Monday: We began with our usual prayer, verse of the week, and then sang Father Abraham to start off. This is our devotion time which we do every day. I had every intention of doing a craft, however the boys were just too excited about the new stuff on the shelves so we just spent circle time introducing the new letter and going through our initial letter sound sorting basket. After individual time I read them The Ants go marching book as well as a reader book called Amanda Pig on her Own
Tuesday: We did our usual devotion time, reviewed our letter with sandpaper letters. We sat together and read 10 apples up on top and then did an Apple letter craft. For the craft I just printed out a large A and made a little leaf and some seeds for them to glue on. It's neat to see how much more independence my preschooler has gained with a glue stick in just a week. We then proudly put them on the fridge to look at for the rest of the week. The kids are always excited to show Daddy what they worked on during school.
Wednesday: This day was our little science lesson. I used the Bernstein Bears Big book of Science to talk about animals and what characteristics they have. We then played Spot It jr. Animals. Now, my 4 and 2 year olds aren't ready to play this game in the suggested way so, I have modified it a bit for each of them until they can play it for real. I have my 4 year old simply find the matching animals on 2 cards, he isnt competing with anyone, just honing his observation skills. With my tot I take out one card at a time and ask him if he can find the pink flamingo, green frog, orange cat, yellow sea star etc. This way I'm teaching colors and playing a little I Spy at the same time.
Thursday: I used this day to review our letter sound sorting basket to review what we had learned. I also made a little animal movement game for them to play. Since both kids do not yet read I just gathered up some plastic animals and placed them in a bowl. I then had each child close his eyes and take turns reaching in the bowl to choose the animal we would pretend to be. They loved this game. The animals I included were a snake, frog, whale, wolf, scorpion, seal, parrot, and penguin. My penguin looks radioactive but the kids didn't mind.
The real action happens during individual time when the kids get to choose whatever they want to do that is on the shelves for them.
I had a bucket of 10 blocks to stack. I put red circle stickers on them to pretend they were apples to stack just like in the 10 apples up on top book. This is a great counting and fine motor skill activity. I only wish I had had apple stickers...
Apple seed game: this one was pretty simple and it wasn't much of a hit with the preschooler. It didn't seem to hold his attention for very long. You roll the die and place the same number of seeds in the apple. (I used black beans).
Red basket: I didn't have very many interactive objects in this basket so it wasn't used much this week. I included a ball, Elmo stuffed animal, Velcro pepper, ribbon and car. I think this basket would be perfect for a baby to explore and plan to put this one together again once the baby is able to better interact with things.
Bean Spooning: This one was very simple. Just 2 jars, a tablespoon and some dried black beans. I gotta say, I just hate these messy practical life/sensory trays. I have to watch the two year old like a hawk to make sure we get any fallen beans especially since we have an infant in our home. BUT the kids LOVE this. There is something very satisfying about transferring items for little ones and both my preschooler and tot really enjoyed spending time doing this one. It is a great fine motor skill builder.
Coloring page and worksheets: these were still a very popular choice again this week with my preschooler. My tot really wanted to color on our white board instead of using a coloring page.
Spot It game: we played this as a group as well as individually. It's great for building observational skills and building vocabulary and even working on colors.
Letter A pattern blocks: These were fun for the kids. I laminated the printable I found from here and set out a bowl with the blocks they would need.
Salt tray with sandpaper letter and shape,
Animal Sort basket: This was a simple basket I put together to correspond with our science lesson. I simply cut out and laminated some pictures of some of our safari toob animals. My tot loved this activity and did it MANY times.
Book Basket: I don't have a ton of 'A' Books and wanted to grab a couple from the library however time just didn't permit a trip to the library so I grabbed what we have off the shelves to put into our basket for the week. We had 10 Apples up on Top, The Ants go Marching, Amelia Badelia, Animals Should Definitely not Wear Clothing, and Amanda Pig on her Own.
Letter Sound Sorting basket: this week instead of having a basket with just the sound we were learning, I included a couple 'M' items from last week to go with our 'A' items this week. This way we are naturally reviewing our letters. The problem with using a real apple is that it was stolen as a snack for a little guy at some point during the week. I found my tot hiding in his closet eating it. I would recommend using non-food items if you want them to stay on the shelf.
Lacing card
Bead Bar number book: Oh. My. Word. This activity was so beloved by my preschooler. I decided to laminate the cards to the book and have him color with dry erase markers so that we could use it again.
Scissor practice: I provided paint chips and scissors and the idea was to cut along each color. I realized very quickly that my child needs a lot of practice with using scissors before trying this one again. He had a very hard time with such thick paper. I will have to come back to the paint chips once we get stronger scissor skills. I also included a shape sort puzzle again.
Apple Tree Playdoh counting: for whatever reason it was kind of hard to keep my preschooler on task with this one. He got tired of making apples pretty early on. I think that when I get this activity out another time I won't have all 10 cards out for him. It didn't help that there was a giant Playdoh ball that went around eating all the apples till there were none left. However, this was a lovely concept. I appreciate how there were apples pictured to correspond to the numeral. I can see us using this again in an "apple picking" scenario where I have playdoh apples already made, or maybe a different red manipulative for counting.
So that was it for this week.
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