Preschool fun: “G” for goose week

Since we have our own little goose family growing in our backyard, we decided to do G is for goose. Here is a roundup of our G week:

~ G is for goose coloring sheet and writing sheet

~ Goose coloring sheet which we did using glitter (for g, of course!)

~ Damian played with these cute egg shape sorters that we took out from our local library (our library provides these awesome “story bags” that come with a set of books on a given topic, along with corresponding puppets, puzzles, and other related toys. LOVE our library!).

~ Connect the dot number sheet

~ We read through the Canada Geese page on National Geographic Kids and on Animal Planet

~ We met our own backyard baby goslings when they hatched.

~ Goose label/color sheet

~ Do-a-dot Gg sheet – we have to do this for every letter because Damian loves the do-a-dot sheets and markers!

~ We built our foam G, used our g sandpaper letter, made Gg playdoh letters, and made Gg’s on the peg board.

~ We did this cute letter g craft from Homeschool Creations.

~ We used various parts of Jolanthe and Carisa’s Bird Preschool Pack.

~ The boys put together and played with their Playmobil farm complete with a goose family (oh, and a sea serpent, of course, because all farms have them, right?)

And of course the end of the week would not be complete without adding Gg to our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom Tree!

This has been added to: Preschool Corner & 5K too

Science Unit: our complete Solar System study

We have had an incredibly fun journey into space over the past month (actually a little longer because of the sick days in between!). Here are the highlights of our trip:

~ Boy did we read books! We read a whole collection of books on space, from easy picture books to space encyclopedias. We usually read the more basic books out loud together, so that the material was more accessible to Damian. Then I put the more complex reading in Rylan’s workboxes for him to read on his own. If he had questions, we discussed it together during my one on one time with him. He also reads the more complex books with his Dad during bed time (he stays up a little later than Damian these days). Here are some of the books we read, Amazon limits you to 10 items per carousel, so I couldn’t fit them all in without turning this post into a long series of book lists! :)

~ We also watched several DVDs:

• Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Planets
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Sun
• Bill Nye the Science Guy: The Moon
• Eyewitness The Planets

~ We read the Magic School Bus book about the Solar System, watched the related DVD, and then completed all the experiments/activities in the Magic School Bus: The Secrets of Space science kit. You can see a couple of these below (most of them involved flashlights and therefore being in dim light, so I did not take many pictures):

 

{build your own telescope and solar system model}

~ To learn about the phases of the moon, or the lunar phases we built and used this model and read up about it on wikipedia, which also has a very cool animation of the lunar phases. For a tutorial on how to make this model, look at this post.

~ We put this solar system puzzle together.

~ As with all our unit styled studies, we keep all the books and manipulatives (that can be reused) from our learning in our “feature study” area. You can see in the picture below all the books, posters, lacing cards, roll a rocket game, space songs, puzzles, lunar model, earth orbit model, etc. The boys are encouraged to use this material throughout the duration of the unit (for more on our school room layout see this post).

~ I created several sensorial tubs and activities which I spread out over the course of the month. With the tubs, I left them put together for a couple of weeks each, so they could revisit the tubs and play.

{tub contains: rice base, “space” letter cookie cutters, star and moon cookie cutters, a mini earth globe, star bursts, black pompoms, “moon rocks”, sparkly star and moon paper cut outs, rocket ships, and the contents of the Safari space tube}

{tub contains: moon sand base (I could only find green and yellow when I went shopping for moon sand, would not have been my first choice, but worked none the less), mini ax and rock mould, magnifying glass, rocks made from moon dough, cookie cutters, and the contents of the Safari space tub.}

{space playdough play}

~ I used the A is for astronaut pack materials from Spell Outloud for Damian (I laminated them, and used stick on magnets at the back of each item so they could be used on our white boards and the fridge).

~ Damian did this A is for Astronaut do-a-dot sheet from Making Learning Fun.

~ Rylan completed various worksheets and coloring pages in his workboxes throughout the course of our study, here are some examples:

• Space word jumble
• Space word search
• Space crossword
• The planets coloring sheet
• Rocket coloring sheet
• Planet word search
• Dover Coloring Book: Exploring the Solar System
• Writing practice:

~ We put together a glow in the dark solar system, stuck it to the ceiling with putty, closed the blinds to make the room dark, laid down on the floor, and “star gazed” up at the ceiling (we did real star gazing in Hawaii, but here in a big city it is not so easy, especially when the sun sets after the boy’s bedtime these days!).

~ In trying to bring more music into all our learning time, we listened to the classical CD, The Planets, by composer Gustav Holst. While listening we discussed the Roman/Greek gods that the planets had been named after, and how the music conveyed the characteristics of these gods.

~ I used parts of the Astronaut preschool pack from Homeschool Creations for Damian. Both boys especially loved singing the “Climb About the Spaceship” song, which we added actions to and sang many times to begin our day’s exploration.

~ I also used a few of the activities from this pack for Damian.

~ I made this earth lacing card for the boys to use (found the earth picture on Google images). Make sure to laminate or stick your picture onto cardboard (actually I did both), so it is sturdy enough for lacing.

~ To help the boys understand and visualize how the earth rotates on its axis and orbits around the sun, giving us day and night and the seasons, we made this model, which they could manipulate themselves to get a sense of how it all works.  They wanted to add the moon on to it too, the second picture shows that addition. For a tutorial on how to put this together go to this post (it also explains other activities we did to reinforce this concept using a globe and flashlight).

~ I created this solar system concentration/match up game for the boys to play with. You can download the cards from here, and read about how we used them in this post.

~ We created a large scale model of the solar system on our reading room floor. We used planet cut outs, yarn to create the rings of orbit, black pompoms to create the asteroid belt, and at the end the boys added labels to each planet.

~ Of course we had to build rocket ships! We built two different kinds, at different times during the month long study. The boys built both set of rockets entirely by themselves:

{To make: paper towel roll, sheet of paper for tips, construction paper wings, tissue paper streamers. Put together with tape and decorate.}

{Idea for these from Kid Craft Weekly}

~ The boys drew solar systems using rainbow scratch paper.

~ Rylan created his own constellations on black construction paper, and wrote his own mythical stories behind their names.

~ Just for fun, the boys wanted to play with this “galactic ooze” that we found at our local teacher resource center. :)

~ Websites we visited together:

• Kidsastronomy.com
• NASA kids
• NASA solar system exploration

We plan to visit a planetarium this summer, otherwise, that’s a wrap (hope I remembered it all!). Happy space exploration!

And here is the rainbow felt alphabet!

Last week I posted about our rainbow felt numbers, and promised to share the alphabet when it was finished.

You will notice the whole alphabet is in repeated rainbow colors, except I made the vowels light blue, just so they would be highlighted.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day weekend!

This has been added to: Preschool Corner & 5K too

Numbers you can hold on to ~ rainbow hand sewed felt numbers

I sewed this rainbow set of felt numbers for my littlest learner to play with and have fun with while he learns all about numbers. We liked them so much I sewed an entire alphabet too, which is almost finished. I will share pics of that when it is completed.

I got the idea from one of my favorite blogs Counting Coconuts, but I actually stuffed my letters with toy stuffing to give them a real 3D look and feel.

Using them with math links.

Of course he could not resist counting while jumping on them! I think my jumping math and jump to spell activities really took in this house! :)

This has been added to: Preschool Corner and 5K too! and Show and Tell.

An old classic: the Lite Brite

The other day we were over at my sister’s home, and since she has grandkids (yes, her grandkids are the same age as my kids, I was a late comer in my family!) she has a stash of toys in her house that my boys love investigating while visiting her. This time she pulled out something new for them – a Lite Brite, which she had just picked up from a garage sale.

When I saw it, it brought back a flood of childhood memories! I remember spending hours creating pictures and patterns on this toy. It was an equally huge success with my boys. They laid down on a rug and created together on the Lite Brite for the rest of our visit there. Since it uses small pegs to create an image it is excellent for practicing the pincer grip and fine motor coordination in general. And the reward when you switch off the lights and see your image colorfully glowing in the dark is bound to be a hit with the little ones. Win, win.

My sister had picked up an old style one at a garage sale, which was like the one I used when growing up. Does it look familiar to you?

When I got home that night I did an online search to see if they still made them. Sure enough they do, but they have been updated somewhat.

The newer one has a smaller board than the original one, which is a shame, but it still works nicely. It has a convenient little peg holder built into the board, so the pegs stay with the board all the time. It is also battery operated, so it does not need to be plugged into the wall, like the original ones. We bought one, and the boys have enjoyed many hours of creating on it! Me too! ;)

Making dream catchers craft ~ part of our North American Continent study

I promised to post about how we made the dream catchers for our North American study craft. This was a fun craft and actually very easy to prepare for (on my part) and to make (for the boys). So, here goes:

What you need:

~ paper plates

~ a hole punch

~ string/yarn (or even leather strips if you prefer)

~ beads (optional)

~ feathers

How to put it together:

Start by cutting out the center of your paper plate (at this point you could color or paint the paper plate, if you wanted to add more color to your dream catcher).

Then punch holes around the edge of the paper plate.

Take your piece of string (make it relatively long) and tie it to one of the holes, then start to make a web by lacing the string through the different holes around the plate (I used white string, because it is what I had on hand at the time, but you could use colored string or yarn, or even leather strips). During this stage you can add beads on the string if you want to add a little more color to the “web” of string.

Once you are happy with the string pattern you have made, tie off the string in the hole adjacent to where you started, so you can loop the two ends together to make a hanging hook for your dream catcher.

Punch three additional holes at the bottom of the dream catcher. Tie short strips of string here, so they hang down from the bottom of the dream catcher. Decorate with beads if you like, then tie a feather on the end, knot off to complete and hold the beads and feather in place.

And you’re done!

This has been added to: Preschool Corner & 5K too and Show and Tell.

Geography: the North American Continent

We just completed a week long study of the North American Continent. Here is a summary of what we covered:

We read various books on North America, some of which appear at the end of the post. Added to those at the end of the post are: Atlas of North America by Karen Foster and North America by Katie Bagley.

Rylan completed this North American themed math worksheet which I made for him. It can be downloaded here if you would like to use.

We made and ate Mexican food. We were out running errands all day Thursday and had to stop at McDonalds for lunch, I suppose that could count as American food, right (or just bad food!)? :P

We listened to various Putamayo CDs, the selection can be seen at the end of the post.

Rylan put together a North America poster based on our learning, which included a map, people of North America, animals of North America, and a fact sheet. We also added the USA flag that Rylan had colored during the week.

We made dream catchers (Native American) and read about what they are and how they are used (here is a tutorial on how to make them).

We added the Baha’i places of significance in North America to our wall of Baha’i Holy Places and Houses of Worship around the world.

We read about children of North America in Children Just Like Me.

We read the story from North America (the American Southwest) entitled “She Who Is Alone” from the book The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales. We also read a few stories from Around the World in 80 Tales, which I have to admit I edited somewhat, since some of the stories in that book are a bit (or a lot) mean spirited.

Rylan completed some pages in the Around the World Coloring Book.

To see our previous continent studies, click on these links: Africa, Asia, Europe.

This has been added to: Show&Tell and Preschool Corner & 5K too.

Preschool fun: a review of our letter “D” week

For anyone who follows this blog closely, you will know that dinosaurs are pretty popular in this house! So our D for dinosaur week actually rolled over into two weeks, because we had so many fun activities to do! Many of them Rylan joined in on too. Here’s a round-up:

• We started the week by singing a funny dinosaur version of the hokey pokey we called the dino hokey. Instead of arms and legs we used claws, teeth, tails, and yes, lots of roaring. The boys loved it! And asked to do it several times over during the week…since I was fasting at the time all the roaring gave me a seriously dry, sore throat…ahhh, the things we do for our kids, right? :)


• We practiced the phonetic sound of D using the items from our alphabet box while singing the song from Leap Frog’s Letter Factory DVD for the letter D.


• I put together this dinosaur sensory tub for the boys to play with, using rice as a base. I have done this for them before using sand, but this time there was a lot more in the tub to play with. This sensory tub has received hours of play time during the past two weeks.


• Damian completed this “D is for Damian” collage by filling in the letters using a glue stick and tissue paper squares.


• We made the letter D using our haba peg board.


• We used our foam letter pieces to build D and our sandpaper letters to practice “writing” little d.


• I asked Damian to identify all the Ds on the white board using our magnetic letter set.


• We played letter match up and concentration using the dinosaur alphabet cards I made when Rylan was a wee one.


• Damian completed many of the activities provided by Confessions of a Homeschooler’s “D is for dinosaur” week.

~using counters to make the numbers and a pointer to count them all~ ~lacing~ ~matching numbers with amounts~ ~size ordering, completing patterns, sorting big and little Ds~

• The boys painted the dinosaurs from this Melissa and Doug paint your own dinosaur set.


• The boys decorated these dinosaur cut-outs.


• They also colored in do-it-yourself dinosaur stickers and then used them for other art work projects.


• We made perler bead dinosaurs.


• We did this cute craft using the letter D for form a dino, which I found on Homeschool Creations.


• Damian completed this Melissa and Doug dinosaur puzzle.


• We made playdoh Ds using the playdoh letter mats I made from Homeschool Creations.


• We sang this song: I'm a Mean Old Dinosaur (Tune: I'm a little Tea Pot)
  

  I'm a mean old Dinosaur (Make a mean face, the kids make the cutest mean faces) Big and Tall (Gesture hands big and tall ) Here is my tail, here is my claw. (Gesture hands behind your back for tail and make claw hands) When I get all hungry (rub your tummy) I just growl (have the kids exaggerate the grrroooowwwlll) Look out kids I'm on the prowl. (Here I tickle each one of the tummy and they all giggle)



• I recited this rhyme for Damian and had him do the finger math along with me: Five enormous dinosaurs Letting out a roar-- One went away, and Then there were four. Four enormous dinosaurs Crashing down a tree-- One went away, and Then there were three. Three enormous dinosaurs Eating tiger stew-- One went away, and Then there were two. Two enormous dinosaurs Trying to run-- One ran away, and then there was one. One enormous dinosaur, Afraid to be a hero-- He went away, and Then there was zero.

As you can see it was a fun filled dino week (and a bit)!

This has been added to: Preschool Corner & 5K too and Show&Tell.