Week 2 Letter L, Red and Circle

Color:

• red
  
• Scavenger Hunt (try to find red things)
  

Shape:

• circle
  
• Scavenger Hunt (try to find circles!)
  

Math:

• counting (felt ladybugs);
• sorting

Nursery Rhyme:

• Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home

• Ladybug, Ladybug Fly Away Home coloing page
  

Science:

• Ladybugs!
  Learn about parts of a ladybug and how ladybugs are helpful;
  

Social Studies:

• President Lincoln
  

Reading:

• Ladybug, ladybug fly away home by Jan Brett;
• Tawny Scrawny Lion by Kathering Jackson;
• The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle;
• Ladybug, Ladybug by Ruth Brown;
• Little Red Riding Hood;
• Clifford books
  

Music:

• (use felt ladybugs while singing)
  Five little ladybugs sitting in a tree The first one said," I'm glad I'm me" The second one said, "I feel great too" The third one said," How about you?" The fourth one said," It's time to fly away" The fifth one said," We'll talk another day"
  
  
• If Your Clothes Have Any Red - sung to "If You're Happy and You Know It"
  If your clothes have any red, any red,If your clothes have any red, any red,If your clothes have any red,Put your finger on your head,If your clothes have any red, any red.
  
  
  Crafts:
  
• penny rubbing;
  
• lincoln hat;
  
• paint a rock to look like a ladybug;
  
• red collage: look through newspaper ads, and magazines for red items. Cut out and glue onto paper.
  
• Red ice painting
• Have child rip up pieces of green paper to look like grass. Have the children dip there fingertips in red paint and press them on their grass, when dried dot a black marker on the red spots and viola you have fingerprint ladybugs!
  
  Fine Motor:
• ripping paper;
• drawing lines (straight, try curvy)
• drawing a circles;
• playdoh
  

Gross Motor:

• leap frog,
• long jump
  

Sensory:

• homemade playdoh (bury small objects in it, and have him dig them out);
• "hot potato" with red beanbag
  

Concept:

• Big/Little (through discussion) "Is it big? Is it little?"

Snack:

• Red apple ladybugs (using apples, peanut butter and raisins/chocolate chips for ladybug spots…count them!);
• Strawberry smoothie.
  

Game:

• Red Rover Red Rover
  

Math:

• sorting different colored pasta

Materials Needed:
Felt ladybugs
Diagram of a ladybug
Ladybug coloring page
Oil
Flour
Salt
Patterns for Lincoln hat
Pasta dyed different colors
Apples
Peanut butter
Raisins/Chocolate chips
Red food coloring
Glue
Scissors
Red paint
Red ink pad
Black marker
Green paper
Water
Newspaper ads
Magazines
Rock
Pennies
White paper
Red Crayon

Red beanbag

Week 1 Letter A

Our first week's focus was on letter A. Here are the preschool activities that we did:

• Letter A
  Ants and Alligators and Apples, oh my!
  
  Crafts:
  
• Egg carton ants
  
• Ant prints—cut out large letter A, use ink pad to make “ant prints” all over the A.
  
• Sing: The ants go marching
  
  
• Alligator clothespin magnets
  
• Alligator animal puppets
  
• Sing: Alligators and Monkeys
  
  Math:
  
• Use felt apples to count
  
• Use felt apples to do beginning addition
  
• Read 10 Apples Up On Top
  
• P’s alligator ate _____ pieces of meat. I printed out a picture of an alligator, and cut it out. At the top of a piece of paper I wrote "P's alligator ate ____ pieces of meat." Then I cut up small pieces and numbered them 1-10 (you could use higher numbers if your child needed). I put them in a small box, and allowed him to pick a number. Then he ripped a piece of red paper (meat) into as many pieces as the numbered paper said. He glued the alligator, his numbered paper, and the correct number of pieces of meat onto the paper. If you were working on writing numbers, you could have the child fill in the blank, since he's not ready for that he just glued the numbered piece into the blank.
  
  Fine Motor Skills:
  
• Accordion folding paper
• Lacing apple shape (I used a plastic lid--from oatmeal or grits container--and cut out an apple shape, then used a hole puncher to punch holes and had him lace through the holes)
  
• Animal puzzles
  
• Brown Bear Brown Bear Puzzles
  
• Cutting straight lines
  
  
  Social Studies:
  
• Johnny Appleseed
  
  Science:
  
• Animals that Hibernate: bears, frogs, snakes, turtles (use pillows to make a den for hibernating while reading brown bear brown bear)
  
  Gross Motor Skills:
  
• Animal Walks
  
• “Swamp Game”-lay down blue tablecloth, put plastic alligator on the cloth, chant “I’m walking, I’m walking, I’m walking through the swamp. I hope that alligator doesn’t go CHOMP!” swimming, jumping, tip-toeing, marching, etc.
  
  Sensory:
  
• Shaving cream (like snow) in cookie sheet, practice drawing letter A; then allow for play with cars/etc in shaving cream.
  
• Oatmeal--dried oatmeal in a tray, practiced drawing letter A;
  
  Snacks:
  
• Ants on a log
  
• Animal crackers
  
  Games:
  
• Animal Bingo
  
• Funny Farm Animal matching file folder game
  
  BOOKS:
  
• 10 Apples Up On Top (as I read, we counted the felt apples and stacked them on his head)
  
• Brown Bear Brown Bear
  
  Materials needed:
  Felt apples
  Animal crackers
  Pretzel rods
  egg carton
  paint : green and brown
  google eyes
  pipecleaners
  large A cut out
  ink pads
  clothespins
  string
  paint
  magnet
  paper bags
  green construction paper
  Alphabet stickers
  Alligator stickers
  Ant stickers
  Apple stickers
  Blue tablecloth
  Piece of paper labeled for math activity
  Small cut out alligator
  red paper to tear
  numbers 1-10 on small paper for picking how many pieces of meat the alligator ate
  glue stick
  brown bear brown bear puzzle tiles
  animal bingo game
  Letter A theme bag
  File folder game
  Puzzles
  
  
  
  Prep work:
  Cut out felt apples (10)
  Cut out large A from construction paper
  Cut egg cartons into 3 cup pieces
  Cut out alligator shape
  Make small numbered pieces 1-10
  Label piece of paper for math activity
  Draw straight lines on a piece of paper for cutting

Toddler Activities:

• Hide and Seek with the apple! Hide most (or just part if that's what your child is ready for) of the apple under something or behind something and have the child look for it. My son LOVES this game.
• Instead of the shaving cream mentioned above, I let the toddler have a big glob of yogurt on his high chair tray to make an ooey gooey mess with. He liked it, and since he likes to still put his fingers in his mouth yogurt was the way to go (it looked what the bigger kids were doing, so it was a hit).
• We're working on learning body parts, so we are working on hand (he already knows head, tummy and toes). We work on this by just talking about it: "Where's your hand??" "Here's your hand!" and I touch his hand.
• Sing "if you're happy and you know it clap your hands"!
• Sing "ants go marching"...he attempted to march (it was too cute)
• Animal walks (he tried to play along)
• Den building (he loved crawling on the pillows, and laying under the pillows)
• Animal books: We read all the titles that we have about animals, and he learned to make the sound for dog "woof woof". We have two touchy feely animal books, and those are his favorite! I highly recommend those.
• BOOKS in general! It was a great week because my son finally got interested in books!! My MIL picked up a touchy feely book (mentioned above) at a thrift store when she was here last month, and it was a big hit, so I went last week and bought another one. He loves it too, but the best part is that it seems to have peaked his interest in ALL books! He's bringing me books to read all the time now....now, he usually only makes it through a few pages of the book (except those touchy feely ones), but it's a start down the right road. Before this week, he wouldn't sit to be read to (except that touchy feely book...did I mention I HIGHLY recommend those??) and would snatch the book from me if I tried to read to him while he was playing. My son, very against literacy.
• Sign for STOP. My son doesn't do many signs, in fact, he only does 2. All done, and more. (He's big into food...what can I say.) BUT, he understands many more. Up. Drink. Milk. Eat. Sit. Ball. Light. My mind went blank, but there are others. So, this week I introduced the sign for STOP. The others we've been working on for months, and this is a new one. He doesn't get it yet, either that or he's just a defiant little booger (tongue in cheek...I don't think one year olds can be defiant personally!).
• Counting. I count all the time. When I'm changing his diaper, it's often the only thing that keeps him still!! I do it in a big grand voice, or a slow deep voice, or a high squeaky voice, but always counting to 10 (I can change a diaper, FAST!). I also use it when I'm trying to get him dressed, again it will usually keep him still. "Three buttons. One. Two. Three. There you go, all done!" "Ten snaps. One. Two. Three." (you get the picture)
• Colors, we just talk about colors all day as well. "Do you have the red ball? Mommy has the yellow ball." "See the pretty red apples." Etc.

Of course, he's around for all the learning, and probably picks up on more than I think.

Evolution

So, my plan for this blog has evolved. I agreed to take on preschooling my 4 yr old neighbor. So, now this blog will be two fold, and possibly more relevant for many families with both a preschooler and a toddler.

We've completed our first successful week. Originally, I had planned on doing letter of the week type of stuff (I love their site) and adding in my own ideas that went a long with the letter. BUT, I quickly found out that he needs to learn more than letters, so this week's game plan changed to include other skills that he clearly needed work on. I was under the impression that the main focus of our time together would be on learning the alphabet, letter sounds, and working on writing. While we'll still be working on all those things, I found that he also needs to know how to count (he can sometimes successfully get to 5, other times not), he doesn't consistently recognize colors, and he doesn't have a good grasp on concepts like "big/little" "over/under" "top/bottom", so I've included those things in the upcoming week's plan. That's what I get for assuming!!

He'll probably be doing preschool with me until the end of the year, at the beginning of next year he'll probably move to a standard preschool, in preparation for public school kindergarten (I can teach him lots of things, but now how to act with 15 other 5 year olds).

Now I am teaching 4th grade, 3rd grade, preschool, AND trying to keep a very active toddler happy.

I'm REALLY going to try to keep this blog updated (as well as my other one), but time is so limited I may have to do it in big chunks! :-)

Ahh, evolution.