Rrrr, I'm Gonna Eat You - March Work

This month we have been talking about food chains and dinosaurs.  Honestly, I am not too interested in dinosaurs as a stand alone topic and neither is Ladybug, so to appeal to more than one person in this family I have attempted to combine the two.  

We started the month talking about herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores and the dinosaurs that fit into each category.  The dinosaur toob has been a great resource for this month.

Each time I have introduced a dinosaur I have given a fact sheet and a coloring sheet from Enchanted Learning.

Match the carnivores with the picture and name.  Each dino has their name on the underside.  We also discussed features that made the carnivores alike.

We have also talked about the animals that are not extinct.

After Mister and Ladybug had a good grasp of what eats what we moved on to who eats who with food chains.

Simple Food Chains 

Apparently a cactus grows in the savanna.  Mister and Ladybug pick a producer and two consumers to make a food chain.

More Complex (Complete) Food Chains

Chose the pictures to make a food chain and label the omnivore, carnivore, or herbivore.  

Art

How to draw a dinosaur!

Math

Number writing practice because who doesn't love a white board?

Fill in the missing numbers on the dinosaur eggs.  This was defiantly a challenge activity for Mister and Ladybug.

Game for two

Literacy

Dinosaur egg sight words (Mister's word) .  Ladybug is reading Biscuit books (her choice) and Mister is reading sigh word readers.  

Sight Word Soup - This game is played like Scrabble Soup, but with sight words.  Each sight word is written on a card and a chip.  One person picks the top card and shows the sight word.  The players put in their spoon and scoop out sight words written on wooden circles and blank circles.  When they find the the sight word they call it out and put it on their board.  When the cards are all gone the person with the most wooden sight words wins.

Practical Life - Name Writing

The Wee One

Two of the things on her shelf

Sensory

Dino feet prints

Dinosaur eggs

March?  Not so much in the tundra, which is why we are still in our pajamas in some of these photos.  I mean it's hard to get out of them when the windchill is still hovering around 0.

All About Money - Part 2

Here are the final activities for the month of January.  Overall I think it was successful and challenging for Mister and Ladybug.

Math

This was done as a group activity because it involved mixing coins.  Often kids will count all the coins by 5s or 10s without looking at each coin.   We started off with easy, single type of coin counting before moving onto two harder coin counting.  

The next are activities are either independent work or one-on-one work depending on how Ladybug or Mister's knowledge.

3-part matching

File folder game matching sticks to the correct pocket.  

Money Mix-Up.  Each coin bag had a slip of paper with an amount and the correct coins had to be matched to each bag.

Literacy 

We put literacy on the back burner to focus on math.  While Ladybug hemmed and hawed all month, Mister was very excited.  The next two activities were done in order.  The first was matching words to pictures and it became increasingly harder from there.

Fill in the missing letters and stamp.

Stamp and write - two challenge words

Practical Life - Penny Cleaning

• Dirty pennies
• Salt
• Vinegar
• Water
• Paper towels

Mister and Ladybug enjoyed sprinkling salt on the pennies after they were dipped in vinegar and rubbing to see the changes.  You could also mix 1 teaspoon of salt in 1/4 cup vinegar and drop the pennies in for about 10 seconds.

Art - Design your own money

I hope you found something you liked and can use this month!

It's All About Money - Shelf Work

The month is just flying and I have yet to post the work we have been doing or not doing.  If it's not one thing, it's another and another this month has been Mister and Ladybug's birthday.  We have managed to fit school in here a there and here are some of our preschool activities.

Math  - We are working on coin identification and value and counting by 5s and 10s.

What can I buy with pennies?  

Penny Coloring - This was on the Wee One's shelf  too.  They put their colored sheets in their Money Book.

Nickel Coloring

Counting by 5s

What can I buy with nickels?  I attached values to each picture magnet so it could be matched with the correct number of nickels.  

http://creativepreschoolresources.com/2012/01/27/penny-nickel-sort/ - Nickel and penny sorting.  This is Wee One approved.

Literacy - Mister is mostly working on CVC and sight words and Ladybug is working on reading more complex sentences.

Stamp the correct picture to the word.  These stamps are no longer available from Lakeshore.

Match the magnetic picture to the correct sentence.

I found a cheap Hooked on Phonics set (on discount day) and the little stories are perfect for Ladybug.  Now if I can find a boombox (did I just date myself) with a cassette tape (if I didn't then I surely did not) she could listen to the tapes.

Farm Find

Whoa, it has been a long two weeks.  We took a mini vacation that was a disaster and then over a week of sniffles, sneezes, coughing, and snot.  The good news is learning at home means that we can take time off to heal our bodies rather than push through district and state mandated time lines.  

I found this plush barn at the Goodwill and we have used it a few times this month.  The latest thing was for the Wee One to do a farm animal match.  She started with four pictures and four animals to match, so she wouldn't feel overwhelmed.

When I could tell she felt confident and successful in her work, then I gave her a farm book (Goodwill again) and more animals to match.

She really enjoyed this matching activity and making the animals sounds as she held up each animal.

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.

Once Upon a Time - Part 1

Here's our work for the first part of the month.  It is mostly Valentine's Day theme right now, but will change as we move farther into the month.  Enjoy!

Math

This game idea came from My Montessori Journey.   Ladybug was over the moon with all the purple.

Practical Life

This is tray is on the Wee One's shelf because she loves transferring activities.  However, Mister and Ladybug have taken turns doing it too.  The hearts are from last year's sensory bin and I saw them in Target's $2.50 section this year.

Valentine's bracelets - Pink, purple, or red pipe cleaners would have looked better, but this is what I had on hand.



Flower arranging - This is one of my favorites because I love to see the concentration on their faces as they get it just so.


Sensorial





The yellow and green stamps are letters that spell "LOVE" and "XO"  This has been the Wee One's favorite activity.

Literacy - Story retelling with Goldie Locks and the Three Bears

Books I can read - I found all these books at the Goodwill.  I am not a huge fan of any of them, but it gives Mister and Ladybug confidence to be able to read something.



-ap, -at, and --an sight word review

Art

Color the heart and cut it out.  We used their hearts to decorated the windows for Valentine's Day.

"You put this out for me because you know I LOVE to sticker!"  Yes, Ladybug I put this out for you.