Homeschool Preschool: Spring! Letters E and F.

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So - this actually was this weeks lesson!  I know I'm behind, and I actually have the last two weeks or so as drafts in the pipeline.  I even typed one up, spent a ton of time on it too, but then lost my changes!  I figured I will type today's up while it is fresh in my mind and then catch up on the other ones. 

Today is the first day of spring!  Yay!  Looking forward to getting outside more!  So today we focused on talking about spring, as well as the letters E and F (focusing on two letters per week).  First we got in our circle, everyone introduced themselves and sang our "welcome" song.  It is the same song they sing at the library for story time and the same song we sing at our church playgroup.  When searching it online I was very surprised that I couldn't really find it in it's entirety or a video of it.  I found some of it here and have copied the lyrics below. 

 

Hello Song

(Silly Songs)

(Tune: “Skip to My Lou”)

Hello, how are you? (Wave hand.)

Hello, how are you?

Hello, how are you?

How are you this morning?

I am fine, and I hope you are, too. (Point to self, then a friend.)

I am fine, and I hope you are, too.

I am fine, and I hope you are too.

Hope you are fine this morning.

Turn to your neighbor, and shake their hand. (Shake hands.)

Turn to your neighbor and shake their hand.

Turn to your neighbor and shake their hand.

Shake their hand this morning.

 

We also do the repeating verses of: "Reach up high and wave your hands" and "Bend right over and touch your toes" and "spread your arms and flap like a bird" and "roll your head from side to side" and then end it with "Now we're ready to have some fun!" where they swing their arm like a swashbuckling pirate!

 

When all that fun was done we read this book about spring.

 

We talked about the different things on the pages, asking them to identify stuff too.  There was mention of eggs hatching and flowers blooming, which led into us talking about the letters of the day.

 

I didn't do the centers this week.  I wanted to do more group stuff - and I've also been super tired lately.  You'd think an almost 6 month old wouldn't still be waking every 2 hours to eat, right?  Anyways, we did all our activities together today.

 

 

First, I had these two flowers (w/o the petals) on a board.  I explained the flowers had lost their petals and we were all going to help put them back.  The kids took turns picking up a petal from the floor and deciding if it went on the big F or little f flower.  Good old blue painters tape on the back helped them stick it on the appropriate flower.

 

By then they needed to wiggle.  So we put on some music, first putting on the Wee Sing Train song and just moving through the house like a train, at different speeds - getting some energy out.  I then put on the freeze song (any song works, you can pause it yourself, or there are lots of versions where the music will stop and the kids are supposed to freeze when it does).

 

Instead of freezing though, the kids were instructed to look at me and see which letter I was holding up, big E or little e, and they would then run over to that letter on the floor.  I had placed pieces of paper with a big or little E in different areas of the floor.

 

After this I passed out plastic eggs that had pieces of paper in them.  Some had E's and the others had different letters.  The kids then got to open them and tell us if they had an E or not - some were able to say which letter they did have, even if it wasn't an E.

 

Then they did snack.  We had too many kids today to sit at the table, so they had a little picnic on the kitchen floor!

 

 

When they were finishing up their snack I read them "The Tiny Seed" by Eric Carle and then went over these little cards about how a seed turns into a plant.

 

 

They each then got to plant their own seed!  They put dirt into the little cup, put in their seed, and then topped it off with some more dirt.

 

Everyone got to take home their own little seed.  We'll see if they turn into plants or not!

 

I should probably also get around to starting some seeds for our own vegetable garden!

 

 

 

Christmas Thank You Cards

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'Tis the season for thank you notes!

The past two years I've turned our thank you cards into a fun project I can do with my daughter.  Last year was potato stamps, this year we reused some wrapping paper.  I saw a neat idea for cards using old wrapping paper here, but I knew it would be asking a bit much from a two year old, so we did our own version.

 

We started out with our old paper.  I gave Little Lady a pair of kid safe scissors and told her to cut away and also gave her the option to rip it up into little bits. 

 

 

 

 

She opted for the scissors, since they were a novelty.  In reality, I made most of the scraps. She was pretty into those scissors.

 

 



This is a really great project for getting some "destructive" energy out.  Let them rip up the paper to their hearts content!

 

Next, we grabbed some big index cards (5" x 8"), and folded them in half.

 

Then give the kiddos some glue sticks, or a bottle of glue and have them spread it all over the front of the card.  A glue stick is probably best, but I somehow couldn't find ours when we were doing this.

 

Have them pick out scraps to place on the card.  While they are doing this you can ask what colors are on the scrap of paper or what shapes - use it as a teaching/learning project too.

 

Some of the pieces they put on will overlap the edge, just trim along the edge once everything is dry.

 

 

You'll then have a bunch of cards to let dry.  Admitedly, she did eventually tire of putting the paper on and wanted to go back to cutting with the scissors, so I finished up the last couple.

 

While they dry, hop on your computer and print up a sheet with a bunch of "Thank You" on it, in whatever font you want.  You can also just hand write it too, whatever works for you.

Cut them out, again, have fun with it.  I obviously did the cutting, Little Lady isn't quite there yet, but if you have an older kid they can do this part too.

 

I then pulled out the Modge Podge and did a quick covering over the front, "unifying" the papers on the front and the "Thank You" tag. 

Kids can help out with that part too, but I did it after Little Lady was in bed.

 

There you go!  The finished project - you have a pretty easy kid craft and personalized thank you cards!  Just stick them in some 4.375 x 5.75 envelopes and mail them off! 

 

 After you write in them, of course.

 

 

Kid painted onesie!

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Then end of pregnancy, while chasing around a two year old, can be very exhausting and challenging.  I had to come up with fun things for my daughter to do that would engage her and where I could, in all honesty, just sit there and not have to move around too much!  My daughter was very aware that Mama had a baby in her belly.  She went to my appointments with me and sonograms.  Part of that was because we moved halfway through the pregnancy and we didn't have anyone to watch her here, but I also wanted her to learn about the awesomeness of babies and where they started out.  I think keeping her very much a part of the process was a great thing and really helped her welcome her new little brother into the family gradually, so it wasn't as big of an adjustment once he popped out!  I thought it would be great for her to have a present to give Little Man once he made his debut and even better if it was something she made.  We have TONS of white onesies from when she was a baby that were getting passed on to him.  I like to keep things simple and try to reuse what we already have, so I thought a personalized onesie would be perfect!  So, here is a......

 

Kid Painted Onesie

 

 

For this project you'll need:

 

Plain white onesies or t-shirts.  We had an assortment of sizes and I had no idea how big he would be, so we did one short sleeve shirt and one long sleeve onesie, both 3 months.  Little Lady went straight into 3 month sizes, so I figured that would be safe.

 

Fabric Painting Medium.  I used DecoArt fabric painting medium. 

 Pretty sure I just picked it up at JoAnn Fabrics.

 

Acrylic Paints.  Whatever colors you choose.

 

Cardboard, brushes, plate, tape, pencils, whatever fun things you want to paint with.  Really, have fun with it.  You're kid will get a kick out of using different things.

 

 

 

 

Little Man was due at the end of September, so I figured a fall one would be cute.  I taped a rough tree shape to give Little Lady something to work around.  I know there are much more "professional" ways of doing this, but I'm a fan of using whatever I have laying around, so I used good old blue painters tape.

 

You mix the textile medium with the acrylic paint (follow the instructions for the ratio).  You don't need much.  I also suggest putting a scrap piece of cardboard inside the shirt so the paint doesn't seep through to the back of the shirt.  I didn't do it with the first one she did, but did with the second.

 

She started out using unsharpened pencils, dipping the end in the paint and tapping it on the shirt.  She enjoyed the different use of the pencil and getting to bang it.  What kid doesn't like bashing things?

 

I had envisioned the dots representing leaves, all around the taped off tree, leaving a white tree surrounded by leaves.  Ambitious on my part.

 

 

She tired of the dots before too long.

 

Ready to move on!

 

 

Since she tired of the "leaf" circles quickly, we filled in where the tape had been with the paint to represent the tree.

 

 

This one we slid the cardboard into.

 

She used the brushes for this one, painting some areas before we put our "stencils" on.  For this one we, okay - I, cut different shapes out of tape and put them on the shirt.  Little Lady then painted over the tape with the different colors.

 

We also used this opportunity to review the different shapes and colors.

 

 

 

Follow the directions on your textile medium for drying.  Typically letting it dry for 24 hours, ironing and then tossing in the wash.

 

 

When Little Man finally arrived, she was excited to give him the presents she made for him.

 

 

 

She loved seeing him wear them.

 

 

And I did too.