You're Out of This World - Valentine Cards

Mister and Ladybug's teacher requested that the valentine day cards did not include food this year.  Last year we did Love Bugs and Pocket Full of Kisses and since they have many of the same kids in their class we I decided we needed a new idea.

Mister is really into space and I found space stamps at oriental trading.

Ladybug is really into princess, but I didn't think the boys in her class would love to get a wand, although I  might be surprised, so I went off Mister's stamps.

And for their teachers.  Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to combine two ideas.  I will swap the kisses for valentine colored kisses.  I know this goes against the no food thing, but it's not for the kids.  Right?

Happy Valentine's Day!

Feel the Love - February Literacy Shelf Work

I am sad to report that the love for sensory bins is dwindling around here so this month I recycled the Valentine Sensory Bin.  It's not all bad since this is the first time the Wee One has explored this bin.  Also it gave me more time to think about their shelf work for the month.  

Mister - He has really regressed on reading and is struggling a lot so we have returned to basic CVC words and sight words.

Ladybug - She has taken off reading and knows the majority of her kindergarten sight words.  We started working on Silent E.

Wee One - She has shown an interest in letters and reading, so we are focusing on letter sounds.

Mister has a tendency to put a "t" on the end of every word, so to increase his phonemic awareness I made a silly word sheet so he has to sound out each word.

Mister had to identify and color the sight words "the" "I" and "see".

Color chip word isolator.

Sight word writing.

Find the sight words.

There is a lot of Mister's work because Ladybug has been a little under the weather.  The Wee One's letter work will be in another post because she gets one-on-one work 3 days a week.

Also, I have the "I See" book and the silly word coloring saved and if there is interest I will put up a link.  Happy Working!

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!

More More Money

The Wee One, who is only 2 years younger than Mister and Ladybug, feels frustrated that she can't do the same activities so I always try to give her some things along the same thing.  I am amazed at what she picks up from Mister and Ladybug's work, but I want her to feel successful at her work on her level.  Here are a few money related activities on her shelf.

Money transfer

Money imprints - First she used her hand to make the dough flat and then used a roller.  

Where does it go?  For some reason the Wee One loved this activity and she made me make more cards.  She had to match the coins to correct pattern.  As an extension we counted each type of coin.

Making A Piggy

What I am going to say you may not believe, but I promise the next activity is not a huge mess to clean.  I mean it's no bigger of a mess than most things we do and to tell you the truth I asked myself what I was thinking doing this with two 4-year-olds and a 2-year-old.  

Papier-Mache!  (DUN DUN DUN)

If you didn't immediately click out of this page then check out these cute piggy banks made from tea boxes.

Ingredients - Just in case you haven't papier-mached since elementary school

• Equal parts flour and water
• Torn paper - We used paper bags
• Box or balloon to papier-mache
• Big bowl

After we mixed our flour and water until we had a paste mixture, I showed Mister, Ladybug, and the Wee One how to put the strips in the mixture, remove the excess, and place on their box.  The Wee One was hesitant because she didn't exactly love the feeling of the flour and water, but she came around when she saw her siblings have a blast.

Was this a bad choice for pictures?  Again, don't be afraid of the mess because it wipes up easily.  I also stuck them in the shower for easy kid clean up.

These took at least 4 days to fully dry and harden, but they were amazed at how hard the boxes were.

After the boxes have fully dried I cut a slit in the top for coins and a flap on the bottom to remove the coins.  They painted them and let them dry for another day.

We added a nose, eyes, ears, and a tail for a finished papier-mache piggy bank.

And in case you were wondering about the girl's fashion we had chose your own clothing adventure.  She was very creative.

Enjoy!

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.

Sneak Peak - Part Two

For Christmas the kids received two large scale DIY projects.  The fist was an art studio and the second a playhouse.  Here is a sneak peak at the playhouse and the empty space.

Like the art studio it's a nook in the corner of the basement that's only purpose was to collect junk.