Winter Promise Week 19

It has been quite a week. We received another snow storm at the beginning of the week which changed our whole school plan. J asked for another snow day - well, I can't blame her as the public school kids had plenty of snow days this week. So, we had to work extra hard to get all of our school work done in a short amount of time. I have been struggling with a head cold/infection which doesn't help when you are trying to finish ahead of schedule. But, through all of it, we did manage to get our school work done and enjoy the snow for the second week straight.

J is using her counters to complete 4 step addition and subtraction problems.

She also used her counters to practice counting by 7's.

J read her story, I Can Read from a reading textbook all week. She practiced reading to increase her fluency. I am so proud of her - she is reading so well.

J is working on her Explode the Code Book. She is currently practicing blends which fits in nicely with her reading lessons.

Because of the weather, we had to  move our schooling from the front (enclosed) porch to the bedroom. It was super cold out this week and we decided it would be better to be warm while schooling.

We talked about our voices while reading and I had J read the book Yo!Yes? by Chris Raschka. It is a story about two kids who become friends and it is told in very few words. I remember reading this book to my two older kids. J loved it and she practiced reading it all week.

A bit of sadness this week - my sister's beloved dog, Bear, died. He was a true companion and protector of my sister. He will be missed by all.

We are through the half way mark - only 19 more weeks to go. Next week, we will be traveling yet again but we will manage to finish school before we go. On the road again.....see you soon.

Tot Tuesday

Anyone who knows me knows that one of my loves is children's books. I love children's books and will spend my last dollar on a book without a second thought. I treasure the stories that I shared with my olders and look forward to sharing the same stories (and more) with my youngers. I teach my kids to respect the written word which can be difficult when you have a tot who happens to be ALL boy. Occasionally, he gets carried away with the books he is looking at and rips a page (oh, no!). But books are meant to be enjoyed and with a little tape, they can be fixed. I am (somewhat) okay with a rip as long as it is not utter destruction of a book on purpose. I recently caught my tot enjoying his books - love it!

He was excited every time he took down a book to check out. He pulled a few out and then sat down to read them all. Sure, I had a mess to put back. But I absolutely love to see my tot "read" his books. It does my heart good. May your week be full of great reads!

P is for Police Car

Another installment of Wheel School is now available to download - P is for Police Car.  I have had fun creating this lesson plans and printable games for each letter of the alphabet.

The plans include a variety of activities - one of my favorites is the phone number bracelet to help tots learn their phone numbers. The bracelets would also come in handy when you are going to the zoo or such in case your tot gets separated from you.

The free printable game of the week are police car 2 part number puzzles. Print the puzzles, laminate, and add magnets to make it easier for your tot. Match the numbers to the correct stars.

Download P is for Police Car HERE.

I hope you enjoy this week of Police Cars and such. If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you. Also, an occasional thank you when you download goes a long way. Thanks.

Wheel School - O is for Oil Tanker

The next letter of Wheel School is now available for download, O is for Oil Tanker. With this letter, I decided to follow a Robot unit theme because oil reminds me of robots. I included lots of options for fun activities.

The lesson plans include robot number cards for number practice as well as make a robot magnetic activity. My tot loves magnets so this activity will definitely be a favorite.

The printable this week are ten frame cards using the oil tanker and oil drops. I also included several blank ten frames so you can use counters (or, better yet, mini chocolate chips) to work with numbers with your tot.

You can also use the ten frames and number tiles to work with addition and subtraction for the older tot. 

Download O is for Oil Tanker HERE.

Hope you enjoy these plans. If you have any questions or problems, please let me know. Now, we are off to the letter P. See you soon.

Waiting For a Snow Day

One thing that I promised Kaleb when we came to visit Grandma and Grandpa was the prospect of snow and making a snowman. When we heard on the news that snow was a possibility, we were excited (even a little snow would be welcomed). The news said it would start snowing at noon. So, we worked on school, cleaned up the yard of toys, and waited for the snow to start falling. Lunch time came and no snow......the time passed slowly while we waited. Then, finally, it started to fall....

slowly but surely, it began to snow. We wondered whether it would stick or my mom would have a snow day off from work. We watched it all night and then woke up to this...

Not exactly the snow to make a snowman but there was enough snow to play in and the kids were thrilled! The schools took a snow day, so why not take a home school snow day as well?

Even though I have a million things to do with J for school, it is nice to take a snow day every now and then.  Hope you are enjoying some snow where you are :)

Tot Tuesday

Kaleb - my one-of-a-kind tot with his own ideas and whims. He is strong headed and stubborn at times but can be extremely sweet and lovable. He is a dare-devil with no fear.  He has his own peculiar ways and is frustrated when those ways are changed. Recently, we began the adventure of potty training. He is a little over three years old and we felt it was time to begin the process. I had been delaying it because of our situation and geography. I thought it would be best started at kid friendly house with very little carpet. 

When I wanted him off the bottle, I explained to him that his bottles were broken and I had to throw them out. He fussed somewhat but that night, he went to bed with out a bottle. For a week or two, after that, he would tell me that his bottles were broke and all gone but he was okay with it. So it seemed only natural to do that with his diapers as well. Monday, he woke up to diapers that were way too small. They were the exact diapers he has always worn (complete with Mickey on them) but he grew way too big for them (size 6 to a size 2). Oh, no, what are we to do? He tried several of them on but they were all too small. He had to wear underwear (shoulders drooped down) but he was okay with it. 

First day - pretty tough, I all most gave up. But the diapers were too small, I couldn't go back now (even though I wanted to). Second day, better. He is getting it in his own way (with a little push in the right direction). This method will not work on all tots, just tots like Kaleb. Will there be accidents? Probably but at least he is trying and there is no turning back - the diapers are still too small.

Winter Promise Week 17

We finally got back into the swing of things. It was tough after such a long holiday, especially since we took an extra week so me and the hubby could take the olders back to college. It was slow going but we managed to finish the week as planned (for the most part). We began reading Mr.Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater. I love this book. In fact, I read this book to my older kids as well as my third grade classes. J began to notice that the book and the movie had some differences so we began to chart the differences in her reading notebook. We also began our unit on Polar lands with a focus on penguins. I could literally take a month to learn about penguins so condensing to a week was hard. Lucky for J, we just started back to school and I didn't want to bombard her :)

In Math, J reviewed even and odd numbers. I had her toss a unit cube onto a hundreds chart and determine if the number was even or odd.

It worked out that J finished her All About Reading Level 1 before the holidays. So, she started level 2 this week. She learned about open and closed syllables. I noticed her white board for word work was becoming too crowded so I had to invest in a larger one. The smaller one was nice for travel but it didn't give us the room she needed to complete the lessons.

She read two stories from a reading textbook that I found in a thrift store. The first story she read was Trucks by Gail Saunders-Smith. Kaleb heard the title and just had to sit in. She read the story to him several times which he loved. The second story of the week was Communities by the same author. J learned about the importance of titles in people's names as well.

We read about the Arctic and Antarctic. J completed a habitat page for both to put in her animal notebook. I love her drawings of of a polar bear, walrus, and a narwal. We discovered that polar bears don't eat penguins because they live in opposite areas of the world.

I invested some money in a penguin toob which I knew she would just love. She played with them all week. As we read about penguins, we tried to determine which type each figure was. She read an easy reader about penguins as well called This Bird Can't Fly.

I love this picture and her smile. For some word work this week, I gave her the letters of the word penguin. She then used the tiles to create as many words as she could with them.

Lastly, I made some glitter play dough for her polar region play area. Kaleb wanted in the action as well so I divided it up and let them go to town. J loved the penguin week and now we are on to polar bears. Hope you had an awesome week. See you soon.

Tot Tuesday

I have a confession to make....I love wooden toys, absolutely love them. Most of the time, the wooden toys that I covet are Melissa and Doug creations that I drool over in the toy stores and pray that I will find them at the thrift stores. I am addicted to wood based learning toys. I will never have enough wood puzzles or games. That's bad, huh? One good thing about this, though, is my tot loves them just as much as I do. He loves puzzles and games and I am thankful because I don't want to be the only one who plays with them :)

Kaleb is working with the Latches board that I found. This is a great learning tool, it has different locks and latches that he gets to experiment with. When he is successful, a different animal can be seen behind the doors.

Kaleb loves working with his shapes. This is one of my favorites and comes with different pictures for him to place the pieces. Kaleb can spend quite a bit of time playing with this one.

Another great find - a wooden puzzle of insects and a magnetic net to "catch" them. Kaleb likes manipulating the net to pull the insects from the puzzle. I love these learning tools and I know that wooden puzzles and games can tolerate a toddler boy and his whims. What are some of your tots favorites?

N is for Newspaper Truck

After a prolonged hiatus, I am finally ready to get back to school. blogging, and creating. I thought it would be great to start the new year with a new Wheel School printable pack - N is for Newspaper Truck.

I started with the visual plans for N is for Newspaper Truck. This was no easy task since there are not many activities to do for a newspaper truck. But I did find some newspaper activities that tots will enjoy.

The printable I created for the Newspaper unit are magnet letter pages. I created an upper case alphabet set as well as the lower case.

I would print these and laminate them. You could offer your child several magnetic letters or just one to practice. Have your child match the letters to each card.

Another printable that I created was a beginning sound game. I wanted to offer more practice with the beginning N sound. This is to played by naming the objects on each newspaper and deterring if it begins with the N sound or doesn't. Hope you enjoy these plans and that they are helpful in planning for your tot.

Download the N is for Newspaper Truck HERE.

Graphics are from:

My Cute Graphics

and

KPM Doodles

What I am hoping to achieve for the New Year - finish the Wheel School units all the way to the letter Z, more printable packs for tots based on great literature, more tot school posts. Stay tuned.