of the game as that is what will be hardest for this age group. For me, I tend to take out winning and losing from my vocabulary when a game is being done. I also tend to eliminate a position of winner loser. I would not recommend that as the child gets closer to four, but the concept of winning actually can be detrimental for kids so young.
      Here are a few examples of how I modify active games for this age group. For musical chairs I do not take chairs out like I would for older kids. Instead I make sure they fully are understanding of how to stop and find a chair between rounds of having them do different movements... one round will be them acting like airplanes until the music stops. The next round might be ok now crawl like a baby, etc. For red light green light I just let kids run around in a circle and randomly say red light and see them stop. Taking turns and letting my kid be the light. I take the basic ideas of a game a modify it for my kid's readiness.
     When doing sit-down games I make sure winning is not really big deal. For picture bingo, for example, I cheer on big if a child this young finds the matching picture on his card on his own mors than I do about who gets their card covered first or last. Or if it is a game like doggy doggy where's your bone we cheer on the child after he/she figures out who has the bone and allow the finder to pick out who they want to be the dog next, as long as the child they want has not had a turn yet.
     These are what I have found to be most age appropriate ways games are important. Did you think of something to add that I missed? Please let me know!

Intro to Urie Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory

 

      This next theory I thought about sharing with you all today is the ecological theory. This theory is not so much about teaching per say, but how the people that are nearest to a child affect how the child develops. There is a trickle down affect on the child as you will see. There are four groups in this theory. The microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and the macrosystem.

     The microsystem consists of the child's main caregivers and family unit. These people should be the biggest fans and advocators for the child. If the family unit is living, caring, and focused on the child's well being than that will be carried with that child's memory forever building up the child's self confidence whereas if the child is neglected than he/she will hold onto that as well with a feeling of unimportance.

     The mesosystem is the people that the child comes into contact with on a regular basis. Teachers, friends, extended family members, church family, etc.. this group plays an important role. The more the carefivers place an importance on these things than the child will more than likely follow suit. These people will also leave imprints on a child's life. The more that parents take an interestin the child's mesosytem the safer the child will feel to explore this part of the environment.

     The ecosystem is the group of people that will affect the child, but who they may never physically meet. The main caretaker's place of employment for example. Anything positive or negative there will have a great affect on the child. Those civil workers in their hometown will also have an affect on the child, but the child will have little or no contact at all.
 
      The macrosystem is about the child's culture, country's government and laws. The really big picture.
   
     These each have an affect on the child. A visual I like to think about is the zoom in/zoom out function on google maps. The more you zoom out of the child's life the more you can see how we are all connected in a way in this systems theory.

Sensing the Beauty of the World God Created

 

     This week I decided to focus on the importance of our five senses. With hindsight I realize now that I should have done this theme along with my first two themese in the beginning, "How God Made Me Special" and "Using My Body to Glorify agod." I have made note of that for my pwn future reference. Also, this post will not have many photos as I have been dealing with back pain this week as well as watchimg some of my nephews and niece and did not want to put their photos up here without their parent's permission, which I always forgot to ask when I was talking with them.
     The five senses is such a fun theme for this age group. A lot of sensory activities are used here. Mostly not many really messy ones, but still fun.
      God gave us five senses and helping kids learn to use them to help and be grateful for what God created for us is very important.
     Along with the five senses we learned about the letter "Ff" and the number "1."

Monday- Sense of Smell ("We are to God the fragrance of Christ." 2 Corinthians 2:15)/Intro Uppercase "F"
Books: My F Soundbox by Jane Belk Moncure
The Nose Book by Al Perkins
My First Dictionary, the Ff words only

Songs: "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" by Raffi
Sing A Song of Senses tune of The Farmer In the Dell
 (this will be used throughout the week so I will type it out here, but you can look back to see what verse you want to use. So for today we just sang the verse on smelling).

Activities: Intro the letter "Ff" and go over vocab words in my first dictionary.  Use "Ff" coloring sheet.

Play follow the leader outside. We took turns being thd leader.

Introduce the five senses. Explain how when God created living things He created us with five senses. They are for us to use to learn more about the world God created us for and to use for good things. They are there also for us to avoid danger when possible.
Set up Mr. Potato head. Each day I had ny child help add onto him with each new scent being talked about. 

Intro sense of smell. Explain the importance of our sense of smell.

Find different morenaturalistic scents around the house, we used cinnamon, garlic powder, ginger, spearmint, lavendar, vanilla, and vinegar. We took turns smelling these scents. My son's two favorites were the garlic powder and cinnamon.

Tuesday: Sense of Touch (Jesus touched him and said be clean. Matthew 8:3)/Intro Number 1
Books:The Balancing Act by Merle Peek
Goodnight Curious George by Margaret and H. A. Ray
My first dictionary "Ff" words only

Songs: Where Is Thumbkin?
The verse on touch from Monday

Activities: Review "Ff" words
Intro number 1/one coloring page
Play Mr. Fix It with tool set
Intro sense of touch and how inportant and special it is.
Play with play-dough
Finger paint
Play with dry beans
Find different textures throughout the house for my kid to explore with.
Add hands to Mr. Potato head
Mother Goose On the Loose day

Wednesday: Sense of Sight ("I was blind, but now I can see." John 9:25)/ Intro Lower-case "f"
Books:All Around I See by Laya Steinburg
Sam the Firefly by P. D. Eastman
My First Dictionary

Songs: Frog Went A-Courting
Five sense song from Monday, the verse on sight

Activities; Review "Ff" words
Intro lower-case "f" and "f" coloring page
Play with flashlight
Use binoculars for sight seeing walk
Intro importance of our eyesight and ways to take care of our eyes
Play "I-Spy"
Park day

Thursday: Sense of Hearing ("He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Matthew 11:15)/Tracing and Scissor cutting skills day

Books:Dig, Wait, Listen by April Pully Sayre
Fox In Socks by Dr. Seuss
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes by Mem Fox
My First Dictionary

Songs:What Does The Fox Say?
Five senses song from Monday. The verse on hearing.

Activities: Review "Ff" words
Tracing activity
Scissor skills practice
Play firefighters with firetruck and people
Intro sense of hearing. Use youtube sound/noise for pre-k videos for kids to figure out from listening.

Friday: Sense of Taste (Taste and see the goodness of The Lord." Psalm 36:8)/"Ff" Vocab Review Day

Books:Yum! A Tale of Two Cookies by Jane Seymour and James Keach
Alice the Fairy by David Shannon
My First Dictionary ("Ff" words only)

Songs: Old Macdonald
The Senses song from Monday (the verse on taste)

Activities: Review 'Ff" words and do the vocab coloring activity
Play with farm play set
Zoo day
Intro sense of taste. I had Anthony try a food from each of the taste groups. Salty-chips, sweet-reese cups, bitter-lemon, sour-sour patch kids. My husband went and picked those things out as my hands had been full from other things this week.
Oh and finished our my potato head.

These are just a few ways I thought of to help my kid learn about his senses. What other activities can you think of for your little ones?