I like...

Our Goodwill has an excellent section of books and most are in good condition.   Awhile back I found a collection (almost complete) of sight word readers.  I thought this would be a good part in our easy reader collection and since they were half-off I thought why not.

We have been reading Animals and did an easy extension using "I like to" as the prompt.

I asked them to use at least three colors in their drawing.  I also told them not to worry about the lines for writing.

Scholastic has Sight Word Readers for downloading and printing.

Windy Days

Last Sunday it was really windy and we had the opportunity to fly kites kicking off our windy week.  Many of the activities stayed the same, but I included some shapes, art, and science.

Fine Motor - I taped together a piece of paper and had Mister and Ladybug cut along the lines to make a windsock.  They punched a hole in the top and we put string through so we could attach it to our tree.

Sensory - How do these triangles fit? 

Mister and Ladybug had a diamond kite and they had to put on four triangles to decorate their kite. 

Science - We talked a lot about tornadoes, hurricanes, and how wind moves. 

Cotton ball races - Mister and Ladybug found they couldn't go on top of the cotton ball to make it move.


Art - Paper bag windsocks - Mister and Ladybug created a weather scene using dot markers and added streamers to blow in the wind.

Movement - We created wind with our bodies and made the scarves move in the wind.

Mini-Food

Each week I ask Mister and Ladybug what they would like for dinner and lately they want mini-food.  During dinner we had a brainstorming session for mini-meals we could add and they came up with some good ideas, but mini tacos has been their favorite.  I combined the mini tacos with muffin tin lunches and you would have thought Disney World moved into our house.

Left-to-Right, top-to-bottom: tomatoes, lettuce, green onions, sour cream, bell peppers sauted in olive oil and lime, homemade Spanish rice, beans, cheese, wonton wrappers baked for 5 minutes.

I have never seen Ladybug eat so much. 

I'm Puzzled

The ages on puzzles make me question my own puzzle ability.  Admittedly I am not very good at puzzles and it seems like my children have fallen in my foot steps.  The Wee One picked out a set of three puzzles at the store the other day and I couldn't say no because they were $3 plus she really loved them.

I set out the color puzzle on her shelf and I knew that it would be difficut for her.  The shapes are odd and they are hard to fit.  I had an "aha!" moment when I was looking at the puzzle and the pieces.  Using the dot markers, I put a dot where the piece should go.  Now, with my help to get them to fit, she can complete the puzzle a little easier. 

Cloudy Days

We had a week of sunshine outside and clouds in our room.
Literacy

Raindrop to Rainbow word family

Letter writing practice in the clouds

-og family - writing in the clouds

Sensorial

Cloud Dough - The Little Hands Art Book by Judy Press

1/2 c water

1/2 c cooking oil

2 c flour

2 c salt

food coloring - omitted

peppermint oil - omitted

This made the biggest mess, but they loved it. 

Shaving cream clouds - the preschoolers and the toddler loved this.

Science

Cloud in a bottle - no matches needed.  Warm water and an ice cube. 



Mister and Ladybug were very interested in how the clouds were formed especially the part about the sun evaporating the water, so we did our own evaporation.  They were curious to see if we could make a cloud.

We made a few observations and added to our predictions. 

We poured water on the deck and made predictions about what would happen.

Using the pictures of cirrus, stratus, and cumulus clouds they made their own cloud books and put on the correct lable for the cloud type.

Cloud matching

Three part cards



Art

Cloud crayon resist watercolor

Texxture painting a cloud

Dot painting from Make Learning Fun

Food

 

Pour a Little Rain

The Goodwill is on the way to Mister and Ladybug's preschool and I feel the need to stop in there all the time.  I am pretty sure we will be greeted as regulars soon.  On our last trip the Wee One spotted a white ceramic pouring thing (I call it a thing because I have no idea what it is - creamer?) and she would not put it down.  For $.50 I couldn't refuse, but it's too bad they didin't have a matching one.

We're Up to Four

Colored popsicle sticks and my childhood cups make an easy color matching activity.

Every Rainy Day Needs a Rainbow

Mother Nature gave us the clouds and the rain and we made the rainbows.

Art

Mister and Ladybug helped me paint the rainbow that they use as reference to make their own rainbow.

Dot Marker Rainbow

Math - This was our second graphing activity and they did very well.  After they finished graphing I asked questions like which had the most/least. which were the same, and as a bonus how many more does ___ have than ____. 

Mister and Ladybug went CRAZY for the Fruit Loops...sugar, kids who would have thought?

Science

I gave Mister and Ladybug the primary colors and asked them to make the rest of the rainbow. 

I had Mister and Ladybug line up the cups in ROY G BIV minus the I.

Literacy - We read a few books and the letters that made up RAINBOW.

I am not huge on handwriting sheets, but Ladybug is starting to get into writing and wants to write each letter correctly.  Confession of a Homeschooler has an entire rainbow unit.

Food

Mmm blue dip and purple yogurt. 

Rainbow cupcakes

The Wee One

I put a Fruit Loop in each muffin space and let her match the rest in the bowl.

Sticker, Sticker, Sticker

The stickers have made another appearance and this time the Wee One did the stickering since she loves stickers.

Pom-Pom Color Match

I bought a pack of rainbow circle stickers for this month and they have proved to be very versatile.  I have used them in for the Wee One and Mister and Ladybug. 

First the Wee One helped me put on the stickers (she had insisted on putting the same color of stickers over the stickers I already put on) and then she matched the pom-poms to the color.

This activity reinforces one-to-on correspondence.

What's The Weather?

Here are the first set of activities on our shelves.

Math

Beginning subtraction - When I presented the activity I did a think aloud and said, "There were ____ dots.  One dot was crossed out and now there are ____ dots."

Literacy




Roll a word - I think I should have put green as first so it was go and stop. 

 

Words that rhyme puzzles

Sight word sentences.  When I presented this I made them aware of the capital letter at the beginning as a clue for the first word and the period at the end to send the sentence.

Nonfiction reading - I separated the books into fiction (in the book sling) and nonfiction on the shelves.

Sensory

We are starting to discuss money this month and I put a coin sort out. 

Practical Life

Dressing for the weather.

Raindrops

Art

When the circle dried I put them on the tray to add rays.