Preschool Week 2

Preschool Week 2

Bible: This week we read the second chapter in the Jesus Storybook Bible.  It's called "The Beginning: A Perfect Home" and it is a retelling of the creation story.  Our memory verse continues from last week, which was Genesis 1:1. (Jesus Storybook Bible )

To go along with our story, Hannah and Ethan finger painted with blue and green paint.

Ben joined in the finger painting and I think he enjoyed it.

He even thought it might be fun to taste it.

from left to right: Ethan, Hannah, and Ben's finished earth.
After the finger paintings dried we cut them into circles for the earth.  We also added some hands to represent God creating the earth.  Hannah decided at one point that her earth did not have enough water so she added some with her dot markers.

Reading: We spent a lot of time reading from the HarperCollins Treasury of Picture Book Classics.  I think their favorite so far is Caps for Sale.  Ethan likes to go around chanting "Caps for sale. 50 cents a cap" or whatever else he wants to sell.

Hannah and Ethan listening to "Go Dog Go" (Sonlight P3/4)   

Language Arts and Handwriting:  This week we worked on the letter B.

Making the letter B with the wooden pieces. (HWT)

Adding stars to their B is for Bat picture. (AAR pre-1)

Gluing B words to their worksheet. (AAR pre-1)

Math: 

This week Hannah and Ethan sorted bears by size.  Typically this is a very easy activity except that the medium and large bears are difficult to distinguish between.
(Compare Bears Maths)

We played a game where Hannah would ask Ethan to find a particular sized bear by reaching into the bag and feeling for it (and without looking, pretty obvious but then Ethan was playing and needed to be reminded).  They took turns doing this but I think they enjoyed telling each other what to do the most.  I love Ethan's look of concentration in this picture.

 

Their final bear activity was to arrange the bears into their families (small, medium, and large) by color (yellow, green, blue, and red).  I loved seeing how they each approached this activity.  Hannah did all of one color and then moved onto the next color in order.  Ethan seemed to randomly choose a bear he liked and then placed it when it needed to go in absolutely no order.

We worked on the numerals 4 thru 6.
Hannah and Ethan counted cake pop sticks into labeled cups.
(Montessori at Home(Math Section)

Hannah and I took it a step further.  I put a random number of sticks in each cup and she needed to "fix" my mistakes so that the right number of sticks matched the cups.

Science: We finally got started on our first science activity.  We are following the shadow unit from the PEEP and the Big WideWorld Explorer's Guide.  I was thwarted with cloudy weather every time I wanted to do one of the activities. hahahaha

Hannah and Ethan exploring the back yard for shadows.  The found leave shadows on the fence.

Hannah made her arm.

Ethan held of a kiddie chair up to the fence.

We moved to the front yard where we could see our shadows much more clearly.

 

Making their shadows as small as possible.

 

Making them as tall as possible.

Hannah noticed that you can change a shadow by turning the object.  Hannah took one of our spinning flowers and turned it slowly to watch what would happen.

Just for Fun:

They played with their circus magnet set.

Ethan did all the capital letters and Hannah did all the lowercase letters.

This was a fun fine motor skill activity that I put out with Ethan in mind.  They tweezed paper clips into the ice cube tray.

Ethan trying to get the hang of the tweezers.

Giving himself a little help with the other hand.

I finally dumped them on the floor because it was easier for him to do it without the basket getting in the way.

Pom Pom Magnets

Yesterday, I made up some pom pom magnets.  I've been meaning to make them for awhile probably since I first saw them here.  Actually, I've seen them many many times and knew that Hannah and Ethan would enjoy them.  

 These could not be more simple to made.  I hot glued little magnets onto pom poms.  Done!!

Here are my green pom pom magnets!

 Hannah was the first up to try them out.  This fish page is from here (as well as the other 25 letters of the alphabet).

Then of course Ethan had his turn.

These are great for a number of different activities.  I've seen tons of ideas on Pinterest ( search pom pom magnets or dot markers).  I know Hannah and Ethan will enjoy playing with these fun pom poms.

Cousin Love

Preschool Week 1

Preschool Week 1

Bible: We read the first story in our Jesus Storybook Bible called "The Story and the Song".  You can listen to this story here.  It's beautifully written and I think I am getting just as much out of these bible stories as Hannah and Ethan.  Our memory verse for week one is Genesis 1:1.  

My favorite line/section "There are a lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this story. And at the center of the story, there is a baby. Every story in the Bible whispers his name. He is like the missing piece in a puzzle- the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture." this is from Chapter 1 "The Story and the Song" The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Inspired by the line in the story, I had Hannah and Ethan color a picture of the bible.

Then when they were finished, they glued a puzzle piece (made out of construction paper) with the name Jesus written on it onto the center of the bible.

Reading:  We read a lot.  We are reading our way through the books in Sonlight P3/4   As well as all the other books we have around here and from the library.

Language Arts:  This week was all about the lowercase "a" and the sounds "a" (as in cat).

.

Fingerpainting apples on and apple tree as part of our AAR pre-1.

Also from AAR, Hannah and Ethan sorting pictures starting with the "a" sound.

Printing the letter A. (HWT)

Math:  We reviewed Numerals 1-3, and sorting by color (red, green, blue, and yellow)

This was our first lesson from the Compare Bears Maths. This was so much fun. Hannah and Ethan both really liked this and requested again and again.

Matching real bears to the colored bears on the page both by size and color.

Practicing numbers 1,2 and 3.  Hannah and Ethan matched glass beads with the corresponding numeral.(Montessori at Home(Math Section)

Art:  Spaghetti painting.  I lined the table with paper and added paint and spaghetti to Hannah and Ethan's tray.  They happily painted and played with the spaghetti for a long time.  This was a big hit and not nearly as messy as I imagined it to be.

Science: I decided to leave science until the following week.  We will be starting to look at shadows.

Overall, it was a great week.  I think we all enjoyed getting back into the swing of things. 

Labor Day Weekend- Gone to Camp

This past weekend, we spent up at Camp Kawkawa for the Teens Camp with our Church.  Hannah, Ethan and I have joined Andrew 3 out of the last 4 years and they love it.  The kids and I spent the mornings and evenings by ourselves as everyone else was in their sessions.   The rest of the time we hung out with Andrew and everyone else and enjoyed ourselves.  I realized when I got home that I only took pictures when it was just the kids and I (for the most part). Hehehe

Reading in front of the lake on the deck.

Watching the boats and looking out at the lake.

Beautiful.

One morning, I took the kids to the playground nearby.  Hannah and Ethan love exploring new playgrounds.

Taking a swing.

Hanging upside down.

On the way back from the playground we stopped for some ice cream.

:D

Practicing their balancing skills.

Playing at the beach.

Making Sand Soup

Sandy kid feet - Ethan

Hannah

 

I hope you enjoyed you long weekend as much as we did!!