Letter G Interactive Notebook Pages - free printable

The next installment of our interactive alphabet notebook is ready for download. I am trying my best to move ahead in the alphabet series so I can have the pages done before I have the baby but not sure that is going to happen - so please bear with me. Here are a few of the pages ....

We always start our new letter pages with some flip books. They include pictures of items that begin with the letter G. Kaleb will cut them out and glue them under the flaps.

A letter G puzzle is also included - I usually make this magnetic for easier use. I included a blank letter G to make it easier to put together.

G is for Gum Ball Machine - have the child choose a number and add pom poms to the gum ball machine for one to one correspondence practice.

Upper and lower case G sort - add envelopes to the back of the gates and place the goats in the correct gate.

Glove alphabet matching game - this would be fun along with clothespins and a clothesline. Have child match the gloves and "hang" them up.

Grape Alphabet Review game - using colored pom poms have child cover the letters that you call out. I hope you will enjoy these interactive pages for the letter G.

Download Letter G Interactive Notebook Pages HERE.

Our New Move

Last week, we had to put down the school books and moved to a new house. My intention was not to take the whole week to unpack and settle. But, it didn't work out that way - moving tends to take complete control, doesn't it? So, after week, we are ready to move on and begin our school schedule again. But I thought I would share some of the "learning" we did this week....

Our new house has a wonderful old tree in the yard. J has been chomping at the bit to climb it - it is her officially her tree.

It also has a wooden porch. I don't have any outdoor furniture yet but we did add our sandbox to it. We moved to a wonderful historical house in a great neighborhood. We are glad to have finally settled down and we are ready (all most ready) to add baby Riley into our house - 4 weeks and counting...

During our move, I found this sweet drawing on my older daughter's dry erase calendar. J drew a great picture of her family, including baby Riley! Isn't that sweet?

Cute smiles on moving day....at least someone was smiling :)

Parable of the Lost Sheep

Bible this week brought us the parable of the Lost Sheep. It is a heartwarming story about a shepherd who leaves his entire flock to find one missing sheep.

The kids really like the color sheets. It gives them something quiet to do while I read the bible story and discuss it.

We played the missing sheep game - using a marshmallow that I drew a silly face on, I placed it under a cup and the kids had to track the sheep cup to find the marshmallow. The kids were better at this than I expected.

Using the templates from Catholic Icing (link below), the kids made their own shepherd and sheep to play with.

We would have made shepherd staffs but I didn't have the necessary items on hand. So, we used the next best thing - wooden spoons. I gave the kids 2 balloon sheep apiece, denoted by color, and they had to usher them into the stall. They couldn't beat the sheep but had to move them nicely across the floor. It was a rainy day so they played this quite a while. J drew cute sheep faces on them and named them.

For breakfast one morning, they made cinnamon roll sheep (sort of). I gave them a roll, some chocolate chips, and pretzel sticks for legs. Kaleb ate the chocolate chips and licked the icing off the top. J made a sheep though and ate the roll.

Lastly, they made some cotton ball sheep using the templates ground from Calvary Chapel  Kids (link below). I printed them onto card stock to make the project stronger with all that gluing. These turned out cute - they won't fit in their bible notebooks but they are still cute to hang up. We have finished the first unit on Jesus' Parables and are moving onto Jesus' miracles. This should be fun :)

Links

Calvary Chapel Kids - cute Lord is my Shepherd craft with free template.

Free Kids Crafts - super cute q-tip sheep craft for older kids.

Catholic Icing - TP shepherd and sheep craft with free templates.

Faith Filled Freebies - good shepherd balloon game.

Apples and ABCs - cute sheep art project, no template but looks easy enough to do.

Letter F Interactive Notebook Pages - free printable

The next installment of my interactive notebook is available - the Letter F. Due to our move, we will be working on F in a week or two. So, stay tuned. Here are a few items in my interactive notebook...

I included the letter F puzzle. For Kaleb, I always make the puzzles magnetic to make it easier to put together.

Add the laces to the football - using pipe cleaners - I would have Kaleb choose a numbered helmet and add the correct number of laces to the football. This could be made into a fine motor activity by adding tweezers or chopsticks.

Swat the alphabet fly game - using the available fly swatter to make one of your own, have your child swat the correct fly when you call the letter.

Upper and lowercase F review game - have your child use brown and white pom poms to mark the letters. You could also use paint or stickers to review the letters. Enjoy the new notebook pages.

Download Letter F Interactive Notebook Pages HERE.

D is for Dump Trucks, Diggers, and Dinosaurs

This week brought us the letter D. D for dump trucks, diggers, and dinosaurs. What did we do?...

The dump truck brought us a delivery of blocks to cover the D.

Then we used the blocks to practice our counting. I pulled a number card and Kaleb added the blocks to the dump truck. This cute printable came from The Measured Mom (link below).

We used some of the printable pages from Royal Baloo's printable pack - D is for Dump Truck. Kaleb cut out the dump trucks and glued them to the letter D.

The new sensory bin for the week were rocks that I collected from the Dollar Store (big and little) as well as some letter D's.

Kaleb then used the rocks to trace the letter D. I had the dump truck deliver the rocks back to the bin.

I used some of our play dough tools and made a simple outline puzzle. I traced the items onto card stock and had him put the tools in the correct spot. This is great for visual discrimination.

I had a dinosaur puzzle that I added to our school bin. We put the whole puzzle together, talking about the dinosaurs.

He painted a dump truck. This free printable came from Learn Create Love (link below).

He painted dinosaur paper plates. These are super cute and come with a free template from Learn With Play At Home (link below).

J joined in the painting fun.

The dinosaurs turned out pretty cute.

We made alphabet soup with the magnetic letters and letter beads. I had Kaleb scoop them out using a spoon and sort them into the correct bins. He did really well with this sorting activity. I made sure to talk about each letter while he was sorting.

He completed the letter D dog craft from my interactive notebook printables. I apparently forgot to add a mouth so he is drawing one for me.

This was a favorite activity this week - when I was at Wal-Mart, I found some large bolts with nuts. I was looking for a larger bolt but Wal-Mart is limited in what it offers. So I found a package of two. I gave him the nuts and bolts and had him thread the nut onto the bolt and twist it to the end. He then twisted it off as well. This was great fine motor practice.

I saw this cute way to practice letters of names on Boy Mama Teacher Mama. I made this simple name puzzle using milk jug lids and water bottle lids. Then I had one of the dump trucks "deliver" the rocks to Kaleb to match his name. He loved the silly sounds the truck made and after he was done, had the dump truck pick up the load to clean it up. I try to practice Kaleb's name at least once every day.

This last activity was some-what of a fail. I found a recipe for fossil dough online and thought it would be great for dinosaurs. It took a cup of used coffee grounds (which I saved for a week) and one cup of cold coffee. I followed the recipe exactly and it did not come out like it was supposed to. No matter how much flour I added, it was still sticky. I wonder if it was because I was using expresso coffee instead of coffee maker coffee - not sure. So, I gave it to the kids anyway with some dinosaur cookie cutters and spaghetti noodles.

They made dinosaur fossils in the mud by breaking the noodles and adding it to the play dough. Kaleb thought the play dough - he put it right out there, that it looked like poop. I reminded him it wasn't and that he wasn't allowed to ever play with poop, in case he ever had the idea!

So, D week was action packed with a few fails in there but fun. We are onto a week with E. Hope to see you soon!

Links

The Measured Mom - Printable Counting Dump Truck Mat.

Royal Baloo - Zoomin Movin Alphabet printable packs, D is for dump truck and Construction Movement Cards printable.

Learn With Play At Home - Dinosaur paper plate art projects with free templates.

Boy Mama Teacher Mama - dump truck name activity.

Learn Create Love - dump truck craft page.

Living Worldsapart - free printable D is for Dump Truck preschool plans plus a free printable alphabet game.

God Loves A Humble Heart

The next lesson in our bible curriculum was about the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisee's prayer was all "puffed up" but the Tax Collector's prayer was humble. Jesus said we should pray like the Tax Collector - humble prayers to our Father.

I always start the lesson by reading the story from the bible and having the kids color the sheet that came with the lesson. We talked about which person on the coloring sheet was the Pharisee (and what a Pharisee was) and the Tax Collector.

We talked about "puffed up" prayers and I gave them a balloon. They were to puff up their prayers and for each prayer, they added a puff of air to the balloon. When they said a prayer that was humble, they could let some of the air out of the balloon.

Kaleb had a hard time blowing up the balloon but he at least tried.

Then we talked about a simple way to pray - the JOY method. J - thank Jesus, O - pray for others, and Y - then pray for yourself.

Kaleb is thanking Jesus for his Mousey. Gotta love this :) I love the way he closes his eyes to pray.

One of the activities required plastic eggs which I was sure that I packed when we moved here but, after several days, I could not find them. So, I had to adjust the activity. I had them wait in their room while I hid milk jug lids (4 of each color - blue and red) around the house. Their "job" was to find the four lids and meet me at the table for their weekly pay.

I then payed them one candy for each milk jug lid they found. Kaleb was reluctant to give up his lids but then, when he saw the "payment" he relented. After they were paid, I told them they had to pay their taxes. I proceeded to keep asking for "money" until they had nothing left and I asked how they felt about me-the tax collector. Was it fair? Did they like it?

We made Pharisee and Tax Collector puppets.

Lastly, we discussed what God does for us. We wrote everything said onto papers to add to their notebooks and I had them draw pictures.

My favorite picture from this lesson - Kaleb was thankful that God gave him Mousey but he was frustrated that he couldn't draw Mousey. J offered to draw him. What a sweet thing to do! See, they sometimes do nice things for each other! I have proof.

Links

Mission Bible Class - has some addition ideas for teaching the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Homeschooling Hearts and Minds - has a cute craft idea of making an abacus from beads and popsicle sticks.

Luke the Book - has a video on youtube about the parable, haven't checked it out completely so please review before watching with your kids.