Wednesday, November 27, 2013

November Week 3&4

Alphabet: Jj
Theme: Thanksgiving
Bible: Give thanks to The Lord...


Alphabet:


What you need:
-Unflavored gelatin
-water
-Food coloring
-Jewels
-Jars

Follow the directions on the gelatin packet (I used water instead of juice), pour the mixture into three jars, add food color, of your choice, to each jar and place jars in freezer to cool down a bit. Once jars are cooled down (5-10 min) add jewels and let Jell-o set in the fridge.


Once the Jell-o was set I placed the jars in a tray and we observed and talked about the jar, jell-o and jewels. I then used a butter knife to loosen the jell-o out of the jars and E had a go at the Jell-o! 

As he played we talked about letter Jj and the items that start with Jj.

Theme: Thanksgiving


I made these every year with my students. These are great gifts (keepsakes) to give to parents, grandparents and love ones! I made a few with E and we will be giving them to grandparents and we will be keeping one Of course! :)


I usually use the chubby paint brushes to apply the fabric paint on the child's fingers. That is the easiest and fastest way to apply the paint, but my supplies are in storage. So we used what we had, cotton balls, and it worked out fine.

Bible:




Follow on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/mylittlesonbeam 

Follow on Pinterest:

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

November Week 2

Alphabet: Ii
Math: 1-5 and shapes
Theme: food groups
Bible: seventh day of creation



Alphabet:


Letter Ii box: iron, ice cube tray, insects and flash card.

We didn't have many items around the house that start with Ii! This was all I could come up with. E had fun going through the box and playing with the insects!

Craft: insects on I
We traced The letter I with our finger a few times and then I added the dots of glue for him to glue the insects.


It took me a while to figure out what to do for letter Ii. I did not have a lot to work with and then I received a great idea from the Lord! I have been seeing post on Pinterest about ice melt activities and I couldn't wait to do one with E. 

What you need:
-Ice cube tray and/or plastic containers to use as molds
-Water
-Plastic insects
-salt


I simply placed insects in a plastic container and in an ice cube tray and filled them up with water. I then Placed them in the freezer. I didn't keep time, but it will take probably 4-5 hours for the plastic container to freeze all the way. We were inpatient and took it out early before the block was frozen all the way! ;)

I placed the ice in a baking dish, put salt in a recycled sprinkle container and in a small bowl. The salt helps the ice melt faster so he can get to the insects!

E had a blast and this kept his attention for quite some time. While he played we talked about all the Ii words: insects, in, ice, and ice cubes. 



Theme:


Using real food I made an assortment on a small tray. I placed one or two items from each food group: vegetable group (celery and carrot), fruit group (banana and orange), protein group (ham), diary group (string cheese) and grain group (a slice of bread).

I kept it simple! We first talked about what the names of each food item and then I shared with him which food group it belongs to. Ex: "celery and carrot are vegetables they are in the vegetable group."

And then of course E wanted to try some of the food! :) that's the advantage of using real food!


Shapes:

Craft: Shapely vegetables

After we discussed the food groups we made this Shapley craft. It's hard to tell in the picture above but I traced an outline of the oval, circle and triangle on the brown paper. Together we made this craft. He added glue to the shape (and then I added a bit more glue) and he placed the shape in the correct spot. I helped guide him when placing the diamonds, star and rectangles since I did not make an outline for those shapes.

As he glued each shape we talked about the name and the color of that shape.

When we were all done we reviewed the names of the vegetables we created with the shapes.

Numbers:


This activity is great for counting and for developing fine motor skills. We have done this activity a few times and E really enjoys it! We counted and identified numbers. E decided to match the beads to the color instead of adding the correct number of beads to the corresponding number. He decided this all on his! What a cutie! 

Bible:


We finished our study on the days of creation. We reviewed days 1-6 and talked about all that God made. I then shared him that God was pleased with all that he created and so he rested on the seventh day. As we chatted about this he helped me glue the bed, pillow, sun and z's on the paper.

.....

For the third week in November we will learn about nutrition and Thanksgiving.


Thanks for your support and stopping by! Hope these ideas inspire you!  

Blessings,
Erica


Love to hear from you!

Follow on Etsy:

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

November Week 1

Theme: community Helpers Transportation



This last week and a half we learned about community helpers and their transportation vehicle. 

I had four cute small wooden autos: a police car, ambulance, school bus and fire engine. Since we were talking about land, air and water transportation last month, in October, I thought how fun it would be to learn about the community helpers that are associated with these wooden automobiles.


Using card stock paper I assembled a police station, fire station, hospital and school house. Using double sided tape, I taped them on boxes I had around the house (one shoe box and two diaper boxes). I used an utility knife to cut an entrance into each building. I then made a little town road with masking tape. 


We talked about each car and where they belong. We also talked about who works at each station: police officers, firefighters, doctors and teachers. E had a blast driving the cars and driving them into the building.


Doctor:

E already owned a retro doctor's kit which I then added some colored band aides, gauze and a working thermometer. I took an old white t-shirt and cut it down the middle for him to use as a doctors coat. {He loved that thing! He wore it out to lunch! The Dr. was in the building! Haha}

 I googled images on the i pad of doctors and discussed them with E. other things we shared:
- an ambulance takes you to a hospital to see a doctor.
- Doctors help us when we are sick and use these tools to check our body.
-we discussed each item in his doctors kit and how to use them (some he already knew from his well-checkups).


We used one of his teddy bears as a patient and Dr. E got to work! It was really cute to see him role play. As he placed band aides on the bear we reviewed colors!



Firefighter:


I googled images of fighter fighters and we discussed what they do:
-when there is a fire, firefighters come to the rescue to put the fire out!
-they use big, strong and long fire hoses to put the fire out.


For the activity I made paper flames out of card stock paper. I filled plastic clear cups up to 1/3 of the way with baking soda and added vinegar to his play fire extinguisher. 

E got his firefighter gear on: hat, belt, badge, ax, and used the fire extinguisher to put the fires out! He had a blast! First he sprayed the flames with the extinguisher but then we got to business and filled a cup with vinegar and we really got to see some smoke! He loved pouring over and over vinegar in the cups to see an eruption of "smoke."

**don't have a play fire extinguisher? Use a spray bottle! :) Need some ideas for DIY firefighter gear? My Preschool Fall
activities Pinterest board has some great ideas. check this one out: http://pinterest.com/pin/147492956520015846/



Police Officer and Teacher:


I created activity trays for both Police officer and Teacher. 

For both community helpers I first started by going over images of them and discussing what they do.

-Police officers keep our city and streets safe. When there is an emergency and you need help dial 911. 

In the tray I places a NON-working phone for him to pretend to dial 911 and badges for him to role play. 

-Teachers teach us our letters and numbers. Teachers help us learn many things, like teaching us how to read.

In the teacher tray I placed a bowl with letters and numbers and a stack of flash cards. We matched the letters to the coresponding flash cards, made three letter words and E played with the magnetic letters on the fridge. 

These trays (and activities) are  an invitation to play to let the child lead the lesson with the parent guiding and supporting. A way to guide is by asking questions to create discussions which result in learning! :)

* * *

It was a blessed and busy week and a half of Harvest fun and learning! for the next couple if weeks, leading into Thanksgiving, we will learn about health and nutrition. 


Thank you for stopping by! Hope these activities inspire you!

Blessings,
Erica

Love to hear from you!

Follow on:

Facebook

Pinterest