Fall, Autumn and the Dentist

What a wonderful day of school.  We had so much fun talking about the letter T and how the season fall will soon be beginning.  We played with paper leaves by tossing them in the air over and over and saying, "It's Fall!"  The kids had a complete blast!  With the introduction of the letter T they each now have a new Amazing Action Alphabet mini reader book in their binders.  Be sure to have them read it 3 times a day.  We loved reading them to our sock monkeys today in class.  In art we colored a tooth brushing chart, be sure to use it this week and reward your preschooler with the certificate at the bottom of the page.  They also received 4 tooth picks in art today to make them into two Ts, a "Mommy T" and a "Baby T".  Have them recreate them at home!  During math we played with equal quantities up to 5.  Please see the details below on how to play this homework.

In our afternoon class we talked about the letter T with the Dentist theme.  We read in our encyclopedias about the human body with muscles and bones.  We marked words we can read or simply the letter T.  Please read this page with your preschooler tonight or tomorrow as their homework.  Let them point out additional ts or read the words they highlighted (and any additional ones they can read).  This strategy is called companion reading which gives kids a way to access text they can't yet read on their own.  In math today we also played with creating equal quantities.  Each preschooler received their own paper with two circles on it.  We used tokens (poker chips) to put an equal number in each circle.  If they had 2 tokens on the left side they needed to have 2 tokens on the right side. These papers went home as homework tonight.  Using pennies or other small tokens recreate the game.  Let them put some on the left hand side and then an equal number on the right hand side.  PLEASE encourage children to MOVE the token as they are counting it.  Perhaps they have 3 tokens in one circle, as they count them they move the token from the top of the circle to the bottom of the circle.  This reinforces one-to-one counting which nearly all of my preschoolers are missing.  If your child is 3 years old only allow quantities up to 5 in each side.  If they are 4 years old you may allow quantities up to 10 per side.

 We had a fantastic time talking about letter t saying /t/ and not /tu/ if you open your mouth after /t/ to make an /u/ sound the tiger might accidentally bite off his finger!  We loved our reading groups and enjoyed helping T the Tiger brush his teeth in art.  After our 'teeth' are dry I'll send them home!

It's Fall!

Don't forget to swing by and enter to win the Lakeshore Learning Craft Supply Box!  http://littleadventurespreschool.blogspot.com/2013/09/lakeshore-giveaway.html

We had a fantastic time in preschool today.  We learned all about fall/autumn and it was the perfect day for it.  We finally have slightly cooler weather in Colorado.  It's felt like August still for the past week!  We don't have leaves on the ground yet, though they are starting to change colors on the trees.  Today we used paper leaves and threw them up in the air while singing our leaves in the fall song from the Preschool Lesson Plans about Fall. 

 We've learned the letter T and are working on reading our "T Book" from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  I love how her books build so slowly for the very first reading steps.

 We counted out 5 foam T's for each person.  I use the foam stickers so that kids can have the built in fine motor practice of taking the sticky part off the back of it. We were also working on quantity of 5 today, so 5 T stickers fit the bill!

 For art we made T watches from the Moffatt Girls and the letter T activity page from the Amazing Action Alphabet.  During math we played with counters creating different sets.

We had a great day of learning!

September Preschool Packs

Find the Year Long Theme Calendar here and follow along with us!

The preschool curriculum that is all inclusive and provides hours of fun and engaging learning!  The "September Preschool Packs" contain 7 theme based lesson plans, a total of 182 pages of lesson plans and activity printables.  My preschooler has begged to do his "homework" because it's a wonderful time that we spend together learning age appropriate concepts!  These plans are intended to be taught in a 10 month sequence from Aug-May, though may be adapted to use individually. 

5. Feelings {Download}
Feelings are an important concept to develop vocabulary around during the preschool stage.  The feelings packs provides 37 pages of lesson plans and printable activity pages to talk about feelings.  We also cover the quantity of 4, size sequencing, colors that relate to feelings, music and mood.

6. Fall {Download}

"Fall" is the most jam packed preschool printable when it comes to printable activities.  There is a location word book with a scarecrow that gets to sit over the hay, in the corn, and behind the pumpkins.  With cute graphics from ScrappinDoodles I absolutely love this pack. This pack introduces the second letter that we learn this year.  Letter T.  I highly recommend that you follow along with us in this non-alphabetical order to learn your abc's.  It makes much more sense to teach a child how to read while learning their alphabet.  Learning them in isolation is confusing!  A great resource for the alphabet is the Amazing Action Alphabet.  I use their flip chart to introduce the letters and then their mini books to demonstrate how to read.  I followed this curriculum last year, and you just can't beat 6 of 7 kids ending our 10 months together knowing how to read.  What power they now have!  There are some fun songs that show up in the packs as well as some sequencing activities (such as the tree activity below).

7. Dentist {Download}

I like to print all the pages of my packs, cut and laminate as needed, and bind them into books with a comb binder. We use wet erase markers or dry erase crayons on the pages to keep notes, color, circle and trace things.  Wet erase markers and dry erase crayons wash easily off of lamination. You can use dry erase, but it doesn't clean off as well.

 The "Dentist Preschool Pack" has a memory game with small cards.  I'd recommend keeping them in a small baggy in a folder with your pack so you always have them handy!
The dentist pack includes 29 pages of lesson plans and activities.  We start talking about quantities up to 5, play with puzzles, explore visual discrimination and color capital and lowercase T's.

8. Opposites {Download}

The "Opposites Preschool Pack" has 3 pre-reading books with pages that illustrate different opposites.  I like to cut them out, laminate them, and bind them together with a simple binding ring.  We continue working on tracing, equal quantities up to 5 and the letter a.  This pack is 32 pages of awesome!  The opposites Tic-Tac-Toe game is one of EMan's favorite activities to play.  Though he doesn't have strategy to win yet he does have strategy to stop me from winning. It's so fun to have some intentional play time with my little man. 

 9. Animal Friends {Download}
The Animal Friends pack is 24 pages of letter review and activities about animals.  It is a review pack for the previous 3 letters we've learned (M, T, A).  There are phonemic awareness games in almost every pack and the one in this pack I completely love!  The way this game is laid out clearly shows parents and teachers how learning what sounds the animals make transitions into learning what sounds the letters make.  Both versions of the game are in this pack. This pack also finishes up the "More, Less or Equal" unit in math.  I very strongly believe that there are certain mathematical principals that kids need to learn BEFORE they learn to recognize numerals.

 10. Families {Download}

The families pack is 19 pages of lessons and activities about families.  It's a review pack that reviews our first 3 letters (MTA) and kids practice reading with a little Road to Reading game.  We practice reading the sounds of the letters as we drive our car on the road. It's so much fun your preschoolers will play it over and over.  Because of the sequential learning through my curriculum your preschoolers will be successful at reading these words (and nonsense words) even though they only know 3 letters.  This pack also introduces ordinal numbers, a short path game, tracing, visual discrimination, and sets up to 4. 

 11. Nursery Rhymes {Download}

I was told just before leaving the public school system on maternity leave that nursery rhymes are one of the most important things a kid needs to know before entering kindergarten.  The teacher that told me this is one of the most loved and respected kindergarten teachers I've ever met.  I remember then that I didn't know much about what a kid should know by the time they are school age.  Boy have I learned a lot!  There is overwhelming evidence that early learning of nursery rhymes and rhythmic poems, songs, and chants significantly enhances early reading skills and phonemic awareness. In fact research highlights phonemic awareness as a strong predictor of a child's reading success.  This pack includes a half dozen nursery rhymes (in case you've forgotten them from your youth).  There are also numerous activities that go along with nursery rhymes.  It's the last pack of review of the first 3 letters that we've learned and kids get to play this fun initial sound sorting game. There are pages in this pack specifically for art as well.  There are name recognition activities and a star for making into a twinkling star!

This set of September Preschool Packs is certainly moving our preschoolers in the right direction to be successful as adults!