Preschool fun!

One Schooling at Home struggle, is that my very academic preschooler really doesn't get the 1:1 I like to provide at this age...especially with reading.  But, really, he's probably more advanced than either of my other two were...mainly because preschoolers are like sponges and he is just absorbing so much that happens around the kitchen table!  But I do thank our 3rd grader who takes him under her wing often and does things like read a book to him!  :-)  So sweet! 

 

  Oh yeah!  Lite Brite.  We were so excited to get some new patterns for our very old Lite Brite.  He took his time sorting out pegs (this helped reinforced which color when with each letter) and then painstakingly put each peg where it needs to be only to find out there wasn't enough whites!  Ugh!  I so don't like it when things like that happen.  And do you think we can just purchase pegs by themselves?  No, I can only find small packs with the new cube Lite Brite patterns.  :-(  So, anyone have any Lite Brite pegs they want to get rid of?!!  :-D

 

3rd grader brought in a craft she created at home with T. in mind.  How sweet!  He enjoyed the alphabet board and matched foamie letters to it.  He's starting in with sounds of the letters now...how fun! 

 

File Folder Games...an ol' time favorite.  Unfortunately I do not have time to make them...but glad that our local library has a few we can check out!  T. loves them!  Rhyming, goes together, letter sounds, size, shapes, colors, etc. 

 

T.  loves to do things similar to what the other kiddos do.  (One day I gave him a few "worksheets" to do...I'm not big on them but he loves them.  When he finished them I said, "You can put them in the basket now."  Oh, it was hilarious!  "Really?!  Put it in the kids' basket?"   Yes, T.  :-)  That made his day!  Anyway, 1st grader is working on counting money so T. was sorting coins on a mat. :-)

 

This is what T. often chooses to do during our minute test in the mornings.  I like to see how his drawings change over the course of time. :-)

 

He cut the lion out all by himself! 

 

Then he added a pattern mane, flipped it over and wrote his name.  :-)  Then he wanted to write the word lion.  :-)  Love those little moments.  When I asked him to spell it he told me "lion, /l/, L".  Today I overheard him talking to someone about how to spell his name.  Then he said, dad, a in the middle and 2 D's.  Fun!

 

Child Care Land idea called "scrunch and glue".  All it is a page with random dots.  He uses liquid glue (perfect for glue control!) on the dots and then scrunches a piece of tissue paper and sticks it on top of the glue dot.  GREAT fine motor!  Good for reinforcing colors as well.  He enjoyed this very simple activity.  Side note, this is the first year I actually purchased precut tissue paper squares....in like 15 years.  I always was that penny pincher and just cut my own tissue paper.  How silly.  I recommend you just spend the few extra pennies and buy the precut ones.  LOL

 

There's that 3rd grader with T. again.  :-)  She has such mothering tendencies.  A sweetheart.  They organized the pool for water play.  :-)

 

 

This is always a favorite!  A bit messy, but so fun for the kids.  Practice blowing in the straw first!  Soapy water is a little gross!  :-)  I used liquid watercolors and dish soap.  And of course the other kids in the kitchen didn't get anything else done during that time.  :-P  We ended up doing it as a whole group activity during our Free Friday activities.  They had such fun!

 

And, a weekend activity.  T. LOVES to help in the kitchen.  He does quite a bit with me.  Please allow your preschoolers to help as much as possible...great for learning responsibility, helping with their self-confidence, and is awesome for fine motor development!  Here he is making us some sugar cookies.  :-)  He felt very important using the hand mixer!

Money Intro and Counting By 10s

Most of our "work", as K. proudly call it, was a bit more on the kindergarten side vs. preschool.  We did a lot with the short/long vowel u, a bit with all the vowels, numeral formation on Kindergarten lines,  some science work about animals that we didn't get to last week, reading, word families, color mixing (http://mama-jenn.blogspot.com/2010/01/printable-color-wheel-activity.html), and more.   I imagine it's going to be like that on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays as K. is losing interest in the typical preschool routine/activities.  One benefit of having such a small group is that I can truly individualize.  It's also one reason why we plan on taking the homeschooling route next year...the ability to provide more hands-on learning at the speed/development of each child.

http://firstgradeglitterandgiggles.blogspot.com/2011/06/freebie.html

K.has just turned 5 and has taken an interest in skip counting and money.  So when I came across the lovely money chant chart on Pinterest I immediately print it off and laminated it.  We worked with it today as we handled and sorted coins and talked about their similarities and differences.  Then we began learning the chant.   It's up on our calendar wall now and we'll add it to our song list that we go through each morning.  :-)  One goal of a preschool teacher is to expand a child's attention span at group time.  In kindergarten, there are quite a few whole group gatherings for teaching and we want the children to be able to be attentive and learn during these times.    One way I do this is adding a bit more to our calendar/group time every month after January.  Right now we are up to 15-20 minutes.  Most days,  easy for the 5 year old, not so easy for the 4 year old...so needless to say, we spend more time at the calendar on M/W/F's than we do on T/Th's.

I always try to have at least one thing related to what the older kids are doing, for T.-2.5 years.  Of course, the older kids are welcome to work with T.'s activities after their own work is done.  The activity pictured above is favorite!  Simply putting coins into a "bank".  I hear them counting, see them taking turns and a bit of problem solving.  If it's out when my school-age boys get home, they'll even sit for a few minutes putting the pennies into the bank.  My personal opinion is that the repetitiveness and sound of the coins dropping into the container is relaxing.

Since dimes are worth 10 cents and she just loves the 10, 20, 30 ,...100 song we used a dime to hop from circle to circle to reinforce what each of the numbers look like.  A similar One Hundred Day Counting Mat floating around Pinterest not too long ago.  The orginal source was http://ericabohrer.blogspot.com/2011/01/100th-day-of-school.html.  I really didn't need the whole 100s Day set of printables she had for sale through TPT so I created our own.  K. then created ten sets of ten beads for each circle.  Great fine motor by the way, especially since she decided to put them on the edge of the circle instead of just dropping them inside the circle!  Definitely was an activity she enjoyed and I loved hearing her sing the song as she was working with it.  Feel free to download your copy here- 10s Mat.  Black and white version available also.  Very simple to create on your own with circles (or other shapes) on construction paper if you are wanting more color!  You could do color sorting/recognition, shape sorting/recognition and so on.  I find that with some preschoolers, the less color the less distraction.  So, though color appeals to me I tend to stay simpler/plainer for the sake of the children.

Have a lovely week!