MIA

I've been off my computer for a few days now, and this is why:

 Our study seriously looks like it exploded every day, no matter if I cleaned and organized it the day before.  I think that part of homeschooling and teaching preschool means we have stuff. Lots and lots of stuff.  A friend told me I needed to find a solution that actually works because our way of organizing wasn't working.  I often found I needed what what in that very bottom box in that far corner, and then YIKES!  So, we went to Ikea and got to work.  We found these awesome wire hooks that we put up in the preschool to hang all our art work and papers:

 I got two new filing cabinet and made my desk 2 tiered so I could put the printer on top of everything.  This is what the room looks like currently, there is still work to be done, but much improved.  We moved my desk to this wall and to the left (where my desk used to be) we put two dressers.

 The dressers now hold all the stuff that we get into a lot, like craft supplies and such.  And there is even room to stack a few boxes on top.  Now I can reach everything without piling and re-piling everything! 

How do you organize your stuff so it doesn't overwhelm you?

My, I, Indians and Pilgrims

Today we started learning the sight words "my" and "I".  After doing some whole group reading we worked on the Color By Number Sight Words from the Moffatt Girls. 

 We also did some pre-writing practice.  We did some Thanksgiving themed pages as well as the letter I pages from Raising Rock Stars from 1+1+1=1. The Thanksgiving pages came from these three places:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.com/ {here}
http://homeschoolcreations.com/{here}
http://mamasmonkeys.blogspot.com/ {here}

 Next we did a Do-A-Dot Sight Words page with the sight words we've been working on : the, I, my, a
To download a copy of this printable click {here}.

 We also did a cut and paste sort from Carissa's Thanksgiving Pack.

 I thought it was interesting that R put the puzzle together sideways.  It's a puzzle from my Thanksgiving Math Pack.

 A and R were the first ones to dive into putting together the geometric solids.  I cut them out, laminated them, and then put Velcro on all the "glue" sides.  (I tried magnets, but FYI magnets don't work for this).  The Velcro enabled them to take them apart to lay them flat and re-build them. Find the Geometric Solids in my Thanksgiving Math Pack.

 Singing Time today was a hit with these awesome Indian headbands we made!  It also turned out to be a great skill building experience as they had to find their headband with their name written on it.

I introduced the "Hop Along the Path" game today for the first time.  We started by simply making it a game to hop on each of the footprints all the way to the refrigerator where they could put the magnetic turkey feathers on the Turkey, take a new feather, and then start again.  Some kids started counting their hops.  We're still working on one-to-one correspondence, and correct number order.  These videos are so cute!

Just a little video about the geometric solids.

Also, did you notice that our blog was featured on Our Little Monkeys?  Thank you Dawn for all your kind words!  Considering that this blog hasn't been around for all that long I am so thrilled that so many people are finding us and enjoying what they see!  Comments and feedback make it all worth it, and connecting to another blogger is a wonderful new type of friendship.  Thanks again Dawn!

Road to Reading

Four days ago I started on a journey the I may never be turning back from.  I got my act together, redesigned the blog to be more appealing, got my license from Scrappin Doodles to share my work, started a Facebook page and dove off into the unknown.

It's been fun to watch in the last four days how many people have "liked" Little Adventures Preschool on Facebook, and how many have left comments about downloading the Thanksgiving Math pack.  It has been thrilling to find out how much other people enjoy what I've shared.  Today, we arrived at two dozen (and then a couple) of "likes" on Facebook, so I thought it due time to share the next little project I've been working on. 

C (turns 3 in January 2012) has mastered the following letters: A T M S B H C I.  I have a philosophy about the order kids should learn the letters in, and it has to do with being able to use them immediately to "read" words - but more about that another time.  So with mastering these letters C is working on automaticity in recalling the letter sound, and then blending multiple letters into words.  I created Road to Reading as an activity that might make more concrete the skills I'm trying to teach him.  The idea is that you drive a small car under the letters while you say the sound of that letter.  Drive the car faster and faster until it blends into a word.  That's it!  Sound like something you'd like?  Click on the picture of it below to download the PDF file. 

Enjoy playing with the Road to Reading, I plan to make more versions of it as we master more letters.  As always - please let me know if there are any typos.  To download: just click on the image of the game above.  Please leave a comment here if you download, I'd love to know who's using it! And, if you blog about the pack let me know!  I'll add a link to your blog under the printables section of mine!

We went to the park as a family today, and I couldn't resist posting these two cute photos of EMan and C playing the day away.



Sight Word Caterpillar

This week we learned about caterpillars on Monday, and once I got more ink for my printer I went ahead and printed out this cute site word caterpillar.  Annie over at The Moffatt Girls blog created this and I hope it will be a big hit on Monday when all my preschoolers return.  I drew a new head for the caterpillar to match our room decor a bit better than the one provided.  Find Annie's Caterpillar {here} and download my caterpillar head {here}.  I only put up the sight words we've talked about or will talk about on Monday, there are many more in the download, and we'll be adding to it all year.  Thanks Annie!

I'd highly recommend that you let your little one trace the words as you add them to your wall.  I went ahead and traced them myself with a permanent marker since I wanted them to be read clearly from across the room by all students, but if it was just C and me I'd let him trace the words for ownership purposes.

Field Trip Friday - Zoo

Since we spent this week talking about what animals do in the winter we naturally had to spend Field Trip Friday at the zoo!

 EMan is getting so big walking everywhere by himself.  I started having him hold my handle strap on this trip.  It's an elastic with cute fabric over it that has a handle strap for a kid to hold onto and a strap with a buckle to attach to the stroller.  It helps kids remember to stay close enough to me.  He did great for it being the first outing where he's gotten to walk a good part of the way on his own.

Spoiler Alert!

If you are a grandparent to one of my boys, and you don't wish to know what you're getting for Christmas from them, PLEASE don't read any further!

If you don't care if you know early, or it doesn't apply to you, enjoy!

Thursday was craft day in our house.  Little Learners didn't have anyone signed up to come, so we stayed in our paint clothes all day and got to work.  I don't know if any of you are brave enough to let your kids paint with semi-gloss, wall paint, paint and primer in one but I decided I was this day.

 We're making all sorts of picture blocks for Christmas, so we got busy painting.

 And EMan got busy eating crayons, yum!

 After the boys were done painting they needed a little snack.  As you can tell C also painted his legs, indirectly of course.

 It's days when I just give them the Costco sized animal cracker bucket that make me thankful for our kid sized vacuums.

 The boys had the job to paint the blocks.  When they were dry I used some Mod Podge and put pictures on them.

 The boys are getting this set of nine blocks that will have six different puzzles on them.  I don't have the room in my house to do this type of project without the boys seeing, so they've seen it and will hopefully forget it so it's kind of a surprise on Christmas morning.

 Grandparents will be getting these cute blocks with pictures of the boys on the sides.

And yes, I still have paint on my chairs to clean up.... oh well.

Thanksgiving Math Pack

I'm excited that in less than 24 hours there are a dozen followers of Little Adventures Preschool on Facebook.  I guess it's time to roll out what I've been working on, the Thanksgiving Math Pack!  I've yet to use it with my kids (I'm out of ink) but I'll post pictures as soon as I do.  This pack contains activities that would be great for the young preschooler (EMan, 1 year would enjoy it) and the older preschoolers and kindergartners that are in need of some fun math exploration. 
You'll explore:

• simple 5 piece puzzles
• Gross Motor math skills
• Short Path Game
• Compare (like "war" the card game)
• Geometric Solids
• Grid Game

You'll need:

• a die - I made one from a block and drew 1-3 dots (twice) on the sides since that's our level of math understanding in our home
• printer and scissors
• glue or magnets or Velcro (for the geometric solids)
• tape or magnets for the gross motor game
• counters - the more interesting to your kid the more involved they'll be!

Enjoy playing with the Thanksgiving Math Pack, and as always - please let me know if there are any typos.  To download: just click on the image of the pack above.  Please leave a comment here if you download, I'd love to know who's using it! And, if you blog about the pack let me know!  I'll add a link to your blog under the printables section of mine!