Butterflies, blue and bugs!

Day 3 of our week -- Our theme is bugs and the color of the week is blue.

Project - Today, we made butterfly sun catchers to go a long with our bug theme. I found the idea in the August 2006 Parents magazine. I modified the idea from a kite suncatcher to a butterfly. I drew my own template for the butterfly and the kids and I used an old pencil sharpener to make crayon shavings. I then, melted the crayon shavings between two pieces of wax paper and placed the wax paper between 2 old dishtowels. I pressed the towel covered wax paper with and iron set on low to medium, until the crayons and wax paper had melted together. We then took the butterfly templates I drew and traced them onto construction paper ( 2 pieces) and glued them onto the cooled wax paper. Finally we cut the remaining overhanging wax paper and hung them on our window! ( you could add antennae -using string, or pipe cleaners)
Activity 1 - It was our third and final day with the color blue. I made a math worksheet with blue butterflies ( which also went with our art project) Connor and Lauren matched the sets of butterflies with the correct number. This emphasized one to one correspondence with counting and fine motor skills with drawing straight lines to the correct number!
Activity 2 - I also made a worksheet that emphasized beginning sounds. We have been working on this for a couple of weeks now. We talk about sounds throughout the day, just in our daily language, but this worksheet is a fun way to work on the sounds too. Again this activity emphasized beginning sounds, and fine motor skills (drawing circles and matching)
Activity 3 - Our final activity is practicing writing letters and words. I use the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ for this. We finished Printing Practice worksheet 4 today. I spread this worksheet out over the 3 days we do school. Today we finished with the letter m and the word sum. Connor and Lauren love learning how to write letters and especially write real words. Of course, Connor had to tell me that he already new how to make the letter M!!

Caterpillars, balloons and Blue!

Day 2 of our week- Our theme is bugs and the color of the week is blue - the kids worked on writing letters and words, counting and letter sounds, along with making a popsicle stick caterpillar.
Activity 1 - Connor and Lauren practiced the letter b and they wrote the word bus using the worksheet Printing Practice worksheet 4 from http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/
Activity 2 - I made a counting practice worksheet for them using blue balloons, since the color of the week is blue. This worksheet emphasized counting and one to one matching. It also emphasized recognizing the numbers 6-9.
Activity 3 - I had the kids practice beginning sounds with a picture letter recognition worksheet that I made. They really seem to enjoy practicing the letter sounds, and they love making the letter sounds!
Project - Our project today dealt with caterpillars (for our bug unit). I found the project idea out of Parents Magazine (the March 2009 issue). The magazine called the caterpillar - Love Bug. This project utilizes colored popsicle sticks. I folded a piece of green construction paper accordian style , rounded the edges and unfolded. (The magazine article says to fold into a 2-inch accordian). Connor and Lauren, glued Popsicle sticks on the back for legs (The magazine says to glue the sticks to the left of each fold). Connor and Lauren glued darker green circles (that I traced and cut out ) onto the bug's body, glued on googly eyes, and a crescent shape mouth (I drew the mouth and cut it out, using red construction paper). Finally, Connor and Lauren glued 2 green Popsicle sticks (antennae) on the back of the face of the caterpillar.
The kids loved this project and ended up using the caterpillars as puppets.

Bugs, Blueberries and Blue

Day 1 of our week ---Our theme is bugs and the color of the week is blue. Today was a hectic day. Connor stayed over at his grandparents, so we weren't able to do school at our normal time (in the morning). We finally got to work around 3:30-4:00 - which didn't allow enough time for a formal project. This week the emphasis is on beginning sounds, the color blue, counting, and like always letter and number recognition.
Activity 1 - The first activity emphasized writing the letters u and s, and the word us. I use the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ for this activity. This week I am using the worksheet Printing Practice worksheet 4. The letter u was easy, but s tripped them up. After, some practice Connor and Lauren were writing pretty accurate s's. They then wrote the word us.
They truly love writing words. I am seeing a lot of enthusiasm for learning and they are always eager to write or draw in their free time. They write notes and directions for me all of the time, or they ask me to read what they wrote - which is usually a jumble of letters! I find it really rewarding to see Connor and Lauren applying what they are learning in their free/play time.
Activity 2 - The next activity is another worksheet from http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ (The color blue worksheet) The color of the week this week is blue, so I had Connor and Lauren color the balloon blue on the worksheet and then trace over the words, blue on the bottom of the page. I didn't have them re-write the word blue on their own, I want them to master the fine motor skill of tracing and forming the letters correctly. These are my main goals with this worksheet. Connor and Lauren really take pride in their work of tracing the word blue 3 times. Their accuracy with tracing has greatly improved since this winter.
Activity 3 - The last worksheet addresses and emphasizes counting, cutting, gluing and following directions. I made a worksheet that asks the kids to cut and paste the correct amount of blueberries on the appropriate plate. Connor and Lauren enjoy cutting and pasting - well Lauren likes to use the glue stick, Connor hates when his fingers get sticky. We have to work on that!! :)

Sewing Butterfly and green again!

Day 3 of our week - The theme of the week is bugs and the color of the week is green.

Activity 1- Connor and Lauren practiced writing the word did from the worksheet Printing Practice -worksheet 3. This worksheet is from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/

Activity 2- I made a turtle counting worksheet that went along with our green color of the week. The activity asked Connor and Lauren to count the turtles in each row and then circle the correct number. This activity emphasized counting, one-to-one correspondence and number recognition.

Activity 3- I made a beginning sounds worksheet. Connor and Lauren had to circle the correct beginning sound for the pictures of a turtle, balloons, and light bulb. They are really good at their beginning sounds. This activity not only helps with sounds, but also letter recognition. They know almost all of their upper and lower case letter now. Just a few give them trouble!

Project - I got the idea for our project from the website www.prekinders.com/themes.htm under the bug section. I cut out a butterfly shape from a manila file folder. Connor and Lauren decorated their butterfly with markers. I then punched holes around the perimeter of the butterfly with a hole puncher. Finally, they used yarn and "sewed" it through the holes. I had to help them at the start. My only suggestion is to spread the holes farther a part for younger kids, because it can be a pretty time-consuming project.

Stamping Bug book fun and the color green!

Day 2 of our week -- Our theme this week is bugs and the color of the week is green.

Activity 1- Connor and Lauren practiced writing the letter d and the word lid. We used the worksheet Printing Practice- worksheet 3 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/

Activity 2- I made the worksheet for the 2nd activity. It was a math worksheet that asked Connor and Lauren to connect the correct number witht the matching number of frogs. This activity addressed one-to-one correspondence while counting, number recognition, and fine motor skills of drawing a straight line from the frogs to the numbers.

Activity 3- I made a beginning sounds worksheet. Connor and Lauren had to circle the correct beginning sound for the frog, snake and leaf (green items!)

Project - The project today was a bug counting book. I found the basis of this idea off of the website www.prekinders.com/themes.htm under the bug theme link. The title of the book was Bug Counting Book. Connor and Lauren used a bug stamp to decorate the front of their books. Then they used the stamp to stamp bugs on the pages of the book according to the number. The first page said,"1 bug", 2nd page said, "2 bugs," and so on. They are able to recognize the numbers 1-10, so they did a great job. (This activity emphasized number recognition and counting skills.)

Green, Bugs and more!

Day 1 of our week -- Our theme this week is bugs and the color of the week is green.
We did some bug rhymes that I got off of the website www.prekinders.com/themes.htm under the bug theme. This website has wonderful theme ideas.
Activity 1 - Connor and Lauren worked on writing the letters l, i, and p and the word lip. We used the worksheet Printing Practice - worksheet 3 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/
Activity 2 - The 2nd activity also comes from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ (The Color Green worksheet) Connor and Lauren colored the frog green and then traced the word green 3 times. They are really good at tracing letters and they like to trace.
Activity 3 - I made a worksheet for the third activity. It is a cut and paste math activity. The worksheet has two lily pads on it with different numbers under the lily pads. At the bottom of the page are frogs. The directions are to cut and paste the correct number of frogs on the lily pads according to the number below the lily pad. Finally the worksheet asks how many frogs are there in all on the lily pads. This activity addresses, cutting, pasting (fine motor skills) counting, math skills and following directions.

The color orange - no theme week!!

Day 1,2,3 of our week - No Theme this week and the color of the week is orange. We had a family wedding this past weekend, so I didn't have anything prepared for the week since we have been gone for 5 days!! I am looking forward to getting a theme ready for next week.
Day 1
Activity 1- Connor and Lauren practiced writing the letters n and o and the word no. These letters were easy for the kids since they both have n's in their names and o's are just easy to write. We used the worksheet Printing Practice - Worksheet 2 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/
Activity 2- 2nd activity used another worksheet from http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ Connor and Lauren completed The Color Orange worksheet. They colored the pictures and traced the word orange.
Activity 3- I made a cut and paste pumpkin counting worksheet. The numbers 1-7 were son the bottom of the page. They counted the rows of pumpkins and cut and pasted the correct number at the end of the row. This activity emphasized fine motor skills, 1 to 1 correspondence and number recognition.

Day2
Activity 1 - Connor and Lauren practiced writing the letter g and the word go. We used the worksheet Printing Practice - Worksheet 2 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/
Activity 2- I made a More or Less Pumpkin sheet to go along with our color of the week. In 2 of the sections Connor and Lauren had to circle the group of pumpkins that had more and in the other 2 sections they had to circle the group of pumpkins that had less.
Activity 3- I made a beginning sounds sheet. On the left hand side of the paper there was a picture of a bus, tractor and pig. On the right hand side were the letters p, b and t. The directions were to draw a line to match the picture with the beginning sound.

Day 3

Activity 1-Connor and Lauren practiced writing the letter e and the word gone. We used the worksheet Printing Practice - Worksheet 2 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/

Activity 2- I made a Carrot Number and Picture Match sheet. Since our color of the week was orange I used a carrot clip-art graphic. The numbers 1-10 were on the right-hand column of the page and rows of different numbers of carrots were on the right hand side of the page. Connor and Lauren drew lines to connect the numbers with the correct carrots!

Activity 3- I made a beginning sound sheet. Connor and Lauren had to circle the correct beginning sound/letter for baseball, purse and table.

Mothers Day flowers and the color yellow!

Day 1 and 2 of our week - Our theme this week is Mother's Day - Flowers and the color of the week is yellow. We have a short week this week due to a family wedding this coming weekend. We will be gone on our regular day 3 of the week, so we are working hard to get our Mother's Day projects completed!

Day 1
Activity 1- Connor and Lauren practiced writing the letters c, a and t and the words at and cat. We used the worksheet Printing Practice - worksheet 1 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/

Activity 2- The 2nd activity used another worksheet from http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ Connor and Lauren completed The Color Yellow worksheet. They colored the pictures and traced the word yellow.

Activity 3- I made a Flower Fun cut and paste sheet. At the bottom of the page were five blank/white flowers. At the top of the page were 5 stems. Connor and Lauren had to color two of the flowers red and three of the flowers yellow. Then they cut and pasted the flowers on the stems. This activity emphasized number and color recognition, fine-motor skills/cutting and pasting and counting.
Day 2
Activity 1- Connor and Lauren practiced writing the letter f and the word fat. We used the worksheet Printing Practice - worksheet 1 from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/

Activity 2- Connor and Lauren completed the counting worksheet Penguin Count from the website http://www.worksheetuniverse.com/ This activity emphasized number recognition and one-to-one correspondence.

Activity 3 - Connor and Lauren completed a dot-to-dot of a sun. This went with our color of the week. I found the sun dot-to-dot on the website http://www.kidzone.ws/

Activity 4- I made a Yellow, Yellow Everywhere cut and paste activity. At the top of the page was a yellow container. At the bottom of the page were clip-art images - a bee, sun, barn, sunflower, apple and bananas. Connor and Lauren had to cut out the yellow objects and paste the into the container. This emphasized color recognition and cutting and pasting skills.

Project - Handprint Cards - Lauren and Addie made hand print cards for Mother's Day. Lauren made her card for her mom and Addie made cards for her grandmothers. I wrote "Guess How Much I Love You?" on the front of the card. Addie and Lauren pressed their hands in pink paint and pressed their hand's in the middle of their cards. Then at the bottom I wrote, "I Love YouThis Much! Happy Mothers Day" This is a cute personalized Mother's Day Card. Materials - kid friendly paint, card stock
Connor's Project - Stamped Flower Cards - Connor didn't want to get his hands full of paint so he stamped a flower card using our flower shape sponge. I folded pieces of yellow construction paper in 1/2. Connor used green paint to draw a stem on each of his cards -(He made 3 - one for his Godmother - Aunt Carrie and 1 each for his Great-Grandmother's). Then he dipped the flower shape sponge in pink paint and pressed it above the stem. After the cards dried I wrote "Happy Mother's Day" in the cards and Connor signed his name. These made simple, cute Mother's Day cards!! Materials needed - Construction paper, flower shape sponge, paint brush, kid friendly paint.


Cupcake Liner Flower!

Project- Cupcake Liner Flower - The kids made a cupcake liner flower. I cut a green stem out of green construction paper. The kids glued the stem onto a colored piece of construction paper (we used blue). Then they flattened one of the cupcake liners and glued it flat above the stem. Next, they semi-flattened the next liner and glued it top of the first liner. Finally, they glued a non-flattened cupcake liner on top of the 2nd liner. As a finishing touch they each drew faces on the third cupcake liner. Materials- 3 cupcake liners per project, green construction paper for the stem, glue stick and markers for the face.

Popsicle Stick Flower

Project- Popsicle Stick Flower- Our theme this week is the Flowers and Mother's Day. Our first flower project was colored Popsicle stick flowers. I found this idea in the March 2009 issue of Parents Magazine. Connor and Lauren picked out the colors they wanted their Pop-Art flowers to be. They then arranged the sticks in a layered circular pattern. I then helped them glue the sticks together. The green popsicle stick (the stem) goes in the middle of the floral design so the flowers look 3-D! Materials - 8 colored Popsicle sticks, 1 or 2 green Popsicle sticks for the stem, and glue (either craft glue or hot-glue).

Beaded Flower

Project - Beaded Flower- Our 2nd project was more of a quick creative activity created by Connor and Lauren. They wanted to make beaded flowers, so we took out our colored tri-beads and a green pipe cleaner. Connor and Lauren strung beads onto their pipe. When they had a good amount of beads on their pipe cleaner I bent the pipe cleaner into a flower shape!! Materials -colored tri-beads and green pipe cleaner.

More Popsicle Stick Flowers!