Snowy Dinosaurs

This morning we had a great time talking about snow.  We played with shaving cream and glue "snow" as well as powdered "snow".  We learned the letter F and never before has the letter F been so easy to teach (Thank You, Frozen!).  We're working diligently to sound out the letters and blend them into words. 

 One of the reading groups had a really fun time teaching their sock monkey all the things that good readers do.  It was so fun to watch them do this.  We also practiced tracing our names on snowflakes.  In math we continued working on graphing.  We did just a couple pages of practice on the SmartBoard before our time was up for the day.

This afternoon we were talking about the letter D and dinosaurs.  We started the day being paleontologists digging for dinosaurs in our mini sand boxes.  The kids really loved this activity. 

 We read a book about dinosaurs and used yellow markers to mark the words that we could read.  Then one group continued that strategy by marking the words in their mini readers.  We also read the page in our encyclopedia about dinosaurs.  In their encyclopedia you'll find a small paper glued into the dinosaur page.  It's a b and d reminder picture to help kids remember which is which.

We had a ton of fun with math today.  We're talking about 2d shapes and their characteristics.  Today we utilized a shape building toy I have to work on it.  I first pulled out the pieces to make a shape and asked them what shape I could make.  We talked about how we could know for sure what I was going to make (shape of the sides "curved or straight", how many sides, how many corners) and then I built it.  After the lesson I set them loose to make any of the 4 basic shapes on their own.  It was quite interesting to watch them figure out what pieces they need in order to complete the task.

We did a lot of great learning today. Don't forget that Wednesday is Polar Express day and kids are welcome to wear their pajamas and bring a teddy bear!

Thanksgiving and Snow

 We had a fantastic lesson about Thanksgiving today.  We made a giant list of the things we are thankful for.  I was so proud of them for listing things like: family, books, friends, hugs, houses, someone even said "life".  What a fantastic group of kids!  We learned the letter L the Lizard and practiced making the /l/ sound.  It's such a tricky sound to make!  We continued working on "Guess My Secret Rule", this time with the silverware drawer.  The idea of the game is much like the Sesame Street game "One of these things is not like the others".  There are 3 items that match and one that is different.  The children are to identify which is different and why (such as it is bigger than the rest, it's a different color, it's a fork not a spoon). The game is actually REALLY hard and we're struggling with understanding the concept.  So... please pull out your own silverware draw, line up 4 objects (3 the same and 1 different) and ask your child which one is different and why.  Play it every day!

Preschool B had a blast talking about snow.  It was fun to read all sorts of books about snow and discuss the weather and then see that it was starting to snow outside!  We worked hard in our reading groups mastering the letter F and working on the Moffatt Girls Ready2Read program.  We moved to ABB patterns in math and they picked up the concept right away!  

Snow!

I love snow day!  It's so much fun!  We play with snow and talk all about what snow is and introduce the letter F.  We do F on this day because it's the sound you make when you're freezing.  We started the day playing with snow in cookie sheets.  We decided to use the fake snow since it wouldn't melt or cause any problems like cold fingers. 

 We had so much fun with our reading lesson today.  We continued with our shared reading and finding the words we know how to read within the text we have.  The kids have loved marking the words they know how to read.

 I'm so sad I missed pictures of them dancing in our snowstorm.  We have snowflakes suspended from the ceiling at varying lengths and everyone thought it was the best game to make them swing and "snow" a little bit while we were dancing and singing.  We worked on the letter F art from the Amazing Action Alphabet, made snowflakes with silver pipe-cleaners and even graphed snowflakes.  It was an option to go out and play in the snow at the end of the day but the girls declined since they were working so hard on their beading.  The boys enjoyed playing outside though!

December 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 "December Preschool Packs" contain 7 theme based lesson plans, a total of 205 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. 

You can now download the bundle of December Preschool Packs HERE, or get them individually by following the links below. 

27. Sharing and Manners {Download}

What can possibly be better than starting the holiday season with a good dose of sharing and manners review?  Start the month off on the right foot with the fun games, activities, books and lots of learning in the Sharing and Manners Preschool Pack.  We'll practice the letters and words that have been introduced already this school year and continue talking about syllables.  Work together to create a paper chain and start a study about graphing.  Continue your conversation about super friends and how they share! 

28. Gingerbread Friends {Download}
The gingerbread theme is one of my favorites to teach.  We have so much fun on gingerbread day.  It's filled with baking, sorting, graphing, syllables and ideas for Gingerbread based learning that leaves everyone happy!  Preschoolers will practice writing their letters, play with puzzles and size sequencing, read a fun position words book and explore graphing!

29. Snow {Download}
The Snow Preschool Pack continues our learning about syllables and graphing.  The letter F is introduced, don't you say /fffff/ when you're freezing?  There is so much fun to be had with different tracing pages, activities about symmetry, patterning, individuality of snowflakes and people, Tic-Tac-Toe, a spinner counting activity and a play-dough mat!

30.  Polar Express {Download}
I am thrilled with the (now 2nd) remake of the Polar Express Preschool Pack.  You'll find word family bells to practice reading all the letters that we've learned thus far. There are counting pages and a Do-A-Dot train.  You'll also find a hop along the path large motor game (one of our favorites to play at Little Adventures Preschool).  It's been introduced before as a jumping game, but now we'll start making it more challenging by adding dice. There is a pattern block train as well as patterning pages. You will practice making tally marks and discus comparison words like larger, smaller, fatter, skinnier.  There is a train for standard and non-standard measurement and a short path game with a spinner.  There are also train cards with sight words that we've learned this year for a game of Matching, Go Fish, or Memory.  You'll also find beginning sound clip cards with all the letters we've learned thus far and a few extras for an extra challenge!  

31. Ocean Animals {Download}
The Ocean Animals Preschool Pack introduces the letter J with a focus on phonemes (specifically initial phonemes).  We continue graphing with goldfish crackers and a cut and paste activity.  There is Sea Star Bingo, a play-dough mat, a beginning reader book, size sequencing activities, color matching games and a mini lesson on the different ways we can observe Ocean Animals since they live under water and we live on the ground!

32. Winter Holidays {Download}
December is considered the holiday season because there are so many holidays that we celebrate.  Different families from different cultures and backgrounds celebrate the holiday season in different ways.  This theme gives a few tidbits from a few of the December holidays.  You'll find beginning sound presents, a letter to Santa and a Santa paper doll, New Year's activities and countdown chain toppers!

33. Thank You Notes {Download}
This is a nice little set of plans to remind us to teach the importance of writing thank you notes.  There are a few letters that are set up as tracing templates to add details and write thank you notes.  We review counting the quantity of items, read a few beginning reader books, practice our graphing, play Go Fish and match uppercase to lowercase letters, and even cut out our own envelopes and practice folding it and a note card.

**Preschool packs are lesson plans intended for a small preschool classroom or homeschool.  They are not to be used individually as they follow a year long curriculum that builds upon itself.  The themes specify what the underlying topic is that we'll be talking about with literature, in our art, and any science or social studies activities.  Reading and Math activities most often do not relate to the theme and these lesson plans are heavy in the reading and math department.  Printables expand on what we're able to cover in our 2.5 hours allotted to learn the materials and are often used as homework practice. The reading lesson plans are designed to be used with all the materials from the Amazing Action Alphabet and have been proven to teach children to be successful readers.

**Each preschool pack has 3 pages of lesson plan ideas.  Each child should be introduced to activities that don't involve something you can print from a computer, such as building blocks or painting.  These first 3 pages of lesson plans have all of the ideas that match the theme in one easy spot.  The lesson plans pages are organized by subject for easy referencing.  I've linked many of the materials listed to Amazon.com to provide you with more information about products you might want to consider using.  These packs have a lot of research behind them as I am a licensed teacher with experience teaching PreK-2nd Grade for 10 years.  

Snow Day!

Today all the school districts were closed around us, so we canceled Little Adventures Preschool.  I dropped all my "Turkey" lesson plans for the day and went in search of snow related ideas from blogs I love.  During breakfast I jotted down ideas and then took off running with the boys.  I'm exhausted now.

We started with brush/finger painting white on a piece of cardboard.  I plan to cut out snowflakes from it after nap time.

 While we were painting we practiced writing letters, more specifically our names in the wet paint.

 Here is C drawing a big "O".

 Next we moved on to cutting out snow flakes.  This was a bit hard on our little scissors.

 They boys each made 3 snowflakes that they were really proud of before they lost interest.

 One broken pair of scissors later...

 Our beautiful masterpieces.  C's is on the top center and the bottom right.  T's are on the middle row right and bottom row left.  My example is the middle row left.

 Soon enough it was snack time.  We made "Snow-Cream".  I made the boys a green smoothie (spinach, banana, apple, whole milk) and then topped it with a cup of snow for the boys to mix together to make an ice cream texture.

 Next, I gave each of the boys a tray of snow and filled 4 kid sized spray bottles with water and food coloring.  I didn't want to get everyone dressed to go play outside (particularly EMan, whom I knew wouldn't enjoy it) so I brought the snow inside to us.

 They got to work spraying their snow to make different designs.  Of course they thought it was also awesome to eat the colored snow - no problem for me!

 I showed the boys that they could make a mini snowman.

 EMan wanted to get in the action as well.  He poked at the snow a little bit and then whined that his hand was cold.  It was a good vocabulary building activity.

 We started a snow science experiment first thing this morning.  We got three bowls and filled them each with one cup of snow.  Then we set them in different rooms of the house.  We wanted to see where the snow would melt the fastest.   Here are pictures of 2 bowls at the one hour mark.

 I made a chart to write down our experiment on.  Since the boys don't read I think the chart was lost on them.  Perhaps if I do this again I'll plan ahead and have some pictures ready and color code the chart.  We'll still check the garage one after nap and then at dinner time to see when it melts.

During lunch I read the boys some of our snow related books.  I'll finish reading the rest of them throughout the day.

I'm frustrated that preschool keeps getting canceled, but I guess that's the name of the winter game.  I look forward to seeing all my little ones again on Monday.