1+1+1=1

Tot School ~ Letter D

2012-02-05T08:00:00.000-05:00

~Ladybug is currently 33.5 months old~

Here is her desk set up for letter D…

The items in the pocket chart are all available here on the Animal ABCs webpage. I added dolphins on her desk, and also a little basket with shells and mini wooden dolphins we had. {files are released for free when they are posted on the Totally Tots blog for the ABC feature, letter D is not free yet, but it will be once it is posted on Totally Tots!}.

We also had several dolphin books off to the side in her pink basket. Our Betty Lukens Ocean Felt Set was displayed for her also.

Here are some Letter D and Dolphin ideas for you…

On our other shelf I put our water beads tub and showed her that she could add the shells and dolphins into it. She LOVED it. Hours of play have taken place with this bin!

She finally wanted to color her flashcards, she asked for them specifically and wanted me to color one and she wanted to color this one…

She worked in her notebook a lot, but not as much as Letter A and Letter B week!

She really enjoys the coloring each week, here she was coloring her dolphins and had set up her dolphin puppet to watch her!

I created a new activity for her, which I have added to the Animal ABC purchase page for now {if you have already purchased, just log back in and download the Dot Fun set, if you purchase now, it is included with the rest of the set!}. I might offer these one by one for free in the future but I am short on time for now, so the set is only available in the bundle option. Here she is working on Letter D Dot Fun, she chose to use stickers. I offered her the option of using pom pom magnets, dot paint, or stickers and she chose stickers!

She worked with me to make the letter craft, which is basically an open ended project that you can do whatever you want with! I offered her blue “snow paint” which obviously we called “ocean paint” for this activity! She painted her letter D,

Then we stuck her dolphins right in the paint, since it has glue in the mixture, this worked perfectly!

After crafting, she played! We added her mini dolphin toys to the fun and she was in HEAVEN!

Special Note: Please read my post about Following the Child’s Lead if you have a tot and need info about this. All tots are different and what Ladybug is doing may not be appropriate for your child, even is s/he is the same age!

We are taking our All About Reading Pre Level 1 lessons slowly. I am not expecting mastery from Ladybug, just using this program as a way to expose her to the Big Five Skills. She is a bit too young for the program and Krash is a bit too old, so that’s why we are using it together.

This week we did lesson 4, again, working on rhyming words.

She chose to color her letter D page by herself this week, wanting the entire thing dark blue…

Sorting counting bears by color, in our colored bowls {a Discovery Toys toy-feeling hats, I think}…

Playing Fish ABCs with me, finding the letters on the board and matching the fish…

4 piece puzzles in a tiny ocean book we have…

Playing with her ocean felt set…

One day I was feeling brave so we made snowmen together. We used “snow paint.” I had each child choose a color too, Ladybug chose purple. I cut out her snowman circles for her and then she went at it!

After the painting was done, we played with the shaving cream alone! I cannot believe I waited so long to let her do this, she LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it!

The next day we designed our snowmen, here is Ladybug’s sad man…

Curls and giggles!

Silly, silly girl…

More Tot School Links…

Tot School 2011/2012 Blog Roll
Behind the Scenes ~ Where Do I Begin with Tot School?
Tot School Webpage {including links of all participants}
Tot Trays {webpage}, Behind the Scenes ~ Tot Trays, Where are the Trays?
Totally Tots {my other team-written blog, all about tots!}
All of our Tot School Posts {sorted by ages here}
Visit our Tot School Tools Store
Tot School Zones {Linky with other moms sharing their Tot School zones}
Tot School FAQ
How do I Link up to Tot School? Please be sure to read this BEFORE you link up for the first time!!! If your blog is not linked back here to Tot School {within your post, not just on your sidebar}, and/or your post is not specifically a Tot School post, your link will be deleted to help Tot School surfing moms. If your link was deleted, please email if you don’t know why.

Please put your tot's age (in months) after it, like this: 1+1+1=1 (41 mos)

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Moments to Remember

2012-02-04T08:00:00.000-05:00

Moments to Remember was developed as a simple way to look back on our week as homeschoolers and find photos that encompass the memories we want to remember.

The week may have been tough, there may have been more bumps than smiles, but in the end these are the moments that keep us going, the ones we need to remember.

My favorite moments from this week involve doing something out of the ordinary during homeschool time. I know I need to do more activities like this,they enjoyed every moment!

The water bead introduction time was a wonderful group activity, the giggled together and played for a very long time. I love watching them have fun and get along well!

The snow paint was a BIG hit and a very fun sibling time for them all.

I love seeing their giggles as they explored the shaving cream. Pac’s first response was one of shock, surprised that I was actually letting them get messy!

Of course, momma loves the adorable completed projects too!

We are off to make family memories together, right now! This post is auto-published as we are away enjoying time together with no internet for 1 week!

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Link up with Homeschool Creations!

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Kindergarten w/Krash ~ RRSK/Kk, YCR/Unit 17, Angry Birds

2012-02-03T07:00:00.000-05:00

You Can Read: Unit 17 {too, they, must, on}

RRSK: Letter Kk

Theme: Angry Birds

Something New…

Krash has become a tad bit bitter about his Workboxes, so I decided to switch things up for him. We have switched to a notebook type system and so far he loves it! He has 3 notebooks, the 3 notebooks are:

Current Theme {Angry Birds right now}
You Can Read/RRSK {there is a divider in the middle, but I decided to share these 2 programs}
Morning Message

Here he was working during his independent time, coloring his sight words. I gave him choices as he browsed through his 2 notebooks filled with his weekly work. I directed him to things that could be done independently and had him choose.

In the You Can Read section, I created a little photo collage of all of the Word Play options he can choose from. He loved this, and this is where he saw the ping pong balls in the cups idea and chose it {details below}

This is his new Morning Message notebook. I write him a daily message and we read it together and use it to focus on different skills. Here he was using a highlighter to find all of the words he could read on his own!

It is a simple lined page I created in Publisher. I added images to pages featuring many of his favorite characters!

You can download all of the printables for this unit FREE here on the main RRSK page, just scroll down until you see them! We have backed off from doing all 10 of the provided activities in the RRSK units. As he progresses, some items aren’t necessary anymore and either we skip them or go through them quickly. My main goal in using the RRSK lessons is the Bible work and simple review of other K skills.

He always traces his verse on Day 1…

Putting his verse together on day 2, you can see him practicing the song!

Here is Krash singing letter K for you, the tune is “She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain.” The printable written out the way you sing it is here!

RRSK Letter Kk Printables Here!

If you want early access to printables beyond what I have blogged about, you can see info about purchasing here! Currently I have units Aa-Pp available in the early access section.

We used unit 17 from You Can Read. Here’s a glimpse into some of the You Can Read work he did.

Tracing with his highlighter…

Finding words in sentences…

Using pom pom magnets {hot glue magnets to pom poms} to find his words…

Adding to our sight word caterpillar…

Review BINGO {YCR add-on}

We saw a new word play game and Krash chose it from the sheet I printed in his notebook. First Pac quizzed him on his sight words, we make stacks of words he reads quickly and words he doesn’t know as well.

I wrote all of the trouble words on little sticky notes and attached them to plastic cups. He set up the Angry Birds all around the area.

First, he launched the Angry Birds into the cups, but this was hard.

I convinced him to switch to ping pong ball rolling.

He had to read the word on the cup when the ball landed in it. If he was correct he kept it. He also had to re-read all of the words he had already collected!

Check out Word Play ideas here, and add yours!

We began reviewing All About Reading Level 1 awhile ago, and Krash continues to make consistent progress. You can read more about why we are choosing to review this homeschool reading program here in our “Current Curriculum” post {see FAQ}.

I wrote a lot about our initial thoughts and experiences with AAR in this Kindergarten with Krash post.

We are still moving along in AAR, here he was working with me, and the cat. On the bottom right you can see how I help focus him while he reads from his fluency practice paper.

We are starting back up with fun themes, Krash chose Angry Birds first! We began by gathering every Angry Bird item we had. Thankfully they got tons for Christmas from the grandparents so we had a wonderful assortment to play with! We made an Angry Birds Sensory/Imagination Bin, which included all of our toys…

Krash had fun exploring, one day I saw him line up the pigs by size…

He and Ladybug played with the Knock on Wood game pieces a lot…

Of course this had to happen…

He loved his Angry Birds notebook, which was filled with all of his Angry Birds Kindergarten Printables. He chose what he wanted to do each day. The very first day, he colored a coloring page I found online and sipped it into the cover.

Dot painting fractions…

We used the Angry Birds we created with our number line. The bigger ones would cover up groups of 2-3 numbers and he loved the challenge!

Using game pieces to find words that rhyme with pig…

Dot painting sight words he can read…

We found the Angry Birds Math worksheet here. He loved this…

Matching and identifying coins and their values…

More and Less…

See my Angry Birds board on Pinterest…

Krash was a big fan of the water beads, just like Ladybug was!

He enjoyed the Busy Hands Play Dough box combined with our winter sensory bin…

iPad learning fun. He graduated from Teach Me Kindergarten to Teach Me First Grade! He was SO excited to buy 1st grade! I LOVE the new level, for .99 this app is amazing!

I get asked a lot about our new case-it’s the Trident Kraken II and yes we love it! Educational iPad Apps here, also, iPad Apps-part 2! The stylus he is using is this one.

Krash was my Instagram star of the week! As I looked back through our photos I noticed that there were tons of my little guy! A few of these moments were not captured with the good camera for the blog, so I thought I would share them too since most of you aren’t on Instagram with me!

Watching his new favorite show, Octonauts…

Working in his Morning Message Notebooks, and coloring Angry Birds…

Gymnastics fun! He goes once a week and absolutely loves it!

Working on a Skylanders shopping list for school, and playing Connect 4 Launchers with me!

Watching Angry Birds on YouTube, playing Teach Me 1st Grade while Pac cheers him on!

A few items we used…

Visit Preschool Corner {& 5K too} for more fun learning ideas!

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