Preschool Week 3- Letter M

Every Monday we start our new week of school.  We go over our sandpaper letters and create our Letter Craft (both of which I forgot to take a picture of this week. The letter craft was the letter M in the shape of a mountain with torn cotton balls glued to the top to look like snow caps). We also put our letter onto our coconut tree (from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom).

We also stamp our day in our calendar (from 1+1+1=1).

He's studying the pattern to figure out which colors come next. 

I've decided to add in some preschool packets into some of our weeks.  There is a lot to choose from.  This week we used a Mickey Mouse packet from 1+1+1=1.  I want to start incorporating these occasionally because next year we will be doing a daily notebook.  We did this notebook every day this week because he really LOVED it!

"I DID IT!"

Trying really hard to get those scissors to work.  

Little brother reeeeaalllyyy wanted to "help"

 Tanner created a Moon out of homemade puffy paint.  I just did a quick google search and it turned out awesome!  Equal parts of glue and shaving cream.  It dried like foam.  

Here's his finished Moon.  "With stars!"

 We also created shaped out of marshmallows and toothpicks.  It was a little difficult keeping the marshmallows out of his mouth. 

Sorting and graphing M&Ms. This was a hard one not to eat, too.  But he did pretty well waiting until we were done to snack on one.

Tanner really loved this week.  And I'm certain it's because of the workbook we did each day.  I may need to add something like that in more often that I was planning.  

Preschool pan loosely based off of the eBook The Preschool Journey written by Angela Thayer (www.teachingmama.org).

Preschool Week 2- Letter C

Week 2 was the letter C.  We started the week off with creating our letter craft.  This week it was a caterpillar (one of Tanner's favorite creatures).  

This next activity was pretty difficult for Tanner.  Matching the colors was extremely east, but he couldn't quite figure out how to get the little paperclips onto the paint swatches, which then frustrated him.  Next time I will try it using clothes pins.  

Tanner really loves the Do-a-Dot activities. He stamped all the little c's first, and then found all the big C's.  After that was done he wanted to color the cat.  He picked orange, which is awesome, because my favorite color cat is orange.

Our weekly sandpaper letters

This little activity really surprised me.  He never has been into coloring, so seeing him actually enjoy this one was fun to watch.  We got the caterpillar worksheet from 1+1+1=1.  Each caterpillar had a color written above it, so he would see the color written and then colored each caterpillar appropriately. Seeing him use his right hand was new, too.  He normally uses his left.

Another favorite. Q-tip painting from 1+1+1=1.

Once again, our preschool plan is loosely based off of Angela Thayer's The Preschool Journey (www.teachingmama.org).

All By Myself boxes (Weeks 1 & 2)

I saw this idea on 1+1+1=1 and KNEW right away it would be the perfect activity for Tanner.  He could spend hours with sensory boxes, sand boxes, and even water at the sink.  

We went to Walmart and got 5 large containers and 5 smaller containers.  Right now I am planning on switching the contents of the boxes every two weeks.  But when he gets a little older (next school year, probably), I will switch them out every week.  

Each box will have a sensory item, a puzzle, and a game of some kind.  I will start adding to this as he gets older. 

Monday- Purple rice, ABC letter "A" find-it pieces, school bus puzzle, foam puzzles.

Tuesday- Dried split peas with fros, plastic geometric shapes, A-E two-piece puzzles

Wednesday-Mini ABC pasta with a magnifying glass, Guidecraft puzzles, lion puzzle

(The Guidecraft puzzles)

Thursday- Dried kidney beans with All My Family counters, lacer cards, ABC puzzle

Dry pasta with shoe laces and pipe cleaners, stamps and paper, and unifix cubes

Tanner always has this "tool bin" available for the boxes, as well

First Week of Preschool! Letter A

First week of Preschool! Yay! Like I mentioned in a previous post, this first 26 week plan is mostly play based.  Tanner really loved it!  The Preschool Journey eBook that I am loosely following does not go in alphabetical order, but the first week is the letter "A" (next week is "C").  

Along with The Preschool Journey I am doing Quiet Boxes/All By Myself boxes (idea from 1+1+1=1).  These were a HUGE hit! I will be writing a post about these boxes next.  I gave Tanner a box each each day to play with independently while I was getting Wesley down for his naps.  We would also get them out after Wesley went to bed and before Tanner went to bed, sort of a wind down activity.  

Each week we will be working with our sandpaper letters. We will also make a craft-a picture of the letter out of construction paper.  

Who knew glue sticks changed the color of construction paper?!

And some magnets.

I picked a few apples and put them into a bucket.  I loosely talked to him about graphing. 

He just had to taste each color.  His favorite was the Gala.

I planned on making homeade applesauce at the end of the week, but since I had so many apples with a bite taken out, I decided it was a good idea to go ahead and make it earlier.

He did some apple stamping.  He ended up making a birthday card for his daddy.

He did a few other random activities that all tied into the letter A.

He showed me his "A" while he was playing with his iPad.  Proud momma moment. :)