Dots and Doughnuts to Celebrate the Letter D

This week we focused on all things letter "D"!

 

We hosted a small playdate with one of our friends where we snacked on doughnuts and made dot art. We used q tips, washable paint and paper to make our works of art!

 

Mmm... Doughnut...

 

 

This is Annika's dot art project that she created:

 

 

 

 

Our book this week was "Go Dog Go!" by Dr. Seuss!

We sang lots of dog and duck songs, like "Hey Diddle Diddle, "The Farmer in the Dell", "Six Little Ducks", I'm a Little White Duck" and "How Much is that Doggie?".

We also practiced dribbling a basketball.

 

Stay tuned for the letter "E"!

 

 

 

C is for CAT!

When we were on the letter "C" week (only a few weeks behind!), we were lucky enough that this was the week that my sister's cat gave birth to her kittens! We went to visit after the kitties were a few days old and observed them. It was very fun for my daughter to get to see the sweet, furry little bundles! She pointed out to me that the kittens were nursing which was very amazing to me! The most fun part was when my daughter asked, "Mommy, where did those baby kitties come from?" I used that opportunity to explain a little about life! I know this is a question that so many parents dread, but I think if you keep it simple, age appropriate and somewhat "scientific" it can be easier. Since my little one is only 3, I simply explained that the kittens came from their mother. Just like she came from me. I also used the example of her little brother; she still remembers how he was in my belly and my belly was REALLY big! It was such a great experience for all of us! I can't wait for us to get to hold the little loves!

Creation was our bible lesson this week. I feel this was great because for the letter "A" we learned about Adam and Eve; this lesson reinforced what we learned that first week!

I didn't have any really good books on hand that went with the letter "C", besides "The Cat in the Hat" so I did a little search and found "Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes on School Tube (a wonderful resource for teachers!). It is a sweet story about a mouse named Chrysanthemum. It tells how much she loves her name until she starts school, where she is picked on for her name. In this video , the story is read  and illustrations from the book are shown!

We also spent some time listening to the great composer Aaron Copland! Annika was so into the music this week!

To cap off the week, we attended a playdate where we drew pictures and letters using chalk! A giant slab of concrete was our canvas! It was the perfect art project for the week!

Until the letter "D", take care!

Let's make brownies to celebrate the letter "B"!

I like to host playdates that go along with what we are learning with our preschool at home! This week was the letter "B", so we had some friends over to bake brownies! I feel that baking and cooking are such great learning experiences for children of all ages! It teaches some math (measurements), following directions, science (chemical reactions) and so much more! As luck would have it, one of our playdate attendees brought bananas (another wonderful thing that starts with the letter "B") to share with everyone!

Before everyone arrived, I set up our dining room table with all of the measuring cups and spoons, bowls, spoons for stirring, ingredients, etc. So, when everyone arrived, we were ready to go! I use the Toll House Cocoa recipe for brownies. Here it is:

Chewy Cocoa Brownies

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter or margarine, melted
2 tablespoons water
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups all- purpose flour
3/4 cup Nestle Toll House Baking Cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional-- we did not use nuts!)
Powdered sugar (we omitted this as well)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 13x9 inch baking pan.
Combine sugar, butter and water in large bowl. Stir in eggs and vanilla extract. Combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt in medium bowl; stir into sugar mixture. Stir in nuts. Spread into prepared baking pan.
Bake for 18-25 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out slightly sticky. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Cut into Bars.
Makes 2 dozen brownies.

The kids all had such fun measuring, pouring and stirring! They of course enjoyed eating the yummy brownies they made too!

Ah! The letter "A"! Our most favorite letter of the alphabet! This is the first letter that A learned to write all by herself. She is in LOVE with the letter "A". Hopefully this week did it justice!

We started off learning the shape and sound of the letter "A".

 

And... coloring the letter "A" on our beautiful alphabet poster.

 

 

Throughout the week we read "A" books. Our favorite is Dr. Seuss' "Apples Up On Top". We chose Adam and Eve as our Bible story for the week. We used our children's Bible and did a few fun activities to go along with the bible story including coloring our own book!

 

 

I found this one on DLTK's website.

 

I attempted to introduce adding to A one day. I'm not quite sure she "got it" but she definitely enjoyed the yummy grapes!

 

 

 

For social studies, we learned about Johnny Appleseed. I allowed A to watch the old Disney version of Johnny Appleseed that I found on YouTube. We also researched astronauts. If you have a very young child (A is 2 years old), try to explain to them what an astronaut does. I never realized how hard this could be until I tried! I ended up on NASA's website trying to find something to help me plead my case! I think she at least found the space suit interesting!

 

For science, we researched a plant (aster), a mammal (antelope), a sea creature (abalone) and a bird (albatross). I basically helped A do an web search for each of these and we did find some fun websites and really great pictures (thank you Google Images!).

 

As a field trip of sorts, we visited a local farm that just so happens to have a small apple orchard! I wish I would have taken more (and better) pictures of the children playing in the orchard. It was so beautiful. Here is the best I was able to get!

 

 

At the end of the week we had a little playdate with some of our friends! I titled the playdate "Apples and Art"! We created apple trees using the children's hand and finger prints. They had such a blast creating these artistic pieces!

 

 

I have to tell you about our snack because everyone always raves about how wonderful it is! I serve apples and ginger snaps with this yummy pumpkin pie dip!

 

We had such a great week exploring the letter "A"! Next we'll move on to the letter "B".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been so long since I have last posted on this blog. I'm ready to start again and fully commit!

This past week, the week of August 26th, we have started preschool at home! For many reasons, I have decided to do preschool at home for my children this year instead of sending them to a formal preschool. I will be teaching my 2 (almost 3) year old, A, and my 1 year old, J, at home! I'm so excited for us all to learn and grow together!

We are using a form of the Letter of the Week curriculum. Our first week was just a fun, brief introduction to the alphabet. I tried to focus in on each child's name. I read that it is best to start with a word (like their name) that is important to them. This makes learning the letters have more meaning for them!

I printed out letter coloring pages to spell out each child's name. You can find them here.

Another activity we did this first week was Alphabet Bingo! I created the cards myself. Because there are 26 letters in the alphabet and only 25 spaces on a Bingo card, I had to choose one letter to leave out. I chose to leave out the letter "T" because I used alphabet blocks as bingo balls and we are missing our letter "T" alphabet block!

 

This was such a fun time! We invited A's Grammy and Great Granny Grunt to play with us. Our prizes were yummy graham cracker treats! On a side note, I have to let everyone know that Great Granny Grunt LOVES to play Bingo! When she arrived at our house she informed me that she hadn't been to Bingo in two weeks! After we finished playing, she said, "So, will we be playing bingo every Wednesday then?" We love Great Granny Grunt!

 

We did several other activities including: creating our alphabet poster and trying out this uppercase/ lowercase match up game that I found on Little Family Fun!

 

Next week we are moving on to the letter "A" (using the short vowel sound)!