Starting up Again!

Some friends have asked for some ideas to teach their children at home. I figured since I was teaching my son at home, the easiest way for me to reach out to all of my friends was through my blog. I will soon be posting at least 3 days a week (Math, Writing, Reading) some basic lesson plans to do to teach a preschooler who is preparing to go into Kindergarten next year. For those needing easier material I will try to add a twist to my lesson plan in order to accommodate your child's skill level.

While I strongly believe the purpose of preschool is to teach social skills, I will not be focusing on that skill since I will only have my son with me. I do encourage all to plan play dates as often as you can in order to teach your child the best social skills possible.

My plans will always include a book (of my son's choice), quick reviews on the level of math and letter skills he is at, a game which focuses on one specific skill, and then worksheets/craft activity. Please feel free to change the plans around in order to fit your child's needs and skill level. I will do my best to post as many materials as I can in order for you to get the most out of the lesson plan. A lot of my games and activities will come from a wonderful website education.com, so feel free to check it out!

Please leave me feedback and anything specific you would like to know more about. I am excited to get back on and start things up again!

Oceans, Part 1

Today we started learning about the ocean and some animals that live in it.

Book: Angel Fish
This is a fun interactive book which allows the children to lift up a flap and see what's under it! It's main focus is an angel fish, however it has other animals in it as well.

Math-Fish Sizes: I have 4 pictures of the same fish yet each are a different size. I first set it out in the right order and teach them the different sizes. Then I have the children try to set it up in the correct order.

Gross Motor-Johnny Jump Up: I have a picture of a stick-figure jumping. I can use this with a lot of activities. This time I mixed up some pictures of animals (a couple of them live in the ocean). Then I would stick Johnny Jump-Up inside the stack. They would tell me if the animal lives in the ocean or not and when we got to Johnny, they would have to jump up.

Story-Rainbow Fish:
I have Popsicle puppets of the story Rainbow Fish. I told them the story (a great one to teach sharing and friendship). With older kids, you can have them participate and be a fish.

Art Activity: Crab
I mixed red paint, karo syrup (makes it shiny), and sugar (makes it rough, like sand). The kids painted their crabs with it. You can either glue googly eyes on it once it's dried or just draw them on.

Coming Up: Tomorrow we will continue learning about the Ocean! Lot's of fun activities and sharks coming up!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I also tied in Emotions/Feelings with the topic since most of Valentine's Day is about LOVE!

Book:
Today I Feel Silly
by: Jamie Lee Curtis
Such a cute book with 'busy' illustrations, enough to keep a kid looking at it for a long time!

Social: What Makes You Feel...?
I have some Jack-O-Lanterns (I know, wrong season, but the kids don't care)! They have different emotions on them, happy, sad, angry, surprised. As I showed them the face I asked them to make a similar face and then to tell me what makes the feel that way.

Cognitive: Emotions Bingo
I have 9 different 'faces', each with a different emotion. I asked the children to find a specific emotion and place a marker on it, once the page was filled, they could eat their candy!

Book: Kisses
This is also a really good goodnight book...it being about a goodnight kiss.

Math: Heart Patterns
I had 3 different colors of hearts (red,pink, white). I first used red and white since it is easy to tell the difference. I then introduced what a pattern is, I said that each color 'takes a turn'. I laid down 4 hearts (white, red, white, red), then asked the kids what color comes next (which colors turn is it?). It took them a couple tries to understand what I was asking but eventually they got it and told me white! We finished that pattern, then I switched the colors and Pink and Red and they got it all right that time too!

Gross Motor: Heart Jump
I laid down 5 different color hearts (any color). Then told the kids to either jump, tip toe, run, etc. to a specific color heart.

Art Activity: We made Valentines. I let the kids use the glue by themselves and they glued smaller hearts onto a big white one, then painted and colored them.

Coming up: Next we we will be learning about the Ocean and the animals that live there. I love this topic so we will be doing 2 lesson on it, so watch for 2 posts!

Manners...and Families

I didn't have enough for just Manners, so I tied Families into it as well!

Book:
Please Say Please
by: Donald McCullough

This is a cute book on manners. It follows a group of animals to Penguin's house for dinner. Each animal has a bad manner and then fixes it with the good manner. I try to get the children to tell me what the good manner is before I read it to them.

Good/Bad Manner Pictures: I have some pictures of kids doing good and bad manners and we talk about them individually.

Family pictures: Talk about who is in their family. Include grandparents and aunts and uncles. Discuss ways the children can have good manners with them (doing nice things for them).

Art Activity: Draw Family

Activity of the Month

Every month I am going to post an activity you can try with your children. Each will focus on a different skill. Have fun!

Sorting Games
Focused Skill: Math
*Sort canned goods while putting away groceries
*Toys when they clean up
*Money from their piggy bank
*Buttons
*Silverware
*Dirty clothes when you do laundry
*Clean clothes when you put laundry away

Clothes and Temperature

I tied temperature into our lesson today to stretch it out a little. It worked out quite well!

We started out discussing the difference between summer (hot) and winter (cold). What do we do in the summer? In the winter? What do we wear in the summer? In the winter?

Classification Games: We separated pictures into two categories, summer and winter. These pictures had different types of clothes and activities.

Dress Me: I have two paper dolls and some winter and summer clothes. I asked 1 boy to dress his in winter clothes and the other to dress in summer clothes.

Book:
Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch
This book is about a girl who got some new socks and would NEVER take them off. They got so smelly that her friends took them off her and washed them for her. After the book we talked about another to keep our bodies healthy, washing ourselves and our clothes.

Science: I have a meat thermometer (any would work though). I heated up a cup of water and in another cup I put some ice water in it. We moved the thermometer back and forth and watched the red arrow move. We talked about temperature and what it means when the arrow moves.

Art/Fine Motor/Math Activity: We made a thermometer (I'll post a picture of it soon so you can make one, they are really cute!). I numbered circle sticker, 1-5 and had the kids place them in order on the thermometer (for older kids you can do 1-10). It is trickier because they could be starting at the bottom and ending at the top. I then had a pix of a swimsuit, sweater, and coat and we glued them on the thermometer in the correct place (swimsuit up top because it's hotter and coat on the bottom because it's colder).

Skills Worked On: Math (counting), classification, fine motor, science.

Coming Up: Next we we will be doing Manners instead of Oceans. I'll be doing Oceans sometime this month (it's one of my favorite topics and I want two days to do it).

Our Bodies

To start out preschool we always sing a welcome song, the ABC song and then count to 10. Don't worry if they get it wrong, just continue to sing and they will follow along. Soon they will be singing and counting the right way.

Math: Body Part Count-I asked the boys how many eyes they had, how many arms they had, etc: focusing on the number 2.

We then talked about ways to keep our bodies healthy, eating vegetables, exercising, brushing our teeth and hair.

Book:
Aaron's Hair by Robert Munsch
This is a cute book about a boy who doesn't like his hair so it jumps off his head and runs away! Not so much about grooming and taking care of your hair, but you can still tie it in.

Game: Body Part Bingo
Cognitive: Body Part Riddles-I gave them clues and they had to guess which body part I was referring to. For example: I smell the beautiful flowers. What am I?
Gross Motor: Body Poses-I have pictures of different body poses (balancing on one leg, stretching arms up high, leaning to one side).

Art Activity: Body Traces-I traced each child on big, white paper. I had facial body parts already cut out and they children glued them on their faces. (with older kids you can do a unit on the inside of the body and talk about their organs and they can glue pix of organs where they think they go, tuns out rally cute!)

Skills we worked on: math (#2), gross motor, cognitive (thinking), fine motor (glueing pieces on face)

Coming Up: Wednesday we will be discussing the types of clothes we wear and when.

Review!

Today we did a quick review of our basic concepts: colors, shapes, numbers, and letters.

We started out reviewing our shapes. I have foam cut-out shapes and I first ask what shape it is (anyone can answer), then lay them out on the floor for all to see. I then ask specific children, one-by-one, to give me a specific shape. (I usually ask them for a shape I know they don't know to help them remember). Most of the time they will be able to grab or point to the shape once you say the name, but are not able to TELL you the name just yet.

Book: Chicka Chicka 1 2 3
by Bill Martin Jr., Michael Sampson, Lois Ehlert
Cute book, but a little advanced for my 3 year olds (it goes up to 100).
After the book, I laid out apple clip-art with a number on them, 1-10. Using the same method as with the shapes, we reviewed our numbers.

Book: What Color is Your Underwear?
by Sam Lloyd
The kids absolutely love this book! It's a flip-up and so much fun!
I then looked around the room and asked them their colors.

Book: Alphabet Adventure
by Audrey Wood, Bruce Wood
Such a cute book, a great way to review all the letters but also focus on the lower-case i.

Art Activity: I divided a piece of paper into 6 squares, then wrote in each square a specific number with a color. You can do any color, but I recommend going in number order for your younger ones. For example, mine read 1Brown (written in brown), 2 Green (written in green), 3 Pink (written in Pink), etc.
Each child had scraps of each color and some scissors. They were able to cut pieces out from the scraps and then glue the correct number of pieces to the corresponding square.

SKILLS WORKED ON: shapes, numbers, colors, letters, fine motor (scissors) one-to-one correspondence.

Fun side note: As I was running an errand with my little boy (who does preschool with me) he was looking out the window and said, "Look Mommy, a crescent!" (He saw the moon and sure enough it was the shape of a crescent!) I love these little moments that tell me they truely are soaking in every word I say to them!!! Happy teaching!

Hiatus

So 2 weeks turned into a couple of months...a much needed break from a lot of un-needed stress. Due to future happenings I will not be completely focused with my preschool blog but will still continue to teach. I will try to post at least once a week and to those that I had promised lesson plans will do my best at getting them to you often! I am currently enrolled in a Bachelor Degree program where I am learning more about Children Development Infant through Preschool and will occasionally insert some information I have learned. I apologize for not being quite on top of things recently and will do my best to keep up now that I have more energy!

No Preschool For the Next 2 Weeks!

My Hubby and I are going on a 2 week road trip for his dental school interviews, so I will not be doing preschool or updating the blog for the next 2 weeks.

Safety-Stranger Danger

Looking ahead to Halloween, we will be learning about Safety. Today we will talk about Stranger Danger. It is very important for children to understand who strangers are, especially the nice-looking ones. They may look nice, but we don't know them.

Two books: Lost
Never Talk to Strangers
There are many things to teach children about strangers, here are some important ones..
1. Who is a Stranger?
I cut some pictures out of magazines of random people, all looking like normal people. I will talk to them about who a stranger is, show each picture and ask them if they are a stranger. More than likely they will say, "No". Try to explain to them that even though they look nice, they are still strangers. You can add pictures of people they know so they can better understand.

2. 'Good Strangers'
We will also talk about who to find if you are lost. It is important for the children to know what to do if they get separated from their parents. Teach them to look for a 'good stranger,' a grandma, a mother with children or a police officer. These grown-ups are typically the safest for them to find.

3. Kidnapping
Another important lesson is what to do if someone tries to take them. We teach that if someone grabs them and starts pulling them away, they are to yell, "HE/SHE ISN'T MY DADDY/MOMMY," as loud as they can. Teach them to kick and scream and yell and if they get away to run as fast as they can to someone/somewhere familiar, or to a 'good stranger.'

4. Adults Don't Need Help From Kids
Teach them that if adults need help, they will ask another adult. Tell them to never go up to a car they don't know. Never take anything from anyone or pet an animal they are not familiar with.

5. Personal Information
Make sure they know their first and last name. It'll be difficult for younger kids to remember their parent's names, but keep trying. Their phone number and address are important as well.

Good luck and be sure to keep it simple and not frighten them!

Seasons and Weather-Spring/Summer

We will be using this song the whole week, only substituting what the weather is...
Rain (leaves, snow) is falling all around (wiggle fingers like rain)
On the housetops, On the ground (touch fingers to make roof of house, point to ground)
Rain (leaves, snow) is falling on my nose, (touch nose)
On my head and hands and toes! (touch head, hands, toes)

Introduce new song to sing every day...What's the Weather?
What's the weather, what's the weather, what's the weather like today?
Is it raining, is it snowing, is it windy or is there sun?

Book: Splish, Splash, Spring by Jan Carr (and if time and boys are interested, The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle)
After the book, we will count raindrops. We will work on one-to-one correspondence (touching each raindrop and saying one number and counting in order). We will try going up to 10.
Then we will learn a new word, evaporation. I have a pix I got off the internet that shows the evaporation process and will explain it. More than likely they won't remember much, but later on when they hear the word again, something will click in their brain and they will understand it better.
For a gross motor activity, we will do a puddle hop. I made 'puddles' with numbers on them. I will tell the boys which number to jump to.

Fine Motor: They will make an umbrella. I will have the bottom part cut, but have them cut the top, sloping part. This will give them a new experience in cutting.

For our art activity we will make a sun mask out of a paper plate. Cut the circle part out, then cut triangles out from it. Staple/glue the triangles onto the outside of the circle. The boys will color with yellow, orange and red crayons (been awhile since we've used them).

For our snack we will make a smoothie. We will make a lot so we can make them into popsicles.

Learning Through Literature

Splish, Splash, Spring
by: Jan Carr

For children who are just learning the seasons, this book is a winner. To learn about the basics that herald the arrival of spring, from sudden rain showers, to flowers blooming, to baby birds hatching, this book fits the bill. The illustrations are colorful and are an integral part of the story. We follow three children on a spring morning as they dig worms for baby birds and watch crocuses bloom. The children manage not to get into trouble when they fly their kite, and they race home before another thunderstorm breaks, stopping along the way to pick some posies.

Transportation-Air and Sea

Book: My First Big Book of Things That Go
It shows all kinds of methods of moving around.
We will discuss transportation in the air and the sea. We will then sort some pictures to the specific category; land, sea, and air.
Math/Fine Motor: Number matching on control panel of an airplane. I will make the paper look similar to a control panel, number circle stickers and place them 1-5 in order. The kids will have their own # stickers and will place them next to the correct match. (For the older kids, they can try to place the stickers in order themselves and go up to 10).

Cognitive: Boat Bingo

Activity 1: Airplane-Have the kids fold a thin paper back and forth (this will prop the plane up so it sticks up off the paper). Have the kids glue cotton balls onto a blue construction paper. Then glue one end of the folded paper to the plane and the other to the paper. (Folding the paper helps with their fine motor skills).

Activity 2: Hot Air Balloon: have a cutout on cardstock of the balloon part. First, see if the kids can hole punch two holes on the bottom of the balloon. Then let the kids tear pieces of crepe paper and set them on the balloon. Next, spray the crepe paper with a water bottle filled with water. Pull off the crepe paper, it will leave some color! Next, attach a small plastic/paper cup to the balloon (this is the basket).

Transportation-Land

WOW! What a week it has been! We are finally back home and semi-settled.
Now on to preschool!

Song: Down by the Station
Down by the station, early in the morning
See the little puffer bellies all in a row.
See the station master, ring the little handle.
Chug, Chug, Choo Choo, off we go!
(I have a train whistle I like to blow at the end)
*Also, if you'd like, I walk around the classroom (staying close at first) then at the end of the song you can call out..."All aboard (child's name)" and they can attach themselves to the 'train' (you). You would continue this until the last child is called.

Book: The Very Bumpy Bus Ride (a childhood favorite). Please see Learning Through Literature post to learn more about this book.
Cognitive Activity: We will play a license plate matching game. All I did was write down numbers and letters on a 3x5 card (two cards each). I did 3 letter/number ones for my kids because they are younger, but older kids can do tougher ones.
Gross Motor: Red Light, Green Light
Science: Ramp Racing: Have two blocks the same size. Set one up so it is at a steep slant and set the other one up so it is lower. Ask the kids which one will make the car go faster?
Fine Motor: Stop Sign cut-out. For my kids, I've cut out half of the sign already, they will then follow the lines and finish cutting it out. For older kids, they can practice doing it all.

Art Activity: Painting with cars! Have them drive their cars in paint then drive them on the paper. Then they can glue paper cars on and stop signs.

Snack: Bus Twinkies! See Fun Food Friday at the end of this week for more details! (Normally I would do healthy snacks, but every now and then I might sneak in something just for fun!)

Learning Through Literature

The Very Bumpy Bus Ride
By: Michaela Muntean

This is one of my childhood favorites! I've read it to my boys and they absolutely love it also. It's more fun if they are sitting on your lap and you bounce them up and down as you read, "And bumpin an bouncin down Bumble Street!'

Such a fun, silly, repetitive and rhythmic book that all kids all ages will enjoy!

Preschool Postponed!

My family and I will be away this week and will not be able to do preschool. I thought about combining transportation to one day but it's too much fun to only do it in one day. So next week we will do transportation!

Food-Healthy vs. Unhealthy

The book we will be reading is called, The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.

We will then discuss which food is healthy and which ones are not. We will sort food with healthy and non-healthy categories. We have pictures we will be using but plastic food would work great as well!

The kids will take turns finding food that have been hidden around the classroom. Once they find one they will say if it is healthy or unhealthy then they will toss it in the correct basket (tossing helps with their eye-hand coordination).

For snack today we will be making our own pretzels! We will use Rhodes bread dough. Each child will get a thawed ball of dough, they will be able to roll it and shape it any way. Then we will bake it and after it's baked they can spread butter on the tops and enjoy it! (To better keep track of who's pretzel is who's, place tin foil on the cookie sheet and write each child's names on it with a permanent marker then place their pretzel next to their names).

For art today we will be painting a fish. We will use karo syrup, sugar and food coloring mixed together. These combined will give the fish a shiny, scaley texture!

Learning Through Literature

Amazon.com Review
"In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf." So begins Eric Carle's modern classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. More than 12 million copies of this book have been sold in its original, full-sized edition, and the beloved tale of science and gluttony has been translated into 20 languages... following the ravenous caterpillar's path as he eats his way through one apple (and the pages of the book itself) on Monday, two pears on Tuesday, three plums on Wednesday, and so on, through cherry pie and sausage--until he is really fat and has a stomachache. And no doubt you know what happens next! Kids love butterfly metamorphosis stories, and this popular favorite teaches counting and the days of the week, too. --Karin Snelson

This is such a fun book. It includes subjects from science to days of the week. I usually use it during our food curriculum and talk about why the caterpillar had such a tummy ache after he ate so much unhealthy food. And then the next day he eats some greens and feels better, so we discuss about the healthy food we should eat and why.

Food-All Kinds

First we will sing a song to get their attention: 5 Little Hot Dogs in a Frying Pan

5 Little hot dogs (hold up 5 fingers)

frying in a pan (rub hands together)

1 got hot (hold up 1 finger)

and it went BAM! ( clap your hands together)

(continue down through 1)

No little hot dogs frying in a pan (make an O with your hand)

the pan got hot (rub your hands together)

and it went BAM! (clap your hands)

The book we will read is, Bread and Jam for Francis by Russell Hoban (Please see Learning Through Literature for more information on this book)

We will then discuss trying new food and how yummy different food can be!

Activity: Sort Food Groups-discuss different kinds of food (we have a bunch of plastic food we will be using but pictures work just as well)

I am so excited to do a science project, today's is called 'Raisin Rising' (Put clear carbonated water in a clear jar. Place 4-5 raisins in the jar. Watch how the air bubbles make raisins rise and fall!)

Gross Motor: The kids will do an action to a fruit, meat, veggie, etc. “Jump to a fruit”

Table Time: For our fine motor activity we will be making carrots. I have cut out the top and main parts of a carrot (the orange part and the green 'leafy' part) and glued them together. However with the green part I did not make it 'leafy'. I drew a line toward the bottom for the kids to practice cutting and stopping at a specific spot. (Please see picture)

For our fun art activity I've mixed shaving cream, glue and food coloring together. On a piece of paper I have glued on a brown triangle for the ice cream cone. The kids will then finger paint with the shaving cream mixture and make the ice cream. They will then be able to sprinkle on some sprinkles (you can use real or confetti).