Christmas Matching Game

My kids love this matching game. We did this one last year as well. Last time I just printed it out on card stock and it worked great. This year I am all out and keep forgetting to buy more. So, I printed it out on regular printer paper and laminated all the pieces to make them a bit more durable. Card stock would have been a bit less time consuming, but hey, ya work with what you've got. :-D

There are a few different ways you can use this game in your curriculum. You can do it the traditional way. Turn them over and each take turns trying to find a match, or if you kids aren't quite at the level of being able to figure it out, (Like L) you can spread the pictures out face up on the table, pick out one picture and ask them to pick the matching picture from the cards. Or, you can do the "one of these things" game. Pick out 3 cards at a time. Two matching cards and a odd one. Ask which two are the same and which one doesn't belong.

On a related note, I also found this cute advent calendar from familyfun.com.

Countdown Time

Time to break out those advent calendars. I made one last year, out of felt. It has pockets to put slips of paper in, with different activities to do. There are so many cute ideas for advent calendars out there. I wish I could make them all. Here is the post I did last year, with a list of activities and here are more pictures of my advent calendar. I'm gonna add a few different ones this year. Such as...

• Make an ornament out of beads and put it on the tree.


• Get out nativity set and talk about each piece.


• Make and send a gift to grandparents. (picture ornament maybe)


• Go caroling.


• Make a snowflake chain.
  
• Snowman dress up craft.
  
• Make picture frames out of craft foam and take Christmas pictures to put in them and hang on mantle.


• Go to a movie as a family.


• Make a cardboard train with boxes. Put pillows and blankets in so kids can sit comfortably and watch Polar Express in their train. Then drink hot chocolate.


• Hang stockings then read Christmas stories. (on Christmas eve)

If anyone has some other fun ideas, please feel free to share. :)

Fall

We've been doing this one for a couple weeks. I've gotten behind on my blogging and I don't have time to post my daily curriculum, so I will just focus on the projects we did.

First I introduced all the seasons. We made a seasons poster. I found clip art pictures for the kids to glue on, but you could also have the kids look through magazines to find pictures to cut out and glue on for each season. We talked about the different activities we do in each season, what kind of clothes we wear, etc.

After that we focused on fall, since that is the season we are in. I will do the other season as they come. We started off with a nature walk to collect fall things. We ended up with a bag full of sticks, rocks, acorns and leaves. I eventually plan to do leaf rubbings and possibly make stick people with the acorns and sticks. I also found some other cute things to do with them. I will post them when I do them.
I incorporated shapes (and colors for Lulu) into my most recent lesson plan and did this Autumn Family Landscape.


A word of caution when working with acorns. Evidently they can be filled with weevils. So you either have to bake them on really low heat or freeze them. I've heard stories about acorn/bug explosions from the baking method, so I am opting for the freezer method. :)

Fall Crafts

I was originally looking for crafts that I could do with acorns when I came across this "garden scarecrow". (Follow the link if you want the instructions. You have to scroll down a ways to find it.) It was so cute I had to make it. This is a pretty simple project, however, it's not really toddler friendly. It would be geared more towards older kids.
The kids liked my scarecrow so much I had to find one that they could make as well. This one was perfect. They were able to do this one with just a little help from me. I had to staple the bag closed and I put the hat together, but they glued everything on and stuffed the bag. They are very proud of their little scarecrows. Click here for the instructions for this one.

Colors-Tuesday

J has his colors down, but L has no desire to learn which color is which. So, it's a challenge to find something fun to motivate her. If anyone has any thoughts on that let me know.

Circle Time:

Colors (Sung to: Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes)

Red, yellow, green and blue green and blue
Red, yellow, green and blue green and blue
Purple, orange, brown and black
Red, yellow, green and blue green and blue

(I had a crayon for each color and held it up as we sang each one.)

Our Primary Colors (from Children’s Songbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints)

Our Primary colors are one, two, three—
Red, yellow, and blue.
Each one has a message for you and me.
Each is a symbol true!
Red is for courage to do what is right,
Yellow for service from morning till night.
Blue is for truth in our thought and our deed.
We will be happy when this is our creed.

Think and Do:

For J I printed out some color worksheets.

For L:

We have colored blocks. Some are solid colors, others are colored with patterns on them. I chose some solid colors and put them in a bin. Then I held up colors one at a time and said the color and her repeat it. Then I put them back in and asked her to pick out specific colors. J wanted to participate as well, so to make a bit of a challenge for him, I used the blocks with patterns on them and had him pick out certain blocks. For example, the yellow block with blue squares on it. It helped him learn shapes while we were at it. :)

Arts and Crafts:
I made it pretty simple today and just got out my colored stamp pads (I have red, green, and purple) and let them stamp different colored animals.

Snack Time:
I don't normally try to tie snack time into the weekly theme, but today I decided it would be fun. So here was our snack pallet.




Story Time:
Green Eggs and Ham
Bow-Wow's Colorful Life


Music and Movement:We re-sang our circle time songs. Then I put on a song that they could really move to, just to let them get some energy out.

Field Trip

We didn't do anything real formal last week because we were on vacation. But while we were visiting family we made a point of visiting the zoo. They had an aquarium there and Jake was able to see all sorts of fish. They had a few sharks there, but they were pretty small so he wasn't very impressed with them. lol. But he LOVED seeing the turtles and other big fish. Both kids had a great time. So, if you do an under the sea theme, I highly recommend a field trip to an aquarium.

Our Under The Sea Wall

So far this has been the kids favorite theme. Jacob has become obsessed with sharks and whales. We are planning to take a trip to an aquarium some time next week so he can see a real shark.

This project really requires a whole week I think. It was a challenge to get several fish on the wall in just two days. We had an extra long arts and crafts segment both days. They didn't mind because it's their favorite part, but it would have been easier for me to have a couple more days. We started out by painting the water. I have a big roll of white, easel paper I just rolled out and cut a piece the length of the table. Then I gave them some blue finger paint, a bunch of different sized paint brushes, sponges, etc and let them go to town. I helped here and there, but they mostly did it themselves. When they were done with the blue I put a few splotches of green at the bottom for them to spread around as sea weed.

Here are some individual pictures of our Under the Sea wall additions.

Rainbow fish



Hand print fish.
(I hesitated to post these ones because they turned out so goofy looking.)

Hand print and pipe cleaner sea weed.

(I couldn't get a clear picture, but there is also sea weed painted on by the kids. It looks really neat all together.)

Thumb print fish.

Sharks.

I'm actually sad this theme is over. I am for sure doing this one again. I would like to have added star fish, sea horses and sea shells. I also didn't get time to do my sea shell craft with all the shells we collected. I may have to extend it another week. I can't decide.

Under The Sea Part 2

The kids had a lot of fun starting our under the sea wall. They thought it was pretty cool when they added thier rainbow fish to the water. I discovered that Jacob likes sharks. (of course, he's such a boy. lol.) So I plan to focus a little more on sharks for part 2.

Here is our next lesson plan

Circle Time:

Five Little Fishies in the Sea
Five little fishes in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can't catch me
you can't catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea.

Four little fishes in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can't catch me
you can't catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea.

Three little fishes in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can't catch me
you can't catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea.

Two little fishes in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can't catch me
you can't catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! a fish up
right out of the sea

One little fishy in the sea
teasing Mr. sharky
you can't catch me
you can't catch me
Well along came Mr. sharky (softly) as quiet as can be
He snapped! that fish up
right out of the sea
Now Mr. sharky is lonely can't you see. .

Think and Do:

Sea shell counting activity from Tuesday. The kids did really well with this. And this is an area that needs working on for Jacob.

Read some facts about sharks and look at pictures of different kinds of sharks.

Other shark facts and activities.
More shark facts
Arts and Crafts:

Shark Teeth Art added 4-29-01 Original Author Unknown

Need: Paper, markers

Directions: Give each of your children an oval cut out of gray construction paper. Set out felt-tip markers, glue and white construction paper tooth shapes. (Like triangles) Glue the tooth shapes on their ovals where the mouth would be. Add eyes with the markers.

or

Shark added 6-19-00 Original Author Unknown

Need: envelope, scissors, markers

Directions: Take a long white envelope seal it. Cut one end off. Cut a triangle on the other end for a mouth. Use the triangle for a fin, glue it on top. At the mouth cut or draw teeth. Draw on an eye. Slide your hand into the envelope. A Puppet shark!!!

Story Time:

Shark in the park

Farhad and the Shark

Music and Movement:

Slippery Fish
Waves in the Sea



Other under the sea crafts.
Other preschool songs

Under The Sea

I intentionally planned this theme for the week after our retreat to the beach. This one is going to be so much fun. We are still at the beach and this evening I will take the kids back out and we will spend some time collecting shells and talking about what used to be in them. I will also talk to them about things that can be found in the water. Tuesday we will start an under the sea wall. We will add pictures of different fish and sea shells each day. I also have a craft planned for the things they collect here. So, here is the plan for Tuesday.

Circle Time:

Talk about and show pictures of different kinds of ocean life. Then sing.

Slippery Fish
By Charlotte Diamond

Slippery fish, slippery fish, sliding through the water,
Slippery fish, slippery fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by an …

Octopus, octopus, squiggling in the water
Octopus, octopus, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

Tuna fish, tuna fish, flashing in the water,
Tuna fish, tuna fish, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

Great white shark, great white shark, lurking in the water,
Great white shark, great white shark, Gulp, Gulp, Gulp!
Oh, no! It’s been eaten by a …

Humongous whale, humongous whale, spouting in the
water,
Humongous whale, humongous whale,
Gulp! … Gulp! … Gulp! … BURP!
Pardon me!

Think and Do:

I plan to do a little math with the sea shells we collected. (we will do an actual craft with them later in the week.)

Make some cards numbered 1-10. Have kids take turns choosing a card and count out the same number of shells as the number listed on the card. When they have counted out the correct number of shells have them place the shells on the number card.


Arts and Crafts:

*Edited* We ended up doing this rainbow fish project instead because I forgot to buy paper plates. Which, now that I think about it, fits better with the the lesson plan anyways. We may or may not do the paper plate fish tomorrow. :)

Paper plate fish. Add fish to the Under the Sea Wall. (will post pictures later.)

Story Time:

The Rainbow Fish

Music and Movement:

Sing Row, Row, Row Your Boat.

Move like fish around the room.

*Edited to add* We ended up pretending to be different fish as we danced to a song about the sea. Puffer fish, shark, whale, star fish, octopus etc. They loved it.

Letter D

Circle Time:

Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs(Sung to "Row, row, row your boat)
Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs Eating fruits and leaves
Take a bite, chew it up and spit out the seeds (Make spitting sound)

Days of the Week(Sung to Alouette or Oh My Darling Clemantine)
Sunday, Monday,Tuesday-Wednesday-ThursdayFriday, Saturday,And let's begin again.Sunday, Monday,Tuesday- Wednesday-Thursday,Friday, Saturday,And that will be the end

Two Little Ducks
Two little ducks. . .sitting on a hill
One named Jack . .. one named Jill
Fly away Jack. . .fly away Jill
Come back Jack. . .come back Jill

Think and Do:

D is for Dinosaur
Letter D worksheet and mini book

Arts and Crafts:

We will be making drums out of formula cans or hot cocoa cans.
-Cover outside of can with colored construction paper.
-Glue lid on.
-Let kids color or add stickers or glue things on.
-Use unsharpened pencils as drum sticks.

Story Time:

Go, Dog. Go. by P.D. Eastman
The Digging-est Dog by Al Perkins
Frog Went A-Dancing by Lissa Rovetch (this is a book I got from Kindermusik.)

Music and Movement:

Use our drums to drum to the beat of the music. We will most likely be using the Chicka, Chicka, Boom, Boom CD.

C is for Caterpillar

I've actually done these before only I used finger paint instead. (Follow the link for instructions for this project.) I like the paint better. This time I just gave them washable markers to color with. I am pretty sure they would have ended up a lot more colorful had I used paint. It would have been messier( which is why I decided against it), but cuter. :) They still turned out cute though and the kids had fun, and that's really what matters.

You can also use this project for the soft C and do a centipede instead. Just add legs.

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.