Preschool Mommy

Summer Schedule

2012-06-27T08:59:00.002-07:00

Summer!

It's Summer! You have planned to make this summer the best summer ever. Not like last summer where three weeks in the house was a mess, the kids were whining, and you were begging for school. No this summer you wrote a schedule, you color coded, you are prepared!

I have three children; a nine-year-old, a four-year-old, and a one-year-old. Last summer, for me, was survival mode with a newborn baby. So this year I, too, have shceduled and prepared for a fabulous summer. Here are my ideas, and I hope they can help you, too.

Summer Schedule

Miserable Mondays
I have Miserable Mondays all year long. Contrary to its pathetic name, I love Miserable Mondays. Miserable Mondays I clean my house top to bottom, stem to stern. I scrub, dust, vaccuum, and have a gorgeous house at the end of a long, exhausting day. It's worth it, because the rest of the week only requires a short amount of light cleaning. Miserable Monday means Terrific Tuesday, Woo-hoo Wednesday, Fabulous Thursday and Friday and a Wonderful Weekend.

Why Monday? Because it starts the week off right. Weekends my husband is home and I would rather spend every minute as a family, instead of cleaning the house.

Tuesday-Friday
Breakfast eaten by 7:30, the kitchen is CLOSED at 7:30
Chores done by 8:30
Then we head out for a lovely morning walk before the temperature rises.
9:00 am - School Starts!
11:30 LUNCH!
12pm - Read!
Then the afternoon is free for family fun!

Afternoon Schedule

Monday - Finish cleaning the house & Grocery shopping
Tuesday - Pool Day
Wednesday - Library
Thursday - Friend Day
Friday - Adventure Day - We explore museums, and points of interest near our home
Saturday - Surfing- my husband is teaching the two oldest children

Party Days

Every month we have party days

June - Camp Day
July - Art Day
August - Water Day

Drama Week - Last week of Summer Vacation - Every afternoon friends are coming over to practice and put on a play for parents.

This is my Summer Schedule. What does yours look like? I'll be going into detail on each part of my schedule each day, but right now I'm late going on that morning walk...

Anansi - Day 1

2012-03-16T16:26:00.000-07:00

Reading Core Standard Key Ideas & Details 3
Preparation
Divide paper into three columns, with three sections in each column.
Materials
Anansi Does the Impossible by Verna Aardema
Markers
Teaching
1. Read Anansi Does the Impossible by Verna Aardema.
2. Ask your child what the three things were that the Sky God asked Anansi to bring to him.
3. Write each one at the top of each column.
4. Ask your child "How did Anansi capture the python?" In the second section of the column draw, or have your child draw how Anansi captured the python. In the final section of the column write what your child says.
5. Repeat for the fairy and the hornets.

Phonics Core Standard Phonological Awareness 2.a.
Preparation
Write "Snake" at the top of two pages. Divide the sheet into eight sections writing "__ake" in each section
Cut a piece of paperinto small squares writing each consonant on a square, also add "st," "sh"
Put squares in a baggie
Materials
Baggie with letters
2 sheets of paper with "Snake' written at top and "__ake" in the eight sections
Teaching
This is a game!!
1. First person pulls a letter from the bag and puts in front of "ake."
2. If this makes a word, they keep the letter in front of "ake."
3. Second person pulls a letter, puts it in front of word. If it doesn't from a word they put it in the cast off pile (we called it the "eh-eh pile")
4. The first person to create eight words wins.
5.After you are done creating words, use a marker and write the letters you pulled in front of "___ake" to make the words.
**To watch me teach this go to

Writing Core Standard
Preparation
Pour colored sugar or jell-o in a thin layer on a plate
Materials
jell-o/sugar
Teaching
1. Show your child how to form the letter "A," and "a."
2. Let them write the letters, one at a time, in the sugar.
3.The fun is being able to lick your fingers as you write the letter!

**This sis great for tactile learning!

Math Core Standard - Counting & Cardinality 4.a.
Preparation
Make a mini book writing the numbers 1-20 with one number on each page
Materials
Mini book
Stamps or stickers
Teaching
1. Have your child stamp the number of animals that are written on the page (stamp one bunny for the number one, 2 cats for 2, etc).
2. Do this for each number up to 20.

Art
Preparation
Get a paper plate or large paper bag
markers or crayons
Materials
Get a paper plate or large paper bag
markers or crayons
scissorsTeaching
1. Have your child create an Anansi mask.
**My son really doesn't like art, so his mask was as simple as he could make it. A circle cut out of bag, circles cut out for eyes and he was Anansi. He thought for sure he was going to scare his older sister when she came home from school.

Valentines - Day 1

2012-02-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard Craft & Structures 6, 7, 10
Preparation
none
Materials
How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
Teaching
1. On the cover of the book point out the author and illustrator.
2. Explain the job of the author (to write the words) and the illustrator (to draw pictures to show what the words are saying).
3. After reading each page, ask your child, "How does the illustrator show this?"
This is how I teach it (YouTube video).
Phonics Core Standard Phonics 3.c.
Preparation
In highlighter or marker write the following words on a piece of paper:
the, to and, is

Materials
Newspaper article
Highlighters or Light Markers in various colors

Teaching
1. Have your child take the marker in the corresponding color and highlight each "the" in the article. (In other words, you have written the word "the" in pink, so your child takes a pink marker and finds all "the"'s in the text and highlights them in the pink marker.
2. Repeat for the other words.
3. As your child looks for the words they may find others they missed, so keep all the markers handy.

Writing Core Standard Conventions of English 1.a.
Preparation
Create a race track in the form of the letter "V" on a piece of paper Write "Go" at beginning of letter and "stop" at the end

Materials

"V" track

Small toy car

Teaching
1. Have your child push the toy car along the "V" track, starting at go, and ending at "Stop."

2. Do not let your child go backward. This is about practicing the letter formation of "V."
3. Let your child race different cars, different speeds, along the track.Math Core Standard - Comparing Numbers 6
Preparation
Create a chart with the different color hearts from a box of conversation hearts with a column for each color

Materials

Chart

Box of conversation hearts
Teaching
1. Have child open box of hearts and arrange hearts in their columns.
2. Ask which column has more or less than the other columns. Ask which column has the most, which has the least.
3. Ask, "How many hearts from this column would you have to eat to have equal hearts with that column?"
4. Eat some hearts
Watch me teach this here
Art
Preparation
Materials

Paper

Scissors

Glue
Markers

Stickers
Teaching
1. Teach your child how to cut hearts from paper.
2. Have your child create a Valentine for someone they love.
3. Have them decorate it. You can have them write "I Love You" because seeing "I love you" in child writing is the best Valentine present ever.

4. Your child can create as many Valentines as he would like. For my son that was one Valentine. For my daughter who joined us that was several.

Writing

2012-02-10T13:56:00.000-08:00

I have been diligent in having my son follow the writing criteria for the core standards, and he manages to form the letters in his own way to complete the task. But there's a problem. He's forming the letters in his own way. This makes writing more laborious, and more like art, which he hates. Misery for me. Misery for him. I don't believe that misery and education should be simpatico, so until we've learned proper formation of all the letters Writing will be learning proper letter formation. And so that this won't be boring to him we'll be learning letter formation several ways. We'll explore the letter formation for 1-2 days, then actually write the letter the third day. This, I hope, will help get technique down better, and make him a better writer. Knowing proper letter formation makes for cleaner, neater faster writing.
Teaching for me has always been a work in progress, so while Writing may change, I hope it's a change for the better.

Space - Day 3

2012-02-07T20:41:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard Range of Reading 7
Preparation
Materials
Cat in the Hat: There's No Place Like Space by Tish Rabe
Teaching
1. Before reading each page to your child have them be a detective and look for clues in the illustration to guess what the words say.
2. Praise your child when they correctly guess the text using illustration clues.
Phonics Core Standard Rhyming words
Preparation

Materials

Teaching
1. Say a space word and have your child come up with a word that rhymes with it. Let your child give you a space word to rhyme. Laugh at your silly rhymes.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer

Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3. Have your child find pictures on Internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:
A- Astronomer
B - Bright
C- Constellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - Quick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3
Preparation
I have boxes of small items that I use for teaching this: stamps, beads, fake leaves, fake flowers, colored blocks, etc.
Materials
Small items
Teaching
1. Tell your child to make the number 5 (or chose a smaller number if 5 is too large) with the items.
2.Ask them to explain each time they create the number 5. For example, "I made three bunny stamps and two giraffe stamps." or "I have five blue beads" or "I have one circle and four rectangles."
3. Write their creation as an equation. Example:
"I made three bunny stamps and two giraffe stamps." Write 3+2= 5.
Say, "Just like words say a story. These numbers tell us what you made." Go through step by step how you created the equation. ("You stamped three bunnies, so I wrote this three. This '+' means you added more. This two says you added the two giraffes."

Art
Preparation
Materials
Large sheet of paper
Water colors
Paintbrushes
Black tempera paint

Teaching
1. Have your child paint their own planet using the water colors.
2.Have your child create the space around the planet using the black tempera paint.
** My son wanted half his planet to be in daylight, half at night so he only painted half of his paper black

Space - Day 2

2012-02-07T20:32:00.000-08:00

Sad News - I can not find any of the pictures I took from this day. I'm so sorry! I have the video from our Math, though.

Reading Core Standard Reading 8
Preparation
Create a solar system on a large piece of paper labeling the sun and each of the 8 planets. Leave room on or next to each planet to record information learned.
Materials
Solar system paper
Pen
The Planets by Gail Gibbons
Teaching
1. Read the book The Planets by Gail Gibbons.
2.After reading return to the book and look at each page. Have your child tell you one or more things he learned about that planet. Record what he learned on or in the planet.

Phonics Core Standard Phonemic Awareness 2.d.,e.
Preparation
Write the word "Planet" on a piece of paper. Cut into individual letters.
Materials
Cut up word
Teaching
1. Have your child use the letters from the word "Planets" to create the following words in order.
2. at, pat, sat, set, pet, let, net, ten, pen, pan, tan, tap, lap, sap, nap
3. When you teach this say, "Make the word "at."
4. "Add a letter to make "Pat."
5."Change a letter to make "sat." Etc.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer
Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3. Have your child find pictures on internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:

B - Bright
C- COnstellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - QUick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 4
Preparation
Materials
Deck of cards, jacks, quenns, and kings removed

Teaching
1. Shuffle cards and deal 5 cards to each player.
2. Players go through their cards to see if they can put two cards together to make ten (4+6, 5+5, etc)
3. Players ask each other for cards to make ten (Example: If a player has a seven they ask the other player for a three)
4. If other player doesn't have card asked for then player will "go fish" for another card.
5. When player has two cards that equal ten they have a match and get to keep it.
6. Player with most matches wins.
Watch how we play here

Art
Preparation
Materials
Black paper
Glue stick
Glitter
Circles cut out of colored paper
Ellipses cut out of colored paper, with center cut out (these become rings for the plantets)

Teaching
1. Have child rub glue stick all over paper.
2. Have child sprinkle glitter all over paper.
3. Have child arrange plantes all over paper.
Voila! A solar system!

Space -Day 1

2012-02-07T20:08:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard Reading # 4, 5, 6
Preparation
Write the following words on 3x5 cards or strips of paper:
Galaxy, milky way, planet, constellations, Solar System, universe, orbit, rotate, Earth
Materials
Stars, Stars, Stars by Bob Barner
Me and My Place in Space by Joan Sweeney
Words

Teaching
1. Read the books, point to the words that you have written on the paper strips.
2. After reading ask your child what each of the words means.
3. Define the words together. You can review what the book said about the words if you need to.
4. Hold up each word, and have your child define it.

Phonics Core Standard Phonics 2b
Preparation
Use same word strips from last activity
Divide a piece of paper into 4 sections. Number each section 1-4.
Materials
Strips used in Reading activity

Teaching
1. Segment each word into their syllables ("ga-la-xy").
2. Count the syllables in the word ("ga-la-xy" - three syllables)
3. Place the word in the corresponding column on your segmented paper (galaxy goes under 3 because it has 3 syllables)

4. Cover all but the first syllable in the word. Sound it out together ("ga")
5. Repeat for other syllables.("la," "ksy")
6. Blend syllables together (Galaxy)
7. Repeat for remaining words.

Writing Core Standard 1.a.
Preparation
Materials
Computer

Teaching
1. As you read books this week keep an ABC book of words that you learned about space.
2. Help your child type words into computer to form an ABC book.
3. Have your child find pictures on Internet, or print out pages and have your child draw pictures for each letter.
**You'll be working on this book a little each day, don't try to finish in one day, in fact it may take other sessions through out the day to complete the book.**

Our ABC List:

A- Astronomer
B - Bright
C- Constellation
D - Distance
E- Earth
F - Far
G- Galaxy, gravity, Ganymede
H - Hot, huge
I - Io, iron
J - Jupiter
K - Kirkwood Gap (we needed help on this one!)
L - Light, life
M - Milky way, Mars, Mercury, Moon
N - Neptune
O - Orbit
P - Planet
Q - Quick
R - Rotate, rings
S - Solar System, sun, stars, Saturn
T - Titon, telescope
U - Universe, Uranus
V - Venus
W - Water
X - X Marks the spot (I know , we had to stretch it for X! What did you use?)
Y - Years
Z - Zero, Zenith

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1, 3,5
Preparation
Cut out two sets of 8 circles out of paper and label them with the name of each planet and the number distance from the sun (Mercury - 1, Venus -2 , Earth -3, Mars - 4, etc)
Materials
Paper Planets
2 Dice
Teaching
1. Place one set of planets in front of each player (probably you and your child).
2. Have someone roll the dice. They use the roll to take a planet out of their solar system. So, if they get a six and a five. They can take planet six and five out of their solar system. If they roll a one and a four they can take planets one and four out of their solar system or planet five out of their solar system.
3. Take turns.
4. If a player roll a number that they cannot use, it is the other player's turn.
5. If all numbers are rolled except one, that player can roll both dice, one at a time to try to get the number one.
You can watch how we play here

Exploration
Preparation
Make a black mark on the ball
Materials
Small ball (size of a baseball)
Flashlight

Teaching
1. Shine the flashlight on the ball.
2. Point out the flashlight is the sun, the ball is earth.
3. Point the flashlight at the ball.
4. Half the ball will be in the light of the flashlight, half in dark. This is like the day and the night. Rotate the ball.
5. Show your child the spot going from the light (day) to the dark (night).

Three Little Pigs - Day 3

2012-01-23T20:03:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 9
Preparation
Materials
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka
Three Little Pigs
Teaching
1. Show your child the book Three Little Pigs. Ask, "Is the wolf a good guy or bad guy?"
2. Show your child the book The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and say, "The wolf wrote his own story about what happened. This is what the wolf said."
3. Read The True Story of the Three Little Pigs.
4. Ask, "Does this story make the wolf seem nicer? What do you think of the wolf in this story? Did he still eat the pigs? What happened to him at the end of the three pigs? What happened to him at the end of this story? Who do you believe? Do you believe the wolf's story about getting sugar, or do you think he wanted to just eat the pigs? Is the wolf a good guy or bad guy?"

Phonics Core Standard Phonological Awareness 2.c.,d.,e
Preparation
Make a small flip book with 27 sheets of paper (see my video here of how I did it)
Cut book in half from bottom to fold at top
Write one of each of the following letters on each page of the first half of the book: b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,qu,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z, bl, st, sp, tr, gl, sn
Write one of each of the following rimes on each page of the second half of the book:
ack, ad, ag, am, an, ap, at, ed, ell, en, et, ick, id, ig, ill, in, ip, it, ock, og, op, ot, ub, ug, um, un, ut
Materials
book
Teaching
1. Using the book flip to any beginning sound (first half of book) and any rime (second half of book) have your child sound it out to create a word.
2. Keep this with other books and continue practicing sounding out the new words.

Writing Core Standard - Text Types and Purposes 1.
Preparation
Write on a piece of paper "The wolf is..."
Materials
Paper
Markers
Teaching
1.Ask your child whether they think the wolf is good or bad and why.
2. Write, or help your child to write, their opinion on the piece of paper.
3. Have your child illustrate their opinion.

Math Core Standard - Operations and Algebraic Thinking 3
Preparation
I have boxes of small items that I use for teaching this: stamps, beads, fake leaves, fake flowers, colored blocks, etc.
Materials
Small items
Teaching
1. Tell your child to make the number 7 (or chose a smaller number if 7 is too large) with the items.
2.Ask them to explain each time they create the number 7. For example, "I made three bunny stamps and four giraffe stamps." or "I have five blue beads and two red beads" or "I have one circle and six rectangles."
3. Write their creation as an equation. Examples:
"I made three bunny stamps and four giraffe stamps." Write 3+4=7
or "I have five blue beads and two red beads" Write 5+2=7
or "I have one circle and six rectangles." Write 1+6=7
4. Say, "Just like words say a story. These numbers tell us what you made." Go through step by step how you created the equation. ("You stamped five bunnies, so I wrote this five. This '+' means you added more. This two says you added the two giraffes."

Exploration
Preparation
Get some Legos or other interlocking blocks
Materials
Legos
Teaching
1. Have your child create a house made out of bricks with you. Have fun making the sides and roof of the pig's house. Talk about the colors you are using, the size of the house, how many bricks. Make it a great learning and doing together experience.

Art
Preparation
Materials
Paper
Art Supplies (your choice of paint, crayon, marker, colored pencil, etc)
Teaching
1. Have your child draw (paint, etc) a picture of his house.

Three Little Pigs - Day 2

2012-01-23T19:59:00.000-08:00

**We're starting with Art because we need the puppets for Reading**

Art

Preparation

Cut 6 elongated ovals out of pink paper

Cut 2 elongated oval out of gray or brown paper

Cut six triangles out of pink paper
Cut two triangles out of gray or brown paper
Put two ovals together, tape around the edges to create a finger puppet. Repeat with remaining ovals until you have 3 pig finger puppets and 1 wolf finger puppet

Draw elongated ovals

Cut out

Tape two ovals together

Cut out small triangles

Materials
Finger puppets
Markers
Glue
Teaching
1. Have your child glue ears on each puppet.
2. Have your child draw a face on each puppet. They can also draw other details such as clothes, etc depending on their interest.

Reading
Reading Core Standard Key Ideas and Details 2
Preparation
Get puppets together
Materials
Three Little Pigs book (James Marshall has a good book)
Puppets
Teaching
1. Read The Three Little Pigs to your child.
2. Have your child retell the story using the puppets to retell the story.

Phonics Core Standard Phonological Awareness 2.e.
Preparation
on separate, small pieces of paper write the following "p," "i," "g," "r," "a," "s" "t," "h"
Materials
Papers with letters
Teaching
1. Place the letters "p" "i" "g" in front of your child. Have your child sound out the word.
2.Say, "We are going to turn a pig into a hat!"

3. Have child sound our "pig" again. Say, "Change a letter to make "rig."
4. Change a letter to make "rag."
5. Change a letter to make "sag."
6. Change a letter to make "sat."
7. Change a letter to make "hat."

Writing Core Standard Text Types and Purposes 1
Preparation
Materials
Markers
Paper
Teaching
1. Have child draw their favorite pig house.
2.Have child write why this is their favorite pig house.

Math Core Standard - Counting & Cardinality: Count to tell the number of objects 4.a.,b.,5Compare Numbers 6
Preparation
Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper
Materials
Paper

Small items (chocolate chips, we used puffed corn)

Teaching

1. Have your child take two handfuls of the treat and place each handful on one side of the sheet of paper.

2. Have your child count and write the number of items on each side of the paper.

3. Ask, "Which side has more?" Which side has less?"

4. Do this a few times with your child to practice counting and comparing numbers.

Exploration

Preparation

Materials

Craft Sticks

Glue

Teaching

1. Build a stick house together with your child. Talk with them about how to make walls and a roof.

2. Use the glue and craft sticks to build the house.

Three Little Pigs - Day One

2012-01-23T19:36:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard Key Ideas & Details 3 - Characters, setting, Major events; Craft & Structure 5 - Recognize common types of text & 6 - Author and illustrator and role of each
Preparation
Divide four pieces of paper into five sections each
On Top of first section write: Who, second section: Where/When third section: What, Fifth section: Why.
On first piece of paper write Pig One with a picture of Pig One

Second piece of paper write pig 2 with picture of pig 2
Third piece of paper write Pig 3, with picture of Pig 3
Fourth Piece of Paper write Wolf with picture of wolf
Materials
Book: Three Little Pigs, I used the books by James Marchall and Margot Zemach, but there are dozens to choose from
Divided sheets
Markers
Teaching
1. Read The Three Little Pigs. Before opening the book, point out the title, author and illustrator. Tell your child this is a storybook.
Here is how I pointed out author, title, etc:

2. Fill out a divided paper for each character.
3. Tell your child who the character is. Make sure to use proper terms (character)
4. Ask where the pig was (city, forest, etc). Have your child draw a picture or write a word describing where the story takes place
5. Ask when the story happened (night, spring, look at details in pictures for clues). Have your child draw or write in the column to summarize when the story takes place.Say, "This is the setting; when and where the story happens is the setting."
6. Ask What pig 1 did. Have child draw or write in the "What" column what Pig 1 did.
7. Ask why Pig 1 did what he did. Have child draw or write in last column why Pig one did what he did.
8. Repeat for remaining characters.
**Learning takes place on a spectrum from teacher directed (you telling, doing, child listening) to teacher-child (doing project together) to independent (Child doing learning all on his own). You can do this project, and any lesson, for that matter, along this spectrum. If you need to direct more, then you fill out the papers. I set up this lesson as a teacher/child to be done together, but gauge your child's abilities and teach accordingly**

Phonics Core Standard Print Concepts, Common High Frequency words
Preparation
On computer write your own, very simple, short Three Little Pigs story, or use mine (email me amyiswrite@gmail.com)
Materials
Book
Highlighters ( I use light colored markers)

Teaching

Starting on page one, word one, say, "This is the first letter of the first word we are going to read. We always start here,on the left side of the page when we read or write. This letter makes a sound. We put it together with the other letters next to it and it tells us a word!
Have your child tell you the sound of each letter. Put the sounds together to form the word. Underline the word in green. Read the word.
Say, "This space next to the word tells us the word is done." Color the space red.

Repeat for each word on the page.
Say, "We read a sentence!" Underline the sentence in green.
For the word "the" tell them "This is the word 'the.' We use this word often, but it doesn't look the way it sounds, so we just memorize t-h-e is the." Highlight "the" in blue.
Repeat this for each sentence.

Writing Core Standard Text Types & Purposes 3
Preparation
Write dotted lines on the bottom of a blank sheet of paper. Write "My favorite part is..." followed by enough space for child to answer question.
Materials
Paper
Markers, crayons, etc
Teaching
1. Talk about story. Share your favorite parts with each other.

2. Have child write his favorite part on the paper.

3.Have him illustrate it..

Math Core Standard - Counting and cardinality 2, 4.a., Operations and Algebraic Thinking 1&2
Preparation

Materials
stacking (not interlocking) blocks
Die (one dice)
Teaching
1. Person 1 rolls die, then stacks that number of blocks up on top of each other.
2. Person 2 rolls die, then stacks their blocks on top of blocks person one made. Have person 2 count on to person one's blocks to find out how many blocks there are altogether.
3. Person 1 rolls die again. This number indicates how many "puffs" this person has to blow the "piggie blocks" down.
4. Restack blocks (if necessary). Have person 2 roll die and "puff."
5. The person who can blow down stack in allotted puffs win (which means both people can win).
**I had no trouble blowing down the stacks, but my son did, so we ended up throwing a small block at the stacks**

Exploration
Preparation

Materials
pipe cleaners
Teaching
1.Not having straw readily available, we used pipe cleanersto create our straw house. Talk with your child about how you might put the house together, how to walls, the roof, etc.
2. This doesn't have to be perfect. It's an exercise in building and problem solving.

Art
Preparation
Circle cut out of pink paper for pig nose
two triangles cut out of pink paper for ears
Materials
Pink paint
paper plate
circle, triangles
glue
black marker

Teaching
1. Have child paint paper plate.
2. Have child glue nose and ears of plate.
3.Have child draw mouth.
4. Have child draw eyes for pig.

Frogs - Day 3

2012-01-07T12:42:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard - Reading Standards for Informational Text1
Preparation
This will be asking and answering questions about the text.
Materials.
book - I used Gail Gibbons Frogs again
Teaching
1. Read book Frogs by Gail Gibbons. Ask your child questions about the book. Ask if they have questions.

Phonics Core Standard - Phonological Awareness 2.b.
Preparation
Write the following words on a piece of paper:
hibernation, camouflage, webbed, amphibians, vegetarian, algae, frog, tadpole, egg, gills, tail, legs, insects, water
Divide a piece of paper into five sections and number 1-5
Materials
word strips
divided paper
glue stick
Teaching
1. Sound out each word for your child. Count together the number of syllables in each word.
2. Have child glue the word under the number corresponding to the amount of syllables in the word.
3. Go through each word again.
4.Sound out the single syllable words together

Writing Core Standard Text Types and Purposes 2
Preparation
Create a mini Book. Write "Frogs can" on Title page and each page in the book (your choice if you want one idea per two page spread, or 2 ideas per two sheet spread)
Materials
Mini book
Markers

Teaching
1. Ask your child some things that frogs can do that they learned from teh book.
2.Write, or have your child write, what frogs can do. For example: "Frogs can jump." The child will write "jump."

3.Have child illustrate the book.

4.Have child read the book to you.

Math Core Standard - Geometry - Identify and Describe Shapes 2
Preparation
Prepare a piece of paper with a circle, square, rectangle, triangle, and hexagon for you and ond one for your child
Materials
Shape Paper
Crayon
Teaching
1. Go on a shape scavenger hunt. Walk your house, and/or neighborhood to find real-life shapes.
2.When you or your child finds a shape, they color it in on the paper.
3 The first person to find all shapes on their sheet is the winner.
Shapes We Found:

Art
Preparation
Find the page in Gail Gibbon's Frogs that shows a frog's body parts.
Materials
Picture
Playdough
Teaching
1. Have your child create a frog with the playdough, making sure they show all the parts of the frog (eyes, mouth, front and back legs, ridges on back).
2. The easiest way to do this is to make each part seperately (body with ridges, add head, add eyes, add front legs, add back legs, add tongue).

My Frog

William's Frog

**You can also make the frog life cycle, creating a frog egg, tadpole, and morphing it into the frog**

Materials

Frogs - Day 2

2012-01-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

Reading Core Standard - Craft & Structure 6, Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity 10, Preparation
Materials
Paper
Marker
Book: Frogs by Gail Saunders-Smith (or, if you can't find this at your local library, another good easy reader Frog book)
Teaching
1. Before reading ask, "How does a frog become a frog?"
2. Your child might remember from yesterday's book, Frogs By Gail Gibbons, a few details. Tell child that you are going to find out how a frog becomes a frog in the book for today.
3. Show child book. Point out title, see if child can read it. Point out picture of frog. Point out the author's name at the bottom. Open the book and begin reading.
4. As you read document on the paper each part of life cycle of frog with a word and a very simple illustration.

5. Review chart with child. See if they can tell you the life cycle.

Phonics Core Standard - Phonological Awareness 2.d.
Preparation
Write "Og" on paper
write on small pieces of paper each consonant of the alphabet. Also "st," "sl," "sp," "tr," "pr," "pl,"
On a piece of paper write "Word" on one side, "Jail" on the other
Materials
Papers with "og," etc.
Word/Jail Paper
Teaching
1. Place a consonant or the "st," etc in front of "og."
2. Sound out word with your child, or have them sound it out independently.
3. If it creates a word, put it in the "word" section of the paper.
4.If it doesn't create a word put it in "jail."

5. After going through each letter, reread your real words.
Writing Core Standard - Text Types and Purposes 2.
Preparation
Make a mini book. On Title Page write "Life Cycle of Frog"
**Don't write anything in the book until lesson, this is just to let you know how book will be laid out**
The book is made up of three double pages.
On page one write: Eggs
Page two (facing page 1) write:tadpole
Page 3 write:Back legs
Page 4:Front legs
Page 5: Tail shrinks
Page 6: Frog
OR You can have child write the words, or write the first letter of each word. Depends on child's level, or attention span.
Materials
Mini Book
Markers
Chart from Reading
Teaching
1. Show child chart again. Explain you will be making a book about Life cycles to show to the family.
2. Ask child what a frog looks like at first. Talk about the eggs, what they look like, feel like (Gail Gibbons said they were like "jelly." Maybe touch some jelly to get an idea?" Say, "It looks like frogs start out as eggs. Let's write "Eggs" on the first page. (This is when you write the word, you have child guess first letter and write first letter, or let child write the entire word.)

3. Ask, "What happens when the frogs hatch? Do they look like frogs?" Child will (hopefully) say "Tadpoles." Say, "Then we write "tadpoles." Write "tadpole" then have child illustrate.
4. Repeat for remaining pages, having a guided discussion with your child to get back legs, front legs, tail shrinks, and frog.

Math Core standard - Geometry - Analyze, Compare, and Compose Shapes
Preparation
Draw a circle, triangle, square, rectangle, hexagon on a piece of paper
tape two craft sticks together to form a long stick, make two sets of this
Materials
chenille stick ("pipe cleaners" back in the day)
craft sticks ("Popsicle sticks" back in the day)
Teaching
1. Give your child a chenille stick and ask her to make a circle with it. You can help by using your own chenille stick and talking through the process (smoothing it, explaining it can't have any angles, etc.)
2. Give child three Popsicle sticks and tell her to make a triangle. Emphasize that a triangle has three sides that touch and make angles. Tri=three, three sides, three angles
3. Give child four sticks. Have child put the Popsicle sticks on top of each other. Point out that all the sticks are the same length. Have child create a square. Point out the four equal sides, and the four angles.
4. Give child the two long Popsicle sticks and two regular sticks. Have them create a rectangle. Talk about opposite sides being the same length, four sides, four angles.
5. Give child 6 craft sticks. Have them create a hexagon. Talk about the six sides and six angles.
** IMPORTANT**
A. If your child has a hard time forming shapes, give as much necessary help as needed. You can do this activity again and again until your child has mastered ability to create shapes on their own.
B. Notice I am using mathematical terms like angles, etc. lease use correct terminology when explaining Math. These words will not confuse your child if you explain them. When correct terminology is used it becomes a part of your child's vocabulary very easily.
C. You can watch the video of how I taught this on youtube.
Exploration

Watch a Frog Video - these can be found at your local library (I love that place)

Art
Preparation
Cut out 2 small and one large heart from green paper
Materials
google eyes
hearts
glue
markers, crayons, etc
Teaching
1.Draw a green line down middle of large green heart to form a lily pad.

2. Glue small green heart on top of other small green heart, as seen in photo.

3. On the top of first green hear glue google eyes at top of heart (see photo)

4. Using a marker draw frog details like mouth, spots, toes, etc.

Key Ideas and Details 2

Frogs - Day 1

2012-01-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

Reading (Core education standard for Kindergarten-Reading Standard #4 under Craft & Structure)

Preparation

Write the following words on pieces of paper: Hibernation, Camouflage, Webbed, Amphibians, Vegetarians, Algae (email me and I'll send you my word doc)

Materials

Paper

Teaching

1. Show your child the words. Read each word, ask if they know what the word means. Say, "These are mystery words about frogs and we will be like scientist solving the mystery of what the words mean.

2. Say, "We are going to read a book about frogs and the book will tell us what the words mean."

3. Read the book, as you find the word in the text use the word strip with corresponding word as a bookmark. Talk about the meaning of the word.

4. After reading the book, go to each bookmarked page and read the word. Ask, "What does this word mean?" "What does this word have to do with frogs?"

Phonics (Core Standard Foundational Skills Phonics and Word Recognition 3.c. "Read common high-frequency words.")

Preparation

Buy a used children's book (I go to the library and pick them up for 50 cents)

Materials

Book

Markers or highlighters in 3 different colors where text will show through

Teaching

1. Tell your child you are detectives looking for words that you read very often.

2. Show your child the word "the." Explain that the word the doesn't sound the way it looks, but we hear it all the time. Tell your child the word, "the." Have your child look for and highlight the word "the" in the book. (Now would be a good time to mention that this is a special book for writing in, and all other books should NOT be written in).
3. Explain the word "are." Point out the letters, sound out the word. Find the word "are" in the book.

4. Do the same for the word, "is."
5. Have your child guess which word they saw the most when reading. GO through the text and count every "the," "are," and "is" they have highlighted. Declare that word the winner!
Writing (Core Standard - Writing: Text Types and Purpose 1. "Compose opinion")
Preparation
Make a mini book. On title page write "I like frogs." On each page write "I like _____________ about frogs."
Materials
Mini book
Pen
marker, crayons, or colored pencils
Teaching
1. Ask your child what he liked learning about frogs in the book.
2. Write down what he says.
3. Have child fill out blanks on pages of book using a simplified version of your discussion.

4.Have child illustrate book.
5. Have child read book to stuffed animals, siblings, you, over the phone to grandma, etc.

Math Core standard - Geometry - Identify and describe shapes
Preparation
Cut out 3-4 varying sizes of shapes (square, rectangle, triangle, hexagon, circle) on different colored pieces of paper.
Materials
Shapes
Teaching

1. Have child sort (another core standard) shapes into things that look similar. Continue sorting until child has groups of circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and hexagons

2. Pull out triangles. Ask, "What makes these shapes different?" Talk about color, and size. Ask, "What makes these shapes the same?" Make sure to point out 3 sides, 3 angles.

3.Say, these are all triangles. Even though they may be different sizes and colors, they are triangles because they have 3 sides and 3 angles.

4. Repeat for squares, etc. Make sure to point out what makes a square a square, etc.

Exploration

Visit some frogs at a local pet shop.

Art

Preparation
Materials
Green paint

Paper Plate

2-3" diameter White circles

1" diameter black circles

Black marker

Glue

Teaching

1. Have child paint plate green.

2.Let dry.

3. Glue black circles on to white circles.

4. Glue white circles to top of plate.

5. Add a smile near bottom of plate with black marker.

Core Education Standards

2012-01-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

Confession: I am a former teacher. I was taught in college that everything a teacher does in the classroom should tie into an educational standard to help children meet benchmarks for their grade. Problem: There are no real benchmarks for preschool. Solution: I am using the Core standards adopted by several states in the U.S.in order to drive my instruction. Though you may say that Kindergarten is not preschool, I argue that much of what is learned in Kindergarten is easily trasmitted to the preschool curriculum.
So, from now on I am writing the core standards I am teaching for Reading, Phonics, Writing, and Math. This way you know that what your child is learning is based on national educational standards and not on some feel-good philosophy. While I firmly believe that learning should be fun, especially for young children, I also believe just as firmly in having proper foundations in learning. So, from here on out, look for hte learning standards for the subjects. I also encourage you to go to the website and read the standards for yourself. Thank you to everyone who has used my website. Please comment and let me know how the lessons are working for you.

Christmas Day Three - Olive the Other Reindeer

2011-12-20T21:08:00.000-08:00

Reading
Preparation
Get book Olive, the Other Reindeer
Get a wand. I use a craft stick with a star on the end.
Materials
Book
Wand
Teaching
1. Read book to your child.
2. Turn to a page in the book and use your wand to point out letters in the words, words in the sentence, spaces between words, punctuation at the end of the sentence.
3.Hand over the wand and have your child point out letters, words, spaces, punctuation, etc.

Phonics
Preparation
Book Olive, the Other Reindeer
Materials
Book
Marker or wand
Teaching
1. Show child page in the book.
Make it a game to find the following words: "the, of, is, and" (these are called high frequency words so we want to teach our children to memorize them)

2. Use the marker to circle the words, or the wand to point to the words.

Writing
Preparation
Using large dotted line paper (you can have a word doc copy of my paper I print out by emailing me at amyiswrite@gmail.com) write a capital "O" on the first line and a lower case "o" on the second line.
On the following lines write: l_ck, r_ck, d_g, f_g, h_g, h_p, m_p, d_t, h_t, p_t
Materials
Teaching

1. Teach child correct formation of letter "O" both upper-and lower case.

2. Have child write the letter "O" in the open space of each unfinished word to create a new word.

3.Read the new word created.

4. On a separate piece of paper write "I would help Santa by" and let child complete the sentence verbally.

5. Write what child said on paper, then have child illustrate the sentence.

Math
Preparation
Cut out 5 Christmas trees out of green paper. Using Christmas stickers place 1-4 stickers on each tree. Write the number 5 on each tree.
Materials
Trees
Stickers
Teaching
1. Tell your child these trees don't have enough ornaments on them. They each need 5 ornaments.
2. Have your child add the remaining number of stickers to each tree to make 5 ornaments on the tree.

Exploration
Preparation
For exploration this week we are doing kind things for others. We visited and sang in a nursing home.

Art
Preparation
Prep materials
Materials
Brown piece of paper
white piece of paper
child safety scissors
markers
glue stick
Teaching

1. Trace, or have your child trace their foot on to the brown piece of paper.
2. Have your child trace their hands on to the white piece of paper.
3. Have your child cut out hand and foot prints.
4. Have your child glue hand prints to footprints to create a reindeer head and antlers.

5.Have child draw a nose and eyes to finish reindeer face.

Christmas Day Two - The Night Before Christmas

2011-12-20T21:02:00.000-08:00

Reading
Preparation
Get book The Night Before Christmas
Materials
Book
Teaching
1.Read book to child.
2.Read book again, only this time, have your child act out the poem as you read it.

Phonics
Preparation

Write the poem, The Night Before Christmas." If you don't want to write it out, email me amyiswrite@gmail.com and I will send you a word doc of the one I wrote out, so you can skip this long step in prep
write the rhyming words on pieces of paper, and cut them into individual words

Poem
Marker
Paper divided into two sections, "twins" and "jail"
rhyming words
glue stick
Teaching
1. Read poem to your child and circle the rhyming words in the poem (you can circle, or your child can circle, your choice).
2. You don't need to do the entire poem, gauge your child's interest. My son lasted about 1/2 way before he was done circling. That's fine. Stop before it becomes a chore.
3. Show the rhyming words to your child. Line them up, one above the other so that the rimes align.
4. Ask, "Are these rhymes spelled the same, or are they different?"
5. If they are the same, your child glues them under "twins." If they are different your child glues them in "jail."

Writing
Preparation
Using large dotted line paper, write a capital "N" on the first line and a lower case "n" on the second line. On other lines write the following rimes: ab, ag, ap, est, et, ib, ip, od, ot, ub, un, ut
Materials
paper
pen
markers, etc
Teaching
1. Teach your child proper formation of the letter "N" both upper-and lower case.
2. Have your child add the letter 'N" to each rime to create a new word, word the word with your child.
3. On a separate piece of paper write, "If I met Santa I would"
4. Have your child tell you what they would do if they met Santa. finish the sentence, writing what your child told you.
5. Have your child illustrate the sentence.

Math
Preparation
Draw a stocking on a piece of paper with sharp corners. Placing another piece of paper behind your paper with the stocking. Cut out stocking, so you have two exact copies. Cut the second stocking into about 5-7 shapes of triangles, rectangles, and squares.
Materials
Stocking
Pieces
glue stick.
Teaching
1. Tell your child that this is an empty stocking that Santa needs to fill.
2.Show the shapes to your child, have your child name the shapes.
3.Tell your child the shapes are presents for the stocking, and they need to help Santa fit all the presents into the stocking.
4. Have child rearrange shapes in stocking until they all fit, then have child glue pieces into the stocking.

Exploration
Preparation
For Christmas, all our Explorations are about doing kids things for other people. Find a way to give gifts of kindness and services with your child. Our church was buying presents for a homeless shelter so we signed up and I let my son help pick out a gift for the shelter.

Art
Preparation
Draw a picture, or print out a simple picture of Santa.
Materials
Santa picture
Crayons or markers
Cotton balls
Glue
Teaching
1. Have child color Santa's face and hat
2.Have child glue cotton balls on to beard and hat rim.

Christmas Day One - Nativity

2011-12-20T20:58:00.000-08:00

Reading
Preparation
Choose a simple children's book, or a few, that are about the First Christmas. See my list of Christmas books for my favorites. You can also read from the Bible Luke chapter 2 verses 1-20. and Matthew chapter 2 verses 1 through 12. Here is a link to the King James Version online for Luke (shepherds) and Matthew (wisemen). Draw or print out small pictures of the naativity. Tape these to popsicle sticks to form puppets.
Materials
Bble, and/or natvity books
Nativity pictures (mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, wise men, shepherds, angel, king herod)
Markers, etc.
Popsicle sticks
Teaching
1. Read the stories. I like to read and explain the Bible verses, and then read the Nativity books and explain as we go, how they relate to the Bible story.
2. Child can color pictures.
3. Have your child retell the story of Jesus' birth using the puppets. You can help encourage by holding up a puppet, asking (or telling if they forgot) who it is, and how they belong in the story.
4. Have your child put on the puppet show for relatives at Christmas, siblings, etc.

Phonics
Preparation
Write the word "Christmas" then cut into individual letters.
Materials
Letters, cut up
Teaching
1. Tell your child that all these letters together make a word that is special at this time of year.
Say the following:
1. Make the word "as."
2. Add a letter and make the word "has."
3. Change the last letter to make the word "hat."
4. CHange the first letter to make the word "cat."
5. CHange the first letter to make the =word "rat."

6. Change the first letter to make the word "sat."
7. Change the first letter to make the word "mat."
8. Change the last letter to make "mas," the end of our special word.
9. The rest of the letters make the word that Christmas is all about. (slowly spell out "Christ" and sound it out for your child).
10. This is the word "Christ" because our special word (put "Christ" and "mas" together) form the word CHristmas, and CHristmas is all about that Jesus Chrust was born!

Writing
Preparation
Using large dotted line paper, write a capital "C" on first line, lower case "c" on second line
write the following rimes on the lines below: ab, an, ap, at, op, ot, up
Materials
Teaching

1.Teach your child proper formation of the letter "C" both upper and lower case.
2. Have your child practice writing the letter C in front of each rime, creating a new word.
3. On a separate paper write "If I was at the First Christmas"
4. Have your child complete the sentence verbally, while you write down what they say.
5. Have child illustrate the sentence.

Math
Preparation
Draw or print 20-30 sheep.
Materials
Sheep
Die (one dice)
Teaching
1. Put sheep in a pile.
2. First person rolls, die, and takes that amount of sheep.
3.Second person rolls die and takes the amount of sheep shoen on die.
4. Players continue playing until sheep are gone.
5. Players count their sheep to see who has the biggest flock, and wins. You can watch a video of my kids playing it here.

Exploration
Preparation
Our entire Christmas exploration will be about serving others. Find ways to help your child serve others. We made treats for our cousins, one in the military, one on a mission, and sent them to them for Christmas. You can make a treat and send or give it to someone.

Art
Preparation
Prep Materials
Materials
Paper
Markers, crayons, etc
Teaching
1. Have your child draw a picture of baby Jesus.

Jan Brett Day Three - Gingerbread Baby

2011-12-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

Reading

Preparation

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett.

Go to Jan Brett website and size, print out and tape the following animals to craft sticks: dog, pig, goat, cat, gingerbread baby,(These are printable as big masks, so I copy, size in a word document to smaller, then print) gingerbread house. Draw a mom and dad and tape them to craft sticks

Materials
Teaching
1. Read book to child
2. Using puppets (characters on craft sticks) have child retell the story of the gingerbread a baby.

Writing
Preparation

On large dotted paper write capital "G" on first line, lower case "g" on second line. On subsequent lines write: ag, et, ig, ill, ot, um, ut

Materials

Paper

Pen or pencil

Teaching

1.Teach child proper formation of capital- and lower case "G."

2. Have child add "g" to each rime ("ag," "et," etc)

to create new word.
3.Have child read each new word as they create it.

Phonics
Preparation
Write the following: cat, dog, goat, pig, fox, milk, cheese, baby, mother, father, Martha, cookbook, Matti, candy, gingerbread, Madeline, peppermint. Cut out each word
Divide a piece of paper into thirds. At top of first column write "1," second column :2,: third column "3"
Materials
words
Columned paper

glue stick

Teaching

1. Clap out the syllables in each word with your child.

2. Have child glue the word in the column with number representing the syllables in word (cat, dog, etc go under column labeled one, and so on)

3. See if your child can clap out syllables on their own.

Math

Preparation

Get materials together

Materials

60 plastic bricks (Lego's, etc)

Die (one dice)

Teaching
1. Each person rolls the die and takes that many plastic blocks, linking them together.
2. When you have a stick of 10 blocks, start creating a new stick.
3.The winner is the person who has three sticks of ten, or 30 blocks.

Exploration
Preparation
Get ingredients to make a gingerbread cookie
Write steps to making cookie on pieces of paper with a picture (see example below)

Materials
Ingredients to make a gingerbread cookie
Teaching
1. With your child make a gingerbread man. (We made an extra large gingerbread baby)
2. Make connections to the book as you measure, mix, pour and bake without peeking!

Art
Preparation
Make icing, gather together small candies, etc.
Materials
gingerbread cookie
icing
candies, etc
Teaching
1. Decorate your gingerbread baby with your child!

My Allergy free Gingerbread Cookie recipe
Sift together:
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup single grain oatmeal (baby food oatmeal)
1/2 cup single grain rice cereal (baby food)
3/4 tsp xanthan gum
2 TBSP Potato starch
1tsp Ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt
In a separate bowl cream together:
6 TBSP shortening
6 TBSP brown sugar
4 TBSP Molasses
2 TBSP applesauce
1 TBSP Water
1 1/2 tsp Egg replacer

1. Mix dry ingredients into wet.
2. Line cookie pan with tin foil. Put dough on baking sheet.
3. Cover dough with wax paper and roll out.
4. Carefully cut out cookies, pulling away excess dough. DO NOT TRY TO LIFT COOKIES!!
5. Bake 350 for 10-12 minutes.
6. Cool and decorate!
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda

**This week we are using books by the same author/illustrator, Jan Brett, and will begin each day with reading the book**

Don't forget to do your Daily 4

1.Alphabet

2. Numbers to 100

3. Child Reading

4. Read to your child at least 5 books (Gingerbread Baby counts as one!)

Jan Brett Day Two - The Hat

2011-12-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Reading
Preparation
Get the book The Hat by Jan Brett
Create a mini book - make 2 mini books, gluing the covers together to create a longer mini book.
On each page of the book write _______ has a hat.
Print out animals from the Jan Brett website,size to fit mini book, print, and cut out
Materials
Mini Book
animals
markers or crayons
pen

Teaching
1. Read the book The Hat to child.
2. Read mini book to child. Have them choose an animal, paste it to the page. Write animal in the blank.
3. Have child draw a hat on animal.
4. Have child read the book to you, to a sibling,to a stuffed animal, etc.
5.Keep with other mini books, in an easily accessible place for your child.

Phonics
Preparation
Make a small poster with two boxes on it. Label the top box "Words" and the lower box "Jail"
Draw bars on the "jail"
on a sticky note write "at"
On separate sticky notes write all consonants, and the following "fl," "st," "pl," "th," "tr," "ch," "cr," "dr," "br," "sp"
Materials
Poster
sticky notes
Teaching
1. Put a consonant or onset ("st,"etc) in front of "at."
2. Have your child sound out the word.

3.If it makes an actual word, put it in the word box. If it doesn't make a word put it in "jail."

Writing
Preparation
Using large dotted line paper write a capital "H" on first line and a lower case "h" on second line. On other lines write the following rimes: ad, ag, am, at, en, id, ill, ip, op, ot, ub, ug, um, ut
Materials
paper
pen or pencil
Teaching
1. Teach child how to properly form capital- and lower case H
2. Have child add an "H" to each rime and sound out new word they created

Math
Preparation
Remove face cards from a deck of cards
Materials
deck of cards
Teaching
1. Play War with child.
2.Shuffle and divide deck between the two of you.
3. Turn over top card at same time as child.
4.Whoever has highest card wins both cards. If there is a tie go again, winner takes all four (or six, etc) cards.
5.Winner of game is person with most cards.

Art
Preparation
Cut out hat shape from construction paper
Materials
Hat cut from paper
markers, crayons, etc
glue, glitter
stickers, etc
Teaching
1. Have child decorate hat

**This week we are using books by the same author/illustrator, Jan Brett, and will begin each day with reading the book**

Don't forget to do your Daily 4

1.Alphabet

2. Numbers to 100

3. Child Reading

4. Read to your child at least 5 books (The Mitten counts as one!)

Jan Brett - Day 1 The Mitten

2011-12-06T21:46:00.000-08:00

**This week we are using books by the same author/illustrator, Jan Brett, and will begin each day with reading the book**

Don't forget to do your Daily 4

1.Alphabet

2. Numbers to 100

3. Child Reading

4. Read to your child at least 5 books (The Mitten counts as one!)

Reading

Preparation

Get Book The Mitten by Jan Brett

Materials

The Mitten by Jan Brett

Teaching

1. You are going to go on a "Picture Walk." A picture walk is when you look at the pictures in a book and make predictions about what is happening in the book, what may happen next, etc. Here is a video of how I took a picture walk with my son.

2. Now read the book together.

Phonics

Preparation

Pictures of the mitten and the animals in the mitten (mole, rabbit, hedgehog, owl, badger, fox, bear, mouse) - these can be found at Jan Brett's website.
Make two copies of mitten, tape together around the edges.
Cut out animals

Materials

* Mitten

* Animals

Teaching

1. You are going to give rhymes for the different animals. When you give the rhyme your child needs to find the animals that goes with that rhyme.

2. Say, "Look in the hole you might find a ______ (mole). Child finds mole in group of animal and puts it in the mitten.

3. Make it a habit to look for the ______ (rabbit). Child finds rabbit in group of animals and puts it in the mitten.
4. Say, "Do you like tickles? Find the animal with _____ (prickles - hedgehog). Child finds hedgehog in group of animals and puts it in the mitten.
5. Say, "A bird is a fowl, can you find the ____(owl). Child finds the owl and puts it in the mitten.
6. Say, "It is dark and it is light, find the animal that's black and _____ (white - badger). Child finds badger and puts it in the mitten.
7. Say, "Loon in a big brown box, you may find a little ___ (fox). Child finds fox and puts it in the mitten.

8. Say, "Use a brush to brush your hair, then you can find the ____ (bear)." Child finds bear and puts it in the mitten.
9. Say, "Look outside or in the house, then you can find the ____ (mouse)." Child finds mouse and puts it in the mitten.

Writing

Preparation

Using dotted line paper (for a copy of dotted line paper I've made email me @ amyiswrite@gmail.com) write a capital "M" on the top line, a lower case 'm' on second line, then creating a space foe the letter "m" write the following on the remainder of page: -ad, -an, -ap, -at, -en, -et, -ill, -ink, -it, -ock, -op, -uck

Materials

"M" page created above

Marker

Teaching

1. Teach your child how to form upper and lower case letter "M." For how I teach this watch video for upper case "M" and lower case "m."

2. Read "-ad." Have your child add the "m" and sound out the word "mad."

3. Repeat for each group of letters creating the words man, map, etc..

Math

Preparation

Use the same mitten and animals you used for phonics. On four small pieces of paper write the numbers 5, 12, 23, 36

Materials

Mitten

Animals

Small pieces of paper

Teaching

1. Put the small pieces of paper in the mitten.

2. Have your child pull out one of the small pieces of paper.

3. Using the animals count on to the number. For example, if your number is "5" say "Five," then add the bear and say "Six," add the rabbit and say "seven." Continue with the rest of the animals.

**Counting on to various numbers is an educational standard for kindergarten, so you may need to help your child at first.**

Exploration

Preparation

Get yarn

Materials

Yarn

Teaching

1. You will teach your child to finger crochet a bracelet. If you aren't sure how to finger crochet watch my video here (my blog is cursed that videos don't play here).

Art

Preparation

Cut 2 mitten shapes out of a piece of construction paper. Using a hole punch, punch holes around the mitten.

Tape the end of a piece of yarn. Tie the untaped piece of yarn to the mitten.

Materials

Mitten cut out

Yarn

Markers, glue, glitter, etc

Yarn

Teaching

1. Have your child "sew" the two mittens together through the cut out holes using the taped yarn.

2. When child is done, tie the yarn off and allow child to decorate the mitten..

Holiday Books - Christmas & Hannukah

2011-11-30T19:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas Books

My Favorites:

Santa Mouse by Michael Brown

This is a favorite from my childhood. This book sat near the fireplace at my grandmother's house and every year I would read sit on her blue velvet couch and read this book. This book brings me back to some of my fondest memories.

I opened up my box of Christmas books this year, and this book was missing. I plan on a thorough search of all my boxes, and if I can't find it, I'll have to find a copy.

The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsberg

This is a great book. Every child would love to ride the Polar Express. I'm sure my children listen just as intently for this train's whistle as they do for Santa's sleigh bells.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Classic! Every year I start to become a little Grinch-like as I think of all the unimportant To-Do's that surround the holiday, so this is a good book to remind me that Christmas doesn't come in a box, but is felt in the love we share.

Olive, the Other Reindeer by J. Otto Seibold

I love Olive. Please do not confuse this cute book with the awful Christmas special. Olive is a dog who believes in herself and makes things happen.

Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear by Stan & Jan Berenstain

Berenstain Bears do a great job of explaining things, including a visit to Santa Bear.

This is the Stable by Cynthia Cotten

Beautiful poem that explains in simple language the role of each person that First Christmas.

The Stable Where Jesus Was Born by Rhonda Gowler Greene

I love this book about the Nativity, too. A poem that builds on itself. Beautiful illustrations, beautiful poem, beautiful book.

Who is Coming to Our House by Joseph Slate

The animals in the stable prepare for Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus.

Christmas in the Manger by Nola Buck

Very simple, sweet explanation of the Nativity. I love Felicia Bond's sweet, simple drawings.

More Christmas Books

The Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore

The Sweet Smell of Christmas by Patricia Scarry

The Christmas Magic by Lauren Thompson

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Felicia Bond

The Gift of the Traveler by Wendy Matthews

Snowmen at Christmas by Carolyn and Mark Buehner

That First Night by B.G. Hennessey

Little Porcupine's Christmas by Joseph Slate

A Merry Little Christmas by Mary Engelbreit

Come and See: A Christmas Story by Monica Mayper

When Jesus Was Born in Bethlehem by Joseph Brickey

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathon Toomey by

Christmas Treasury Compiled by Dalmatian Press

Merry Christmas, Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parrish

Mooseltoe! by Margie Palatini

Santa and the Three Bears by Dominic Catalano

The Biggest Christmas Tree Ever by Steven Kroll

Christmas Mice by Bethany Roberts

Jingle Bell Mice Illustrated by Lisa McCue

The Littlest Christmas Tree by Janie Jasin

My Favorite Hanukkah Books

Yes, I have a few Hanukkah books, too. I kept these after I"retired from teaching" (became a stay at home mom) because they are great books! My kids love them and they are as much a part of our "Christmas Books" as How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric A. Kimmel My #1 favorite

The Chanukah Guest by Eric A. Kimmel I really love this book

The Magic Dreidels by Eric A. Kimmel

These are my favorite Chritmas books, what are yours? I'd love to hear about your favorite Christmas books, and Christmas memories.

Daily Four

2011-11-28T13:09:00.000-08:00

I realized as I have written my blogs that I have written my specific lesson plans for preschool, but have omitted the very important things to do each day. I'll call them "The Daily Four." These are important to do everyday to help your child learn.They are:
1. Review letters of alphabet, both upper and lower. This may include flashcards, or an Alphabet poster.
2. Counting to 100 with a poster of numbers to 100. Point to each number as you say the number. Have child point to number, too.
3. Reading easy-reader books. I make a lot of these as part of my preschool teaching. Just hold on to them and have your child read them. I also love BOB books. I've seen BOB books at Costco for a great price.or you can go to amazon, eBay or your local teacher supply or bookstore.
4. You read to your child at least FIVE books a day. Read short books, poetry, holiday books (see my posts for favorite Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas books)

So those are my Daily Four. Make sure you do these in addition to posted lesson plans. Good luck!
And remember, if you have any questions please leave a comment!

Thanksgiving - Day 3

2011-11-18T16:16:00.000-08:00

Phonics
Preparation

Write word indian and cut up into individual letters
Materials
"indian"
Teaching
1. Tell your child you have a secret word of the day. Have them create the word in the following way:
in, din, an, dan, and, ad, then tell them how to spell "indian" and sound it out for child.

Writing

Preparation

Create on large dotted line paper:

Capital "I" on first line, with dotted out line of "I'

lower case "i" with dotted outline "i"

On the paper space in front of each group of letters room for "i" write k_ck, d_d, w_g, h_ll, f_n, S-nk, t_p, k_t

Materials

Paper

Marker

Teaching

1. Teach your child proper writing of letter "I" (See my video here)

2. Teach your child proper handwriting of lower case "i" (my video for teaching is here)

3. Read each set of letters to your child (for instance "k_ck") have your child write a "i" between the letters and sound out the new word.

4. Repeat for new word.

Math

Preparation

Stamp various patterns on a piece of a paper
I did:
ABAB, AABB, AAB, ABB (or in other words: Pumpkin turkey, pumpkin turkey ABAB; Pumpkin, pumpkin, turkey, turkey AABB; pumpkin, pumpkin, turkey AAB, and pumpking, turkey, turkey ABB)
Leave extra lines for your child to create their own patterns

Materials

Paper
2 Thanksgiving Stamps (I did pumpkin and turkey)
Teaching
1. Read each pattern. Have your child complete pattern to end of line. It is important that your child doesn't just add the next stamp, but actually iterates the complete pattern. ** The blue squiggles on picture below indicate where my pattern stopped and my son's began**

2. Have your child create patterns for you to finish.

Reading

Preparation

Get a copy of book on First Thanksgiving for young children. I couldn't find any that I liked, so I wrote my own. For a copy you can e-mail me.
Materials

Book

Teaching

1. Read the book to your child

Art

Preparation

none

Materials

Brown, yellow, red, blackconstruction paper

Marker

Scissors

Glue or stapler

Teaching

1. Using construction paper have your child cut out two thin rectangles to create a band for their head and decorate with markers. You staple bands together to form head piece. Draw feather shape on colored paper, have child cut out feathers.
2. Make a pilgrim hat using a large black rectangle stapled on to head band of construction paper.

Exploration

Preparation

Reading Thanksgiving book

Materials
Pilgrim and indian headbands made in art
Teaching
1. Act out the first Thanksgiving with your child. Make it VERY simple.
2. Have child wear pilgrim hat. say something like, "The pilgrims left England because they wanted to worship God in their own way, not the king's way." Then have child say "We are going to a new land to worship." Say, "The pilgrims came to America" Have child say, "I see land!" Say, "The winter was hard and many pilgrims got sick." Have child act sick. Say, "Many died."
3. Have child wear indian headband, and you put on pilgrim headband. Say, "In spring the Native Americans (or Indians) came to help the pilgrims plant. Have child say "PUt some fish with your seeds. It helps them grow." The seeds grew and grew and soon there was pleny of food. The pilgrims wanted to hold a feast and invited the Native Americans to join them. Thy feasted for three days. We celebrate Thanksgiving, just like the Pilgrims did, to Thank God for all He has given us."

Thanksgiving - Day 2

2011-11-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

Phonics
Preparation

Write word pilgrim and cut up into individual letters
Materials
"pilgrim"
Teaching
1. Tell your child you have a secret word of the day. Have them create the word in the following way:
pig, rig, rim, rip, lip, then tell them how to spell "pilgrim" and sound it out for child.

Writing

Preparation

Create on large dotted line paper:

Capital "P" on first line, with dotted out line of "P'

lower case "p" with dotted outline "p"

On the paper space in front of each group of letters room for "P"

ack, ad, an, at, en, est, et,ick, ig, ill, in, ink, it, op, ot, ut

Materials

Paper

Marker

Teaching

1. Teach your child proper writing of letter "P" (See my video here)

2. Teach your child proper handwriting of lower case "p" (my video for teaching is here)

3. Read each set of letters to your child (for instance "ack") have your child write a "p" before the letters and sound out the new word.

4. Repeat for each group of letters creating new words starting with letter "P."

Reading

Preparation

Get a copy of book I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Pie by Alison Jackson

Draw an old lady on a piece of cardboard

Draw a pie, cider, roll, squash, salad,turkey, pot, cake, bread

Materials

Old Lady and food

Teaching

1. Read the book to your child

2. Read again, but this time as the old lady eats each food have your child feed the old lady the food.

My son wants to play this game again and again!

**This activity comes from The Mailbox Preschool Edition Oct./Nov. 2006 p.56 and 58**

Math

Preparation

Draw, cut out and label the following shapes: square, rectangle, triangle, oval, circle

Materials

Shapes

Tape

Teaching

1. Go over what makes each shape unique with your child (square= 4 sides, all same length, 4 angles, all the same, etc)

2. Have your child go around the house and find objects that are the same shape as each paper shape. Tape the shapes to the found shapes around the house.

3. You can do this several times.

Here are some of our examples:

Exploration

Preparation

Let your child help you make one of the Thanksgiving dishes.

Materials

It depends on what you make!

Teaching

We made allergy free apple pie. Recipe:

Allergy Free Apple Pie

Streusal Topping

1/2 cup oat flour

1/2 cp Oats

3/4 tsp Cinnamon

2 Tbsp Brown Sugar

2 Tbsp Crisco

2 TBSP Coconut Oil

1. Mix together all ingredients

Apple Filling

1-2 granny smith apples skinned, cored, sliced

1/4-1/2 cp Brown Sugar (depending on how sweet you want it)

1 tsp lemon juice

3/4 tsp Cinnamon

1. Mix all these together

For Pie:

1. Pour apple filling into small dish (we used a 7x5 inch Pyrex)

2. Layer and pat down Streusal topping on to apple filling.

3. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes, or until apples are soft and topping is browned

Art

Preparation

none

Materials

Brown, yellow, red construction paper

Marker

Scissors

Glue

Teaching

1. Trace your child's foot and two hands on to a piece of paper.

2. Have your child cut out their foot while you cut out their hands.

3. Cut out a yellow beak and a red wattle. Have child glue them on to turkey

4. Have child decorate fingers of hands with markers or crayons. Glue hands to back of turkey, fingers sticking out.

Thanksgiving - Day 1

2011-11-18T14:58:00.000-08:00

Phonics

Preparation

Write the word "Thanks," then cut word into the individual letters.

Materials

Word "Thanks" cut up into individual letters

Teaching

1. Set letters in front of child in random order.

2. Ask child to create words with letters in following order (see video of my teaching this here):

Say:

"Make the word 'at.'

Add a letter to make the word 'sat'

Change a letter and make the word 'hat'

Take off a letter and make the word 'at'

Change a letter to make the word 'as'

Add a letter to make the word 'has'

Change it to make the word 'an'

Add a letter to make 'ant'

Move the 't' and make the word 'tan'

Write the word 't-h-a-n-k"

This is "thank"

Add the 's' and you have thank...(let them add the 's' sound for thanks.

When do we say 'thanks' to someone? This week we'll learn about Thanksgiving."

Let your child struggle a little. Sound out the word slowly to help them find the correct letter. Use plenty of praise.

Writing

Preparation

Using dotted line paper (for a copy of dotted line paper I've made email me @ amyiswrite@gmail.com) write a capital "T" on the top line, a lower case 't' on second line, then creating a space foe the letter "t" write the following on the remainder of page: ack, ag, an, ap, ed, ell, en, est, ick, ill, in, ip, op, ot, ub, ug

Materials

"T" page created above

Marker

Teaching

1. Teach your child how to form upper and lower case letter "T." For how I teach this watch video for upper case "T" here and lower case "t" here.

2. Read "ack." Have your child add the "t" and sound out the word "tack."

3. Repeat for each group of letters creating the words tag, tan, tap, etc.

Reading

Preparation

Borrow or buy the book Over the River and Through the Woods. There are several versions as this is based on a poem over 100 years old. I used the book illustrated by Christopher Manson.

Write our a poster using at least the first verse of the poem.

Create a "jail" by drawing gray bars on a piece of paper and labeling it "Jail"

Materials

Poem

Book

Marker (or sparkly glitter glue which is what my child wanted to use)

Small stips of paper or 3x5 cards or sticky notes

Teaching

1. Read the book to your child

2. Read the poster to your child, using a pointer to point out the words.

4. Write the rhyming words on small strips of paper (or 3x5 cards, etc)

5. Have your child look at the endings of the words. If the endings do not have the same spelling ("match") they pair go to jail, or in the event of go-snow-blow, just go goes to jail.

Math

Preparation

Divide a piece of paper into 6 sections. Label the sections 10-15. Stamp, draw, or place ten turkeys in each section.

Materials

Divided paper

turkey stamp & stamp pad (or stickers, or pictures)

Teaching

1. Have your child count the turkeys in the section labeled "10." Show that there are ten turkeys in each section.

2. Have your child read the numbr in the next section (11). Have your child add the number of turkeys to the ten already in teh section to create 11. Ask, "How many turkeys are there now?" Your child will do one of two things a) say "11" without thinking or b) Start counting every turkey.

3. Repeat for each number through 15.

To watch the video of me teaching this go here.

Exploration

Preparation

Put together several pictures of your family celebrating Thanksgiving over the years

Materials

Pictures

Teaching

1. Show pictures of your family celebrating Thanksgiving over the years. Point out the people, talk about who they are and why you are Thankful for them.

2. Share with your child some of your family's Thanksgiving traditions, and things you are grateful for.

My Family Thanksgiving:

Art

Preparation

Make a book of the first verse of Over the River and Through the Wood.

Materials

Book

Markers or crayons

Teaching

1. Have your child illustrate the book.