V week: plans

We're back from our vacation. We had so much fun at Disneyland and in Utah with our family. Three weeks off of preschool! We're ready to jump back in. Along with preschool we need to get back in the habit of Connor doing his daily tasks and helping out around the house. If you've been keeping up with your own preschool with your toddler, let me know how it's going or share your success stories. I'd love to have some stories from readers to post.

Here are the plans for V week:

word cards: violin, vacuum, volcano, van, vegetable
poem:

The Letter V
by Katrina Lybbert

The letter V, the letter V,
How I love the letter V.
Violin, vegetable, volcano, van.
I can say V words,
Now see if you can!

Monday: vacuum. Monday is clean-the-house day, so I'll teach Connor how to vacuum. It's about time he started pulling his own weight around here!

Tuesday (math): vertical & horizontal. I'll teach Connor the difference between vertical and horizontal lines. We'll look around the house and yard for examples of each and spend some time drawing lines.

Wednesday (scriptures/Gospel): valiant. One of my favorite Primary songs is I Will Be Valiant. I'll teach Connor the song as well as the meaning of the word valiant. (Children's Songbook, p. 162)

Thursday (movement/music): violin. I'll share some classical music with Connor and help him pick out the sound of the violin. Abigail will really enjoy this as well.

Friday (art project): volcano. We'll tie in social studies and science today since we vacuumed on Monday. We'll design a volcano around a 2-liter bottle (just with construction paper) and then cause a chemical reaction inside to create the lava flowing out. I think Connor will love this and it'll be great to do it outside and keep the mess out of the house.

U week: plans

Here are the plans for U week:

word cards: up, under, umbrella, uncle, umpire
poem:

The Puffin
by Robert Williams Wood

Upon this cake of ice is perched
The paddle-footed Puffin;
To find his double we have searched,
But have discovered—Nuffin!

Monday (social studies/science): Uncles. How are uncles related to us? They're our mother or father's brothers. We'll talk about this relationship and Connor will draw or paint or stamp a picture or card for each of his uncles.

Tuesday (math): Up/down; Under/over. We'll review opposites

Wednesday (scriptures/Gospel): Unhappy. (This is a stretch.) We'll talk about how we are unhappy (which means not happy) when we don't choose the right. I need to get Connor a new CTR ring. He heard (and heard us repeat) that story from General Conference about the little boy whose excuse for teasing his sister (or something) was that he'd lost his CTR ring. Now when I talk about choosing the right or doing what Jesus wants us to do, he mentions that he needs to find his CTR ring.

Thursday (movement/music): Umbrella. Thursday is suppose to be very rainy. We'll take a walk in the rain with an umbrella. Connor will LOVE this.

Friday (art project): bUtton sort. I'll give Connor a handful of random buttons. He can sort them by size, color, shape, number of holes, or however he wants to. Then he'll glue them on his paper. cUtting. Connor needs practice cutting. I'll let him play with his scissors, cutting shapes from paper.

Books we'll be reading:
(I couldn't find many books with word beginning with U for this week. We'll be reading books with the /u/ sound in the titles. I'll work with Connor on hearing this sound in the middle of words. We'll sound words out and hear the middle sounds. This is an important step in learning to read.)
Gus the Bus by Olga Cossi
Bear Hunt adapted by Kathleen Savage & Margaret Siewert (this will be fun to act out)
Little Bunny Biddle Bunny by David Kirk
Lunch Bunnies by Kathryn Lasky

T week: update

Tuesday Connor learned how to tell time. Well, he didn't really learn how. But I taught him about the face and the different hands and he watched the second hand move around the clock for a whole minute. He was really interested in it and is now more interested in the clock.

Wednesday we talked about telling the truth. We read the book about the Berenstain Bears and the truth and then discussed what it means to be honest. Then we made a paper cup and string telephone. Connor had seen his friends try it the day before, only they used paper towels taped together for the string and it didn't quite work. He wanted to try it. And telephone starts with T so we added that to our preschool plans for the day. I had never really played with one of those and it actually worked. I was pretty surprised. I can't get Connor to hold it tight enough without touching the string and stopping the voice from traveling. But it's still fun.

It doesn't look like our Thursday train is going to happen. I keep inviting Connor to come do preschool, but he just wants to play. And I'm going to the doctor in a little while, so we probably won't get a chance today. It's okay because painting with tire tracks tomorrow is going to be lots of fun!

T week: plans

Here are the plans for T week:

word cards: toy, train, telephone, tiger, triangle
poem:

Teddy Bear

Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Touch the ground.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Turn around.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Show your shoe.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
That will do.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Run upstairs.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Say your prayers.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Blow out the light.
Teddy bear, Teddy bear,
Say good night.

Monday: Shape Train. We cut out two circles, a big square, a triangle and two rectangles. Connor did the cutting with some help. He loves using scissors, but still wants help because he doesn't want to mess up. I need to give him more practice with scissors so he can develop his fine motor skills. We glued the shapes to make a train and Connor drew a T on the train.

Tuesday (math): Telling Time. I want to teach Connor the basics of the clock. Which hands are which and what they mean. I don't intend for this to stick or for him to start telling time from an analog clock right away, but I'd like to give him and introduction so that when I use the clock to tell him how much longer he can play or watch TV or whatever he'll sort of understand. I'll also show him the digital clocks and how to tell what time they say.

Wednesday (scriptures/Gospel): Telling the Truth. We've talked about being Honest before, but I want to review with him the importance of telling the truth.

Thursday (movement/music): Train Play. Connor loves to line up the chairs and make a train. We put his stuffed animals on the chairs. We make little tickets and punch holes in them like the train conductors do. We haven't done this for a long time. I think he'll be thrilled to do it again.

Friday (art project): Tire Track Art. Just what it sounds like. It's going to be messy and fun. We'll run cars in paint and then print the tire tracks on fresh paper. It'll be fun to see how different tires make different tracks.

Other T words that might come up or spark ideas for activities: tank, tree, teddy bear, tadpole, television, turkey, toyland, twinkle. (Check the Letter of the Week and Everyday Preschool links at right for more ideas.)

Preschool Moms

Check out how cute one mom & son's cloud pictures turned out during C week. I love that people are using my ideas. Why not? They're there for the taking!

If you have something to share from your preschool weeks, let me know and I'll share them here. Or I'll link to your own blog so everyone can learn from your ideas!

I'm working on a post about how to teach children to read and the basic rules of "sounding out." I was talking to a friend about her kindergarten son learning to read and she mentioned that she doesn't know the rules. I was surprised. I thought everyone knew all the vowel sounds and rules of phonics. Alan thinks it's so funny when I refer to it as a short sound. He reminds me that that doesn't mean anything to him. Well, it should! Oh, well. I guess I'll take care of the reading instruction in our home. (Because I feel strongly that it's not something you just leave up to the school. Parents should be involved in their kids' learning to read.) So, I'll post that "tutorial" soon.

Taking a Break

We are taking a break from preschool for a few weeks. We have a very busy week with doctor appointments and playdates and swimming with a friend, and me getting ready for a big event at Church on Saturday. Then we head to Utah next Tuesday to visit family and we'll be there for a couple of weeks. So we'll be back in late March for T week.

Happy learning!

S week: Wednesday and Thursday

Yesterday I read Connor the story of Samuel the Lamanite (from the Book of Mormon) and he was totally into it. He's really enjoying reading the illustrated scriptures with me each night and always wants to read one more chapter. I love sharing that with him.

Today we played soccer outside. Enough snow had melted that we could run and play. I tried to teach him some of the rules. He liked that the "goalie goal" could touch the ball with his hands. And he liked learning how to throw the ball in from the sidelines. I tried to teach him to kick with the inside of his foot instead of his toe, but he didn't think that would be good. So we just played his way. When his pants and feet were all wet and he was cold we came in for some hot chocolate and warmed up so we could do the rest of preschool.

All week Connor has been asking when it's going to be March. I guess he's sick of February; and it's the shortest month! So he was pretty excited today to make his March calendar on Starfall and then to change the calendar on our preschool chart. I love that he's making connections to things like days and months.

Tomorrow is Dr. Seuss day!!!