All About The Letter C

Normally we do a letter a day, but letter C will take 3 days. This week we will cover, hard C, soft C and Ch. I'm hoping it won't be to confusing.

Tuesday we will learn the hard C.

Circle Time:
C is for Cow, Caterpillar, Cloud, and Clown (Clowns freak me out, so we won't be focusing on those a lot. haaha.)

Five Little Cookies
Five little cookies With frosting galore.
(Child's Name) ate the red one, then there were four.
Four little cookies, Two and two you see
(Child's Name) ate the green one, then there were three.
Three little cookies But before I knew,
(Child's Name) ate the white one, then there were two.
Two little cookies, Oh what fun,
(Child's Name) ate the brown one, then there was one

The Caterpillar
The fuzzy little caterpillar went up into a tree (act like your climbing)
spun his cocoon and then (spin hands) went to sleep (yawn)
While he was sleeping he dreamt that he could fly (making flying motion)
When he woke up (loud, excited) he was a butterfly.


Think and Do:
Letter C worksheet and mini book

Arts and Crafts:
I decided on something pretty simple and I found a picture of a sun and cloud. I will have them color the sun yellow and glue cotton balls on the cloud. I also liked this idea. If I have time I will do it too.

Story Time:
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
(2 books my kids can't get enough of.)

Music and Movement:
Again, we are doing something pretty simple. Just clapping out the beat to some fun songs.

It's late and I haven't figured out my Wednesday and Thursday plan. But I will try to get them up Tuesday evening some time.

Corner Bookmark

Every once in a while I come across a craft that I fall absolutely in love with. This one is soooooo cute and so simple! How can you not love it?!?! I found it through The Crafty Crow, one of my favorite blogs, who found it through WhiMSy love. It's a simple origami book mark that can be done with any paper really, but she used bubble paper that they made, which is a project I already planned to do with the kids. PERFECT!! All the bookmarks she made were totally cute, but the corner one was my favorite. I've never seen a corner bookmark before. I love it!
Here is the link for how to fold it.

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

"A told B and B told C

I'll meet you at the top of the coconut tree."

I read this book to the kids today. It was a HUGE hit. They made me read it twice. It's a really fun ABC book written by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault. However, you have to have a sense of rhythm if you want to read it effectively. haha. My book actually came with a CD. It has a main reader (Ray Charles) and a few other readers, including kids. Not annoying kids either. It's really cute. So, if you don't have good rhythm, I recommend getting the one with the CD.

One fun suggestion I read that you can do with this book is print out a picture of a coconut tree and tape it to a metal baking sheet. Then, use alphabet magnets and put them in the tree as you read the story. You can also let the kids try and to it or just let them play with the magnets.

Here are some other fun activities and printables to go with it.

Butterfly Masks

This is the craft we did today. The kids had a lot of fun making these and were so proud of them when they finished.

I think they turned out awesome. :) I know in my original instructions I said to glue the stick off to the side, but I found that will only work if you use something a little sturdier than card stock...like cardboard...or particle board. haha. But it worked just fine with the stick in the center.

Some other fun letter B activities:

-Footprint (or hand print) Butterfly

-Binoculars Once binoculars are put together, I plan to let the kids decorate them with markers and stickers. But here are some other variations that older kids might like better.

http://www.dltk-teach.com/rhymes/lionhunt/mbinoculars.htm

http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/toystomake/a/blbinocr.htm

-Bubble Paper

Another variation would be to poor bubble solution into a few separate cups and add different colors of food coloring to each one. Then let the kids blow bubbles onto white paper letting the bubbles settle and pop on the paper making different designs. This is the one I plan to try. I will probably do it on poster board outside on the lawn.

Thursday Schedule

Topic: Letter B (We did A on Tuesday.)

Circle Time: Show letter Bb. B stands for balloons, bumble bee and bubbles.
Sing a few selected songs or nursery rhymes.

Blowing Up Balloons-
This is the way we blow up our balloon (put hands together at mouth)
Blow up our balloons, blow up our balloons. (spread hands wider and wider)
Oh, oh, uh-oh! (clap loudly) my balloon burst!

Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee

The Bubble Song

(for lyrics to these songs go here.)

Think and Do:

Letter B worksheet and and mini b-book.

Arts and Crafts:

Hand Held Butterfly Mask
Print Butterfly template on card stock or colored paper.
hold butterfly up to each child's face and mark about where there eyes are with a pencil. Cut out eye holes and then let them decorate the butterfly with crayons, buttons, feathers, stickers, colored pasta etc. glue or tape a craft stick or unsharpened pencil to the back. (preferably to the side so they can hold it up to their face with out it being in the way of their little noses.) You could also decorate it with ink pad thumbprints or paint.

(This idea was from the first-school website. I couldn't find the exact link though.)

I also have a coloring page of a bumble bee if they want to color.

Story Time:

The Berenstein's B book

Dr. Seuss ABC's

Music and Movement:
I usually play one of my kindermusik CDs and sing and dance along. I try to pick action songs, but sometimes they just like to dance and go crazy, which is fine. I will play some alphabet songs and blow bubbles. They can dance and pop bubbles at the same time.

Daily Schedule

Here is an example of our schedule. We don't do it every day. I plan stuff for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and one of those days is often kindermusik (which we love and I highly recommend). I try to start the same time each day, but it doesn't always work out that way. Which I guess is one of the benefits of homeschooling. Still, I realize that consistency is important when it comes to kids, so I try start as close to 10am as possible. Anyhoo...here is my schedule:

Circle Time: 5-10 minutes
Think and Do: (this is where I try to teach a specific concept. ie, up/down, in/out, letters, etc. You get the idea.) 10-15 minutes
Arts and Crafts: 15-20 minutes
Potty break/wash up
Snack Time:15 minutes
Outside Play: 20 minutes
Story Time: 15 minutes
Music and Movement: 10 minutes
Potty Break
Free Play/Clean Up: 30-40 Minutes


I don't really stick to the time amounts either. If the kids are antsy and I'm losing their attention I move on. If they are really liking something we are doing, I will spend more time, but it typically takes about 2 hours from start to finish. So far they have been doing really well. Lulu often wanders off to do her own thing and I let her. But Jacob really likes the structured time and I notice a major difference behaviorally on days we do this. The only reason I don't do it every day is because the planning prep. for each day is pretty time consuming. I have to spend at least 2 weekdays cleaning and taking care of other things. Anyhoo...there ya have it.

Switching Things Up

I decided to switch my one for the kids blog over to blogger. Blogger is just easier to work with. Along with the switch, I decided it needed a better name. With the help of my SIL Sarah, I think we came up with an excellent one. :)

I've decided to try my hand at homeschooling. I am doing preschool at home as sort of a trial run. (I can't screw things up to much with preschool, right? haaa.) So, from here on out, in addition to what I normally post on here, I will be adding my preschool activities and curriculum. If anyone has any ideas or things they would like to add, feel free to email me and I will add it (and acknowledge you of course). I plan to post at least once a week. I'll try for more, but it's not likely. haha. I would also like to bring in a guest blogger now and then for little variety. Let me know if you're interested.