Space Unit - Moon

We continued our Space Unit by studying the moon. J read to us  from several library books. I love finding books on topic that she can read on her own!

Kaleb actually joined in on some of the activities. Lately, he has been too busy with his cars to join us (in his jammies).

She read about the phases of the moon and even began a moon phase journal. For 2 weeks, she charted the moon to discover the phases for herself.

She wrote about what she would do if she traveled to the moon.

We found these great books on Space/Moon. Each book has a code for some online content to enforce what we learned from reading the book. So we spent some time on the computer for our learning. We got to see some videos about the moon.

The experiment for the week was making craters like those on the moon. This was a little messy but not too bad. I placed a small layer of rice in the bottom of a pan and then added flour. She chose four different objects to drop into the flour and then she measured the size of the craters.

I took pictures of each item next to the crater it formed. We will print these out and place on our experiment sheet.

I found a small toob of planets which I used for the sensory bin of the week. I added black beans, glow-in-the-dark planets and stars, and some pom poms for moons. This tied in nicely for Kaleb since we were rowing Goodnight Moon. I love when this happens! Next week, we are learning about Mercury and Venus. J has learned so much, she has truly enjoyed this unit study. I am pleased that we veered away from the curriculum and went on our "rabbit trail."

Links

Amy Darley - her TPT store has a free printable science experiment packet on  making moon craters.

A Day in First Grade - has a free printable book about the moon as well as links to some cute videos about the moon phases and the planet song.

E is for Explore - has some recipes for moon sand and space putty.

Learn Play Imagine - has a recipe for erupting moon rocks and moon dough.

Fairy Dust Teaching - has great recipe for Galaxy Dough.

Sun Hats and Wellie Boots - has super cute craft idea for I love You to the Moon and Back. This is a saying that my mom and J use. This would be a cute card for Valentine's Day.

Science @ Home - has a moon crater experiment.

Tot Tuesday

With baby Riley in the house, it is difficult to get our work done...."cause he is so stinking cute!" as my J says. I am glad that they love him so much. They constantly want to hold him and are always talking to him. Today, Kaleb asked to hold him and then J wanted some love as well. It just turned out so cute:)

Even Mickey got into the picture - what a sweet family!

Lots of love here...  :) I think I will keep them!

Water into Wine

We have finally resumed our bible lessons after the baby hiatus. Before the new baby, we were working Bible and Science in the afternoon - after tot school and J's schooling. After Riley, it seemed like all subjects in the afternoon got postponed because of one reason or another. So, now we have Bible and Science in the morning. Then I work with J and J can finish her work while I teach Kaleb. If she doesn't finish before lunch, she can continue because it is all independent work. This seems to work better than before.

Our week was learning about Jesus' first miracle - turning water into wine. I found some additions to the lesson with links below.

Day 1:

While I read the story, Kaleb and J colored the page included in the lesson. These pages are added to their school notebook.

We worked a color mixing experiment with milk, food coloring, and dish soap. The colors mixed but I had better results when using a better dish soap (than the cheap kind the we use at the moment). This experiment came from Flutter Flutter - link below.

Day 2:

Again, while reading the lesson from the bible, I try to have some simple craft they can do while they listen. Today, they colored a jar where you could pull the strip and change the water into wine.

Then, I placed some jars in cornmeal for the kids to "excavate" from the "sand."  J's were programmed with answers to review questions about the lesson.

Kaleb's were programmed with the letters from the word "MIRACLE" along with numbers one thru seven on the back so he could put them in number order.

We played a review game that I printed from The Catholic Toolbox (link below). They used some figures as game pawns and a number die that I bought from the dollar store. They enjoyed this game and we played it daily during Bible time for review.

Day 3:

We started day 3 with a mini jar shape book for their notebook.

For fun, I hid several jars labeled with the memory verse around the house. I hid 2 sets - green for Kaleb and purple for J.

J put them in correct order. We also played a hot potato game to review the story. When they answered the questions, they did some silly moves like jumping on one foot and dancing around.

Day 4:

I wrote the letters "MIRACLE"on some paper and placed it into a ziplock bag. I added some of the dyed rice that I made. J had to search through the rice and find the letters to the word "MIRACLE." For J, I wrote the letters small and for Kaleb, I wrote them larger (to make it easier for him). I also gave them a sheet to mark off the letters as they found them.

I made some printable for the lesson including the jar bible verse set that we used. If you would like to download them and use the feel free. I can't say this will happen with all the lessons, I just had a few extra minutes and thought they might help.

I added a bible verse tracing page...

as well as the verse on jars for the hide-n-seek game. There are also other pages in the mini pack that you might find useful. Enjoy.

Download Water into Wine Extras HERE.

Links 
Ministry to Children - has some ideas on how to teach this lesson, complete with a story sequencing page.

Sundays Childrens Focus - has a great idea using food coloring and water.

The Catholic Toolbox - has a long list of activities and coloring sheets for this story as well as The Wedding at Cana printable board game.

Highlights for Kids - an idea for a bottle cap memory game.

Msss Crafts - has jpegs of wine jars.

First School - has numbers in a jar worksheets for the younger set.

Children's Church - has more ideas and links for teaching the story including some youtube videos.

Mission Bible Class - has some more ideas plus cute idea for making puppets from wooden spoons.

Calvary Kids Pages - more links for printables.

Sing 365 - has a cute song He Turned the Water in Wine.

Learn Play Imagine - has a neat color mixing experiment using baking soda and vinegar.

Flutter Flutter - has a milk coloring experiment, this is fun to do.

Hands on Bible Teacher - has a milk jug game for review of the books of the bible, use this for the New Testament books that the kids will be learning.

Space Unit - Week of the Sun

Because I am so behind in our Sunlight Curriculum, I decided to pull back from the Science readings and give J a choice of what she would like to learn. I showed her the books that we haven't read from the Sonlight Curriculum and asked her what interested her. She choose Space. We will be taking the next nine/ten weeks working on a unit about Space - each week learning about a new topic.

Our first week in our Space Unit was to learn about the Sun. Here are a few activities that we worked on.

We checked out several books from the library about the Sun and read them all week.

After we read about the Sun, J wrote some facts onto strips of yellow and orange paper to add to our soon-to-be Space Mural.

She created a model of how Earth revolves around the Sun and the Moon revolves around the Earth. This was a free printable that I found from More Time To Teach TPT shop, link below.

The model she made will be added to a Space Notebook that she will be working on through the unit.

The printable from More Time To Teach also included a read/answer sheet about the sun. This was good practice for finding the answers to questions in the text.

She also used the internet to answer some of the Sun related research questions.

And finally, we were able to complete the experiment for our week of the Sun. It seemed like every time we had the time to do the experiment, it was over cast and rainy. We finally had a sunny day to complete it. The printable came from An Adventure in Literacy TPT store (link below).

This is a semi picture of our Sun Facts. (Sorry about the jar - that was from our bible lesson). As we read this week, J wrote some of the facts about the Sun that interested her. This Sun will be part of a Solar System mural that we are creating. Next week, we are off to the Moon!

Links

More Time To Teach TPT - model of Earth and Moon's Orbit, super easy to create using brads.

An Adventure In Literacy - ice melting experiment with free printable sheets.

Letter I Interactive Notebook Pages - Revisited

We are onto the letter I and I finally was able to create letter I interactive notebook pages. I tried so hard to have these done before the baby but I just couldn't swing it - with the move, the doctor's appointments, and just plain life. So, we are back on track and here, Kaleb is working through my letter I pages.

We always start with the flip book pages. This helps us to see what words begin with the letter I. Also, we had a guest at school today - his Mickey. HE is now the favorite of all the lovies - sorry Mousey. But he still sleeps with ALL of them!

Kaleb is gluing the pictures he cut out for the letter I.

He is working through the upper and lower case Letter I Ice Cream sort page. I glued the ice cream dishes to little pockets so the pieces can be slipped into the dish. Mickey is playing with our ice cream sensory bin.

I left the Feed the Iguana game that I created off the notebook page in order to make it easier to play. We played together - each picking numbers from the piles and "feeding" our iguanas pom poms. Then, I asked him which iguana ate more food. He was able to answer it every time!

Lastly, he created an ice cream I for his notebook. He likes doing these. He cuts the pieces himself and then glues them where he wants them. Kaleb has been enjoying his alphabet notebook pages which is why I persevere in completing these. We are on to the letter J. See you soon.

Letter I Interactive Notebook Pages

We are on the letter I as we travel through the alphabet. I created (finally) the Interactive Notebook Pages for the letter I.

First two pages are the I flap books and the upper/lower case ice cream sort. The ice cream dishes are glued to envelopes so the pieces can fit behind when not reviewing.

I always like to include some type of math/counting activity since I am teaching Kaleb his numbers and counting. This activity requires some pom poms or rocks to use as "food" for the iguanas. We played it as a game - Kaleb and I would choose numbers and feed the iguanas the correct amount of pom poms. Then we decide who won based on which one ate more. 

The igloo page is an alphabet review page and then, I included a pocket and two handwriting strips.

Also, included in the pack is a simple letter puzzle as well as a cut and paste activity of making the letter I into an ice cream cone. If you would like to use my Interactive Alphabet pages, feel free. Enjoy.

Download Letter I Interactive Notebook Pages HERE.

Tot Tuesday

Riley, Kaleb, and Mickey had a treat the other day. J decided to read to them from her bible story book.

What a great way to get some reading in while entertaining the tots. Love this.

Letter H Interactive Notebook - Revisited

Learning the letter H, Kaleb worked through the Interactive Notebook Pages that I created. If you would like to download them, you can find them HERE.

We talked about the pictures which started with the letter H. He cut them out and glued them under the flip book pages.

He reviewed his letters by matching the upper case and lower case hearts.

He fed the hippos the correct leaves. I glued the hippos to envelopes so the leaves can rest inside.

He matched the horses by counting the dots and matching the numbers. All these pages were added to his alphabet notebook which he loves. Letter I pages coming soon.

H is for Helicopters, Horses

Moving on to the letter H....

We started our week with a book about all the words that begin with the letter H....horses, hands, etc...

Kaleb used his Duplos to trace the upper and lowercase letters. We use the print out for the letter throughout the week and then add them to our notebook.

He stamped all the H's with his bingo painter.

I programmed two containers with upper and lower case H's. I gave Kaleb some soft balls and he threw them into the containers. Then, he would tell me if the letter was capital H or  little h.

In the sensory bin for the week, I added some helicopters and letter H's. We are still using the popcorn, it is a favorite right now.

Kaleb stamped H's onto the helicopter.

He colored a model of a helicopter, cut it out, and glued it together.

Kaleb played with play dough and his tools.

He made a huge tower with his Mega Blocks. Then we measured items around the house to see if his tower was bigger or smaller.

This little boy loves his school, what a ham! Moving slowly through the alphabet....