Sonlight Science - Magnets

We are continuing our study on magnets this week. This is another subject that I have decided to include Kaleb when possible. I think it will be beneficial and he truly loves being involved in our school.

I have truly gotten my money's worth from my colored rice. I gave each kid a tin full of colored rice with several different magnetic items hidden in it. They had to use the magnets to find all of the items.

They quickly figured out that they could pick up ore than one magnetic item. They had some fun trying to see how many items they could pick up at one time.

J and Kaleb also discovered that magnets could move items such as these washers and magnetic marbles in the box lid. 

While Kaleb was content to play with the rice and magnets, I had J test the strength of several magnets by pulling a pin. She would measure the distance that the pin would move to discover which magnet we owned was the strongest.

Kaleb discovered that he could pull a "cloud" attached to a paperclip in the air with his horse shoe magnet.

Lastly, I had J solve a riddle - I gave her a piece of paper, a nail, and a magnet. I asked her to pick up the paper without actually touching it. She figured out how to do it using her magnet. Go, J! So far, they have enjoyed Sonlight Science and magnets. We are waiting to "do" Science again. 

Letter D Interactive Notebook Pages - free printable

The newest addition to my interactive alphabet notebook is done - the letter D. Kaleb has really enjoyed having his own "school" notebook that is all his - no sharing with his sister. I like having a mini project to work on with him and it will be a great tool for review. Hope you are enjoying it as much as we are.

I started with the flip books for the letter D. I like to use this as a starter discussion for what sound D makes and what begins with D. Kaleb likes cutting and gluing the pictures behind the flaps.

These puzzles usually do not make it into my notebook because I like to laminate and make magnetic. He uses a cookie sheet to put them together.

We are still working on number recognition. I added a cute doggie game where he would choose a number for the dog bowl and add the correct number of bones to the dish. I would add an envelope to the bowl for easier placement of the bones.

Another game for the notebook - upper and lower case dump truck sort. Drive the dump trucks onto the correct roads.

Find all of the same letters cover game. You could use buttons or pom poms and have child cover each letter with a different color. This is an alphabet review game of all the letters we have worked with so far. There is also the letter cut and paste craft that I have included in each notebook file - turn the letter D into a dog.

I hope to return with pictures of Kaleb using the notebook, we are slightly behind because of all my doctor's appointments - only 7 weeks to go. I didn't want to move on to the letter D until we completed all of our letter C activities that I had planned. But I wanted to post the notebook pages in case you were ready to use them this week. Enjoy.

Download Letter D Interactive Notebook Pages HERE.

C is for Cement Mixers and Cars

We are just finishing up on our letter C week. Because of life (and multiple doctor visits), we had to extend the week of letter C. I also decided to add in a Before Five in a Row book - Corduroy by Don Freeman. BFIAR is on my curriculum list for Kaleb this year but we have been focusing on our letters and I am still collecting the books. All my BFIAR are currently out of the country :(

I changed my sensory bin for C. I took away the rice and added pop corn kernels. I included a few cement mixers and letter C's. A simple change but adding something new tends to peak his interest.

I finally replaced the play dough and gave him some plastic tools. He had fun hammering and sawing the play dough. This kept him busy enough so I could work with J.

Kaleb worked on a cement mixer sewing card.

I made a simple game with some plastic containers. I labeled each container with the letters A, B, and C. He threw soft little baseballs into the containers and told me the letter of the container. It was good review. I also labeled them with lower case letters.

Corduroy is a cute story about a bear who finds a friend. But he loses a button on his overalls. I found these cheap button magnets at the Dollar Store and had Kaleb trace the lower case letter C with them.

Then, he traced the upper case C with a variety of buttons. He started with using just the blue ones. He also made the observation that the buttons were not "sticking" and not "magnetic."

I gave Kaleb a cement mixer filled with ABC beads. He dumped them and then began to separate the letters.

We played a color/shape bingo game.

I brought out the transportation magnets from Melissa and Doug. He went through them, naming each vehicle.

Lastly, I gave him the new sensory bin. He added the alphabet beads from his other cement truck and went to town. We are moving on down the alphabet. Hope you are having a great week.

Links

Living Worlds Apart - Cement Mixer Plans with free printable game

Mini-Vacation

Thanks to some friends of ours, we were able take a mini-vacation. We were given a couple of days/nights at a time share. It was great to get away. One place that I had wanted to share with the kids was the awesome Lego store. It was tough getting out of the store without a major purchase but we somehow managed it.

An awesome lego sea monster in the lake in front of the store.

The Hulk and family....

Kaleb's just realized that he can't have the Batman Legos that he had the death-grip on so he has a long face. He did good though, for the most part.

All throughout the store, they have lego tables so the kids can build. In the front of the store, they had a lego car building and racing event. That was fun.

All in all, it was a good day even with the fights over the Lego set. We had a great time as a family. It was definitely nice to get away from everyday life for awhile.

Sonlight B + C - Week 3

I had hoped that this week would be less hectic than last week but, sadly, it was not. We spent at least two days moving into a temporary house - temporary as it is being sold at the end of the month and we will have to move again. It is not all bad, though, because hopefully the other house we are waiting for will come open in time for the move. So, we are praying as such and that it all happens BEFORE baby.

Two days spent on moving, another two days working on finding a doctor and hospital in which to have the baby (not as easy as it sounds), a doctor visit for Kaleb....and through it all-homeschooling. We made it through it - I keep reminding myself that we can be flexible, that this is life right now for us. But, it doesn't always make me happy.

God has provided a temporary living arrangement with a more permanent one to follow. He has provided a good set of doctors, although they are making me take more tests than needed - they have taken me with only 8 more weeks to go. It may not be the way I wanted things to roll but He has provided for our needs more than once this week (furniture and housing goods, doctors and houses). I am thankful. And through it all, we worked on school.

In Math, not only did J work on her regular lessons, we reviewed different ways to solve word problems. She read a word problem and then used pictures, number line, and a ten frame to solve and check her answer.

J learned about numbers in the thousands. We worked with our base ten blocks so she could see a visual of thousand.

J is working through the first few lessons of All About Spelling pretty easily. I give her a spelling test and if she correctly spells them all, I move onto another list. Today, she took 2 spelling tests with different lists. The early lesson lists are easy so I see no need in practicing them all week.

In All About Reading, she is working on her word/phrase list before reading a story from the book. J read about a stray cat who became the mascot on a mail train. She also learned about onomatopoeia - sound words like knock and fizz.

In LLATL, J was working on learning about nouns. I found this free noun sort printable on Sarah Gardner's TPT store (link below). It is a cut-n-past fall noun sort activity. It was the perfect activity for review - person, place or thing.

She also researched the topic of Kangaroos for LLATL. We talked about fact and opinions and how to research a topic, how to find it in a book. She found some interesting facts about kangaroos.

My favorite picture of the week, though, is this letter J wrote to her sister Keke. Keke is a college student who is living with us at the moment. J wrote her a great note while I was at the doctor. It says,"Dere Keke, I love yuo and yuo are my favit sistr. Do yuo love me? Love Jadyn" Isn't that the sweetest letter? She drew a picture of her sis sleeping on the couch (which I choose to believe was before I left and not while I was at the doctor's office!).

We manage to finish another week, however it looked. We got most of our reading done and those we didn't, we will just carry to next week. Hope your week was somewhat less hectic. See you soon.

Links

Sarah Gardner TPT Store - Fall Noun Sort free printable

Letter C Interactive Notebook - free printable

Even with a mini vacation and internet problems, I was able to finish my Letter C Interactive Notebook. Yay! Here are some of the pages....

There is a letter C picture puzzle. I usually make this magnetic and use a cookie sheet to make the puzzle easier to use. But it can be adapted to the Interactive Notebook.

Kaleb started with the C flap books. He really likes cutting out the pictures and gluing them to his notebook. (Kaleb dressed himself today, hence the stripes and the plaid.)

I also added a capital and lower case letter match. Match the letters on the wheels of the car. You could add velcro to the wheels so they stick. The wheels will fit into the envelope.

He liked the look of this game - a race car. Since we just started the alphabet, I only added three letters in our book but you can add more by cutting out black circles for the tires.

Match the cupcakes - I made an alphabet picture match game. The cupcakes are to be glued to the page and the child matches the cupcake tops to the correct cupcake. There is more than one picture for each letter for added practice.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the week. We were working with the cupcake game, talking about the pictures and which letters they began with when he exclaimed that his shirt had a big A and a little a on it. He proceeded to point them out. This momma is proud - maybe he is actually learning something :)

Cookie number match game - we are still working on number recognition. The child will match the correct cookie (chocolate chips) to the correct number. You could also use with pom poms. Have the child place the pom poms on the number cookie while practicing counting.

Kaleb matched the cookies with the correct numbers. We counted cookies, "ate" the cookies, and talked about them beginning with the letter/sound of C.

I hope you enjoy the next installment of our Interactive Alphabet Book. If you have any questions or problems, please let me know.

Download Letter C Interactive Notebook HERE.

VWX Alphabet Review Pack - free printable

It is finally done - VWX Alphabet Review Pack. I have one more to go. Sorry it took so long. I was dragging my feet because I wanted to include sight word books and it took me some time to work through the pre-primer sight words to determine which ones to practice. But I finally finished and it is ready for download. Yay! Here are a few of the activities available....

I included play dough pages for each letter.

Several strip puzzles for alphabet review - I would print these, laminate, and add magnets to make them less stressful.

I also included mini sight word flip books. Cut the pages and staple together. Practice reading the sight words.

Several games are also in the pack.

Sight word puzzles - again, print, laminate, and add magnets.

Lots of alphabet and sight word review games.

Picture parking lots - label some cars with the letters of the alphabet and have child park the car in the correct spot. If you have any questions, please let me know. Enjoy the new printable pack.

Download VWX Alphabet Review Pack HERE.