Winter Promise - Week 23

We are back on track with our learning as we work through our desert unit study. We finished reading A Day in the Desert by Jean Craighead George. We started reading Coyote Autumn by Bill Wallace. J began measuring with centimeters in Math and continued practicing with Magic E in reading. We are working on a letter writing unit (more to come soon) and she is writing every day.

J also began working with 3 number double digit adding, no regrouping yet.

J practicing her addition flash cards. I try to do this daily to improve her memory and skills. She works on simple addition cards, doubles, and doubles plus one. Anytime I can, I offer her several ways to solve a problem in math. I like giving her options so she can choose what she is comfortable using.

Her reading story for the week was Flower Garden by Eve Bunting.  A cute story about a birthday surprise flower garden in the city.

J played a reading game while practicing her Magic E words. This reading game came from All About Reading Level 2.

One fun activity that J did this week was create silly sentences. Recently, I have decided she needs to do more writing so I make her write every day. I found these sentence cards at the $1 Store a while back. She put the cards together to make silly sentences and then copied them into her notebook. When she was finished, I asked her to illustrate one of her favorites.

Some left over craft plans from last week - J learned how to draw a chameleon. The chameleon was the focus animal last week.

Then we made chameleons from pipe cleaners. Not sure they turned out but J liked them.

J's final craft project was a paper chameleon which was so easy to do. She carried it around this week like it was her pet. Busy week, as always, but we are working through it. Sorry about the jacket - these pics were not taken all in one day as it looks. We are currently homeschooling in my parents' basement which we converted to a playroom. It is a great space but it doesn't have any heat so it is really cold. We school down there in the morning and then come up to thaw out for lunch. I like having Kaleb in the playroom while we are working on school because it keeps him busy (somewhat).

Tot Tuesday

I have been enjoying the many thrift stores that our country has to offer. I love being able to find bargains and I especially love finding bargains on learning toys. My recent find at a Goodwill was some lacing beads in a plastic container. I think I paid 4 bucks for them but it came with the lacing strings, different shapes of beads, and a container to store them in. I like these beads, I only wish they were wood instead of plastic. (I love wooden toys) Today, I pulled out the beads for Kaleb to explore.

I offered Kaleb some pipe cleaners but at first, all he wanted to do was make a necklace. He threaded blue and purple beads onto a shoelace. Somewhat frustrating at first, but he eventually got the hang of it. I thought the pipe cleaners would have been easier.

Then the fun came - he began stacking the beads into towers, square beads with square beads, oval with oval. Slowly he was making towers with the beads like they were blocks.

He made several towers with the same type of beads. I waited for him to branch out...

Then he began to mix the types of beads he was using for the towers. He discovered that the round ball-type beads weren't good for stacking but they were good for rolling.

This was the best, though, I love his expression when the towers fell. He would say, "Oh, No!" and laugh. A simple learning toy that is perfect for free play. Sometimes it is better when it isn't planned. These are a keeper.

Wheel School - R is for Rocket

My next installment of Wheel School is now available for download - R is for Rocket.

For R is for Rocket, I chose a space theme and with using a space theme, there were plenty of activities to choose from.  I personally love making a rocket from a water bottle.

The free printable game is a Rocket Number Ten Frame Match. Match the correct number on the ten frame with the flame.

I would suggest that you print the pieces and add magnets to make the matching game easier to manipulate.

Download R is for Rocket HERE.

If you have any questions or problems, let me know. Also, I would love to hear if you are finding my printables and schedules helpful and in what ways you use them. Thanks.

Winter Promise Week 22

This week brought us to the beginning of our Desert unit, started a new chapter book, worked on money and bar graphs in math, worked on our writing....worked on our writing.....and worked on our writing (more to come about that). Here are a few things we accomplished...

Our story for the week was The Little Red Hen by Byron Barton. This was a different version than we read before so we compared the stories.

Just for fun, J made a red hen from construction paper. She then made some eggs and a cute little nest for the red hen.

I love her smile - her finished product.

We then read another red hen story called The Little Red Hen Makes a Pizza by Philomen Sturges and Amy Walrod.  After reading both stories, we compared/contrasted them. She wrote a couple of sentences about which story she like better and why. 

 

J started working on magic "e" in her reading lessons. Lots and lots of practice working on magic "e."

And then here is my little one, not to be unnoticed. Hope your week went well....see you soon.

Wheel School - Q is for Quad

The next visual lesson plan for Wheel School - Q is for Quad - is now available for download. Only nine more letters to complete - yay! I chose the theme of forest/bugs for my Quad week (it was way hard to find activities for quads/atv's).

Alphabet and Counting Poke Cards are the free printable for the Quad week. I included a link for visual directions for poke cards. 

Download Q is for Quad HERE.

I hope you are encouraged with these plans and printables for the letter Q. If you download, it would be nice to hear from you. Thanks.

Heart Day

I know that Valentine's Day is over and I had planned to post this earlier. But life got in the way and I just had to wait. I still would like to share some of the activities that we did accomplish on Heart Day - just for fun.

J worked on estimating the amount of candies that could fit inside the heart shape. She estimated about 20 candy hearts. Using the candy she received for Heart Day, she filled the entire image of the heart.

She then separated the candies into piles of ten and discovered that it was 86 candies that fit into the heart.

She worked on a super cute cupcake mini book about some of her "loves."

Lastly, J worked really hard on creating Valentine cards for her family. She spent the rest of the day, cutting, gluing, and writing. I was impressed. Not a ton of Heart Day activities but fun none-the-less. Hope you had an awesome day.

Tot Tuesday

Ever since my son picked up his lovey (about two years ago) - Mousey from If You Give a Mouse a Cookie..., I have been in search of an extra mouse. Every thrift store, every Goodwill, I have searched for another mouse to take place in case of (gasp) Mousey getting lost or damaged beyond repair. It has taken me two years to finally find one. I had plans of keeping the new mouse until I needed him but it didn't end up that way.

My family didn't think that Kaleb could be fooled by the new mouse. So I hid the old mouse and brought out the new one. I explained to him that I fixed Mousey and he was all better.

Kaleb shook his head - that wasn't his Mousey. I assured him it was and then he took it from me. He sniffed it, rubbed his tail, and promptly handed him back saying it wasn't Mousey. Gee, how could he tell?

Kaleb was so serious that his Mousey was gone, I had to return his original Mousey. I then proceeded to put away the new Mousey for a rainy day but he had other plans. He wanted both of them - old Mousey and new Mousey. The last thing I wanted was another addition to his sleeping animals (currently, he sleeps with old Mousey, new Mousey, Dog Go Go, and Lightning McQueen pillow). But I couldn't take him back - new Mousey was Kaleb's now.

I thought for sure that Kaleb would soon tire of new Mousey but that hasn't been the case. He loves them both and carries them every where he goes. He treats new Mousey with the same brutal love as he does old Mousey (throwing him, squeezing him, dropping him to the floor etc...). The other day I found this - Kaleb had taken my scarf and bundled up his Mouseys. I believe he loves them both....and maybe, just maybe, both Mouseys can be friends.

Sorry...

It has been a hectic few weeks here. We have had a ton of snow, sickness, as well as a hospital stay of my father. Our travel plans were postponed and I am just thankful that we were here to help my family through the caregiving. My father is doing better and I am finally ready to take up the blog once more. In my absence, I have been working on some printables and hope to post soon. It is good to be back. Thanks for hanging in there.

Tot Tuesday

While we were learning about penguins and polar lands, I invested some money into a penguin animal toob as well as the polar land figure toob. J loves these little animals and I have found that Kaleb does too. With a little snow play dough, Kaleb was set to play and play he did. This little polar land bin kept him busy for some time. No tech toys here - just animal figures and play dough.

Endless open play, this is what they need. No fighting - they each had their own bin with the same amount of play dough. I love times like this :)