Preschool - Week 3

School was put on hold this week, due to it being a rough week for me.

We did do some math one day to stay caught up with our friends.  Rather than skipping counting to 20 and moving to the next lesson, we fit this in so when we review, it won’t be brand new.  We will skip one of our Preschool Packs (Mickey Mouse) and maybe do it on one of our catch up weeks.  We will move our letters down a week and will eventually be caught up, since we left some weeks open for catch up (or in case something like this happens.  Melissa is brilliant for knowing to make catch up days!)

We counted marshmallows 1-20.  We used our fun number cards again for some more number recognition.

When we got done counting.  I used the cards as flashcards and quizzed Zac.  His reward… a marshmallow. 

His hardest numbers to recognize are 10, 11, 12, and 20. 

Here he is laughing hysterically.  He was teasing me and purposefully saying the wrong numbers.

I love these 2!  They lift me up when I am down.  How can you not laugh along with these cute faces?!

Cousins at School

Week 2

Letter “Tt”

Memory Verse “Always give thanks to God for everything.” Ephesians 5:20

Sight Words “I” and “you”

Chunk Words “ig”

Reading & Arts – “The Way I Feel” by Janan Cain and “Feelings Pack”

Science and Social Studies – Emotions

Math – Counting Objects 1-15

My sister asked if I could watch her girls this Tuesday.  We love playing with Quinn and Tilly!  I considered doing school another day of the week, and then thought “Duh!  Quinn would love doing school with us!”  So, we did everything but handwriting, which takes more one on one help. 

Zac and Lucy were clearly excited to have them over! 

Dance party while we listened to our Songs for Saplings memory verse.

We pledge allegiance…

Checking the weather.

Taking turns changing our calendar board.

We learned about Feelings. 

I asked questions and they got to find the face that showed how they would feel in different circumstances.

“How would you feel if someone stole your ice cream?”  Quinn picks sad.  Zac picks happy.  He must have been the one who stole the ice cream.

Coloring.  Preschoolers would much rather choose their own colors.  We are learning to follow direction and color according to the instructions.

Practicing emotions.

Happy!

Angry

Silly!  …and Lucy was over it. 

Recess in the sandbox.

I was glad to see that Zac understood our lesson. After I took his toy away he got upset. I had to laugh when he got excited that he found our flash cards and then in a sad voice he said he needed the sad face, because he was sad. 

Counting dinosaurs 1-15 and number recognition.

Felt faces.

We practiced our handwriting one evening. 

He’s getting the hang of holding the marker correctly.

Proud Mom moment!  He wrote his own “T”!

Day 2

We practiced writing on our white board.  He likes to trace mine, then make his own.

Chunk words, “ig”.

“If you’re happy and you know it, stomp your feet.”

Drawing their first faces. 

I drew an example and then they drew their own.  Zac said “I feel sad.”  Sad was his favorite emotion of the week. 

Green eyes. Orange nose. Red mouth. Crazy brown hair.

Lucy’s face.

1st Day of School

Let the first day of school begin!

Week 1

Letter “Ll”

Memory Verse “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

Sight Words “me” and “and”

Chunk Words “ap”

Language Arts - Class Rules and Learning New Things

Math – Counting Objects 1-10

Our mornings start with breakfast.  We fill up on God’s word first thing!  We read the kid’s Bible (Right now we are reading The Beginner’s Bible – New Testament.  We have a few children’s Bibles and rotate through them as we finish.), we read their memory verse out of my Bible and sometimes the full chapter to read it in context and really highlight the memory verse, and we finish with my daily devotional from “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young.  They love reading “The Bird Book” even if it is an adult devotional!  Then, as we clean up I play their memory verse song from Songs for Saplings.  They have loved this and sing and dance along.

I wanted to start a daily task list and had a hard time finding what I had pictured in my head.  I finally just printed these and laminated them, so we could mark them off and reuse them. 

Let me just say, it was frustrating.  The boxes were way too small and they just scribbled all over the squares.  It was also overwhelming trying to remember to mark it off. 

I may eventually use this chore chart that a friend sent the day after I made these.  It is pretty much what I was trying to find and is much simpler and has pictures!

One of the tasks was “Make Your Bed”.  I asked Zac to make his bed.  He got excited and ran in his room to do his chore.  When he was finished I walked into his room to see this.  He was so proud.  And I got a good laugh.

Ready for school to start!

We start with the Pledge of Allegiance.

Then we check the weather.

We add the new letter of the week and practice our memory verse that follows our letter of the week. We sing our days of the week song and put our Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow cards on the coordinating days. And we change the date at the top of our board.

The first week, we did our reading first.  We read about rules and obeying while in school.  We read “No, David!” by David Shannon.  This was an instant favorite.  Lucy loved reading about that naughty David.  We also read another book about manners in school that I can’t remember the name of.  It was a random library find and fit perfectly.

Usually handwriting is first, but I wanted them to understand some rules first.

Zac works on his tracing and Lucy colors her letter pages in her Tot Time Notebook.  She loves this and thinks she is doing the same thing as him.  It’s great that she is getting some letter recognition in!

Zac was funny to watch.  If he didn’t get his lines straight, he would go back and scribble until the line was covered.

Zac’s first tracing.

Then we practice on paper with pencil.  Concentration!

On Tuesdays, we learn 2 new Sight Words.

We practiced counting different items 1-10. 

Beans.

They loved putting the dinosaurs into the egg cartons while counting.

We painted popsicle stick picture frames to put their first day of school pictures in.

Zac got paint on his glasses.  This picture of him looking at the paint on them cracks me up!

They were way more interested in painting the paper than the popsicle sticks.

When Dad got home from work and asked the kids how school was, Zac said, "My school is the best school!" Sorry friends, class is full.

Week 1 Day 2

I was quite impressed with how much Zac’s tracing improved the very next time!

I quickly realized the lined papers I had were too small for preschool age.  I improvised and made my own on the back of the page.  Much better.  He also likes tracing my letters before doing his own.

We practiced cutting.  Not quite there yet…

We made “ap” words with index cards.  One card says “ap” and then we put letters in front to make words like lap, snap, cap, tap, map.

And we finished making our first day of school picture frames eventually…

And a funny note for me.  While Zac counts the dinosaurs he has to line them all up perfectly.  All facing the same direction and wants the line very straight.  Needless to say, he gets distracted with his counting and loses track.  Lucy has caught on and started counting on her own just from listening to us count repeatedly.