Our home-preschool journal

Our Home Preschool Journal and Lesson Plans. My goal in "teaching" my children at home is to let them be little and learn through play and investigation, with and WITHOUT my help! My hopes for this blog is to keep good records of our projects and themes with reflections of my kids doing them. This blog is mainly for me, but maybe you might find a project for your sweet littles too.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

P is for Pumpkin

We did our Pumpkin theme for 2 weeks.  There was just so much/many things to do(and we had a couple days of no school)!  We did change letters/Verses for week two. 

Week 1: Pumpkins
Letter: Pp /p/  Ee  /e/
Color: pink/orange
Number: 6 
Shape: circle/oval
RRS Verse:  Praise the Lord! For it is good to sing praises to our God. Ps. 147:1
2nd Verse: Even a child is know for his deeds. Ps.

Concepts/goals
recognize letter p
p says /p/
write p
recognize color pink and beginning letter
recognize number 6 six
recognize/name circle
know & understand verse and story
pumpkins are round
colors of pumpkins
can be smooth, bumpy, textures
fruit-seeds-grow on a vine

Books we used:
We used the Parable of the Pumpkin by Lisa Higgs too.  Love all her parable books. (tears) I just noticed it wasn't in this photo. oops!
GB loved Big Pumpkin and Too Many Pumpkins, great simple info in Oh, My Pumpkin Pie!,  Pumpkins and The Pumpkin Book (a little too much info, we skipped a couple pages.)

Highlights of our week :
Pumpkin Puzzle Letter Match

Pumpkin Patterns (I found these die cuts at the dollar tree $1 well spent)

Sorting colors with Pumpkins

Spooning Fall sprinkles into pumpkin tray (another $1 tool we used for lots of things)  This was a popular school task. Both did this one a lot.

Back by Popular demand....Pumpkin weighing and sink or float.  When GB saw the bag of mini pumpkins she asked if we were going to weigh them like apples (I bought a bag of apples, maybe that's what they have in common)  Anyways, I was so glad she did, because again they loved it and we had a great lesson on which one weighs more, try to make 1 lb-2,etc,  sink or float, why? 

Counting Seeds-number correspondence

Counting to 5- Luke didn't make it to 10, because he kept eating the seeds (I cheated and bought them, we weren't ready for the carving)

P writing and RRS (1+1+1=1) work, We did the same with E, but you get the idea.

Sequencing biggest to smallest, and size correspondence
(printable confessions of a homeschooler)

color puzzle pumpkins

color word coloing pumpkins- This took 2 days, really I wouldn't let her scribble it(notice the red) she throw a fit and was finished with school.  So, I brought it back the next day and she finished it in no time.  Lately, she shuts down with the writing pages.  I will probably still encourage them as part of school, but not force them.  She's still little for purposeful writing is my true opinion.
a few pumpkin crafts, GB painted the seeds orange, then they glued them on a pumpkin shape.  Paper plates pumpkins with handprint stems/leaves.

Positional word practice with a pumpkin.  "Put the pumpkin behind the chair"

These were great fun and perfect easy gifts.  We ended up making 6 or 7.  Toliet paper roll, material, newspaper, sticks and ribbon! 

orange color find, again we do this with every color

Beanbag Toss into Pumpkin Buckets

 
Dotting P

Playdough

That was a pumpkin vine that turned into a snake. :))

making P's

More playdough!  Pumpkin Spice Playdough Pumpkins
It smelled yummy!
Pumpkin Waffles (not really, just food coloring)

Pumpkin Sandwich, with pumpkin muffin cups to hold yogurt and fruit
We used this muffin cups to make each meal Pumpkiny! :)


Pumpkin Pie in a Bag- Gb was disappointed we didn't put it in the oven and it wasn't warm pie.  So I guess we will be making a true pumpkin pie soon. 

My littles were so excited about this Halloween Mac and Cheese (we bought 3 boxes)!


*As with most weeks, we worked on other skills using our school "supplies"toys, and lots of purposeful play.  Pictures highlight our theme. 


Monday, October 3, 2011

F is for Fire Safety

October is Fire Safety Month, so that was our theme this week.
Letter: Ff
Color: Orange
Number: 5
Shape: rectangle
RRS Verse: For God so Loved the World that he gave his only begotton Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16


Concepts/goals:
recognize letter Ff and /f/
recognize color
recognize shape
memorize and understand verse
name ways God shows his love
know fire escape plan
understand danger of fire
Firefighters are helpers
Fires are HOT

Books we used:



Highlights of our week:
FireFighter dramatic play- We were great firefighters!

Purposeful play with fire trucks

Helping Strawberry Shortcake up the ladder to safety. :)

largest to smallest.  After doing this one day, L has done this with all his trucks to following days.  Too cute!  Wow, We have a lot of fire trucks! ;)

Puzzles.  L enjoys doing puzzles, especially things that go!  Oh and notice the boots, he now calls them fire boots and has worn them around the house for days. :)

counting firetrucks file folder

patterns

more Fire truck fun

Putting out the fire.  L rang the bell and we raced down the porch steps to put out the fire (flames drawn in chalk).  

L's turn. 

GB loved it, more flames mom!  So much fun!!


Practicing STOP, DROP, and ROLL,

dot painting F with orange

matching colors with bears

sorting by color

sorting by size

RRS work and cutting.  Can you see the scribbles all over the 3 pages?  This is what happens when mom gets a phone call and GB has to wait! 

Reading her book to daddy.  Probably one of her favorite parts of school are her little books she can read by herself. ;)  (Few words, picture clues, repetition, perfect building blocks to reading!)  I hope she continues to love reading!  That's my favorite thing to teach and watch being learned.

Fire Truck Snack- graham crackers, icing (powered sugar/milk) mini oreo wheels, cereal and pretzel ladders.  I didn't have any small pretzels, so we made due!

Fire Truck Breakfast -jelly toast, cereal lights/windsheild, nutella coved banana wheels.  "Best toast Ever!"

We did our orange lunch (I forgot last week) Mac & cheese (not sure if it's actually orange or yellow), carrots/ranch & oranges.  Rectangle lunch with sandwiches, apples  & gogurt all in retangles on rectangle plates!