Preschool - Week 8 - Letter G

This week was brought to you by the Letter G and the Number 7. :-)



Here's what we covered:

Language Arts:
- Letter of the week craft:


- Handwriting worksheets (goose, gorilla)
- G Sound worksheet
- Initial Sounds: Gg worksheet

Math:
- Number 7 worksheet (jar and apples)
- Insect pattern worksheet (I made 2 copies and cut out the bugs from one, then let C glue the correct bug to complete the pattern)
- Number Line (I made this chart from 1 to 7 in Word, then asked C to add the correct number of nuts under each number. This was really too easy for her UNTIL she bumped the paper and all the nuts shifted a little. Then it was a good exercise for her to go back, count each row, figure out which ones were wrong and whether she needed to add or subtract nuts to make the whole chart right.)


- Greater Than concept:
   * Used the alligator analogy to help explain the greater than sign.
   * Used buttons and flashcard with ">" for C to place and indicate which pile was "greater than" the other.
   * Greater Than worksheet

Science:
- Gorillas (read books and pretended to be gorillas)
- Gorilla Craft
- Watched a cute Gorilla story online
- Coloring page
- Science Journal page:


Social Studies:
- George Washington (read books and talked about George Washington. Some of the books I read were too much for her, so I used the pictures and paraphrased the story. The one about George Washington's teeth looked so fun - poor George loses a tooth during each major event in the story and at the end he has none left and gets some false ones. However, I forgot about how much C LOATHES the dentist and this book had too much teeth/dentist stuff in it for her to stomach. Oh well!)

Sight Words:
* Get, Girl, Green, Gorilla
* (I had decided to cut back to three sight words a week, but she really wanted to include Gorilla, so I added that in. She's doing great with them, but it's like pulling teeth to go through them all and at five a week, it takes a while to get through them!)

Snack:
* Grape Juice

Music:
* Edward Grieg

Bible Stories:
* Daniel in the Lion's Den
* Jesus Calms the Storm

Preschool Links

I decided to list some links that I've been using for my homeschool endevors:

Tracer Sheet Generator: DLTK Custom Tracer Pages

Alphabet, Numbers, Shapes, Themes: First-School

Free Reading Worksheets: BeginningReading.com

Language Worksheets and Activities: ESL Teacher Resources

Free Worksheets (Math, LA, Science, etc.): TLS Books

Dropdowns of free handwriting worksheets: HandwritingForKids.com

Letter of the week craft ideas: No Time For Flashcards

Many Free Worksheets: Kids Learning Station

Online Educational Games, Activity Ideas, Worksheets: A Kid's Heart

PreK - 5th Grade (All Subjects): Kidzone

Funny Faces Game

I was inspired by this game on Chasing Cheerios (and a Silly Faces Stick-Ons Game my mom has) and had the girls help me make our own version.

C and I cut out face parts (and necklaces) from old magazines and I printed out some flesh colored ovals from Word for the blank faces. Then I made a spinner (can't remember where I saw the idea blogged) and a box to sort it all away.



You take turns spinning the spinner and picking about the corresponding face part. If you already have it, then you lose your turn. (Kinda like Cooties - remember that one???) The girls REALLY like playing it. The faces actually do turn out pretty funny!

Preschool - Week 7 - Letter F

This week was brought to you by the Letter F and the Number 6. :-)



Here's what we covered:

Language Arts:
- Letter of the week craft:


* As a side note, I made the fish stamp myself! Will definitely save my jar lids in the future to make some more:


- Handwriting worksheets (Firefighter, frog)
- F color-by-letter page (was not a hit - won't do again)
- F sound worksheet

Math:
- Number 6 worksheet
- 1-5 handwriting review worksheet
- Fractions (worksheet and fractions with food)

Science:
- Frogs (read books & went to look for frogs at the creek)
- Frog Life Cycle Craft



- Science Journal page:


Social Studies:
- Firefighters
* Read books about firefighters and fire safety
* Made pictures and cookies to take to the fire station. The fire fighters were SO nice and gave us a little mini tour and some fun trinkets to take home. E got to sit in a fire truck and try on some boots (C was too shy). A funny moment is when E told firefighter Mark: "my daddy is faster than you." It was such a good experience and chance for the girls to say thank you to these brave heroes.



Sight Words:
Fire, Fish, For, Farm, Fun

Music:
Fryderyk Chopin

Bible Stories:
* Joshua and Jericho
* Daniel and Lion's Den

Loving this weather

Yesterday was THE most perfect fall day! Sunny and upper 60's, dry and gorgeous. I decided to take the girls on a nature hike and do some of our homeschooling outdoors. We sat on a bench, read about frogs and then went looking for some in the creek.


After reading, we learned that frogs like to come out at night, and they do hibernate during the winter, so we didn't see any. But that didn't stop the girls from enjoying the walk and looking for holes that frogs might be sleeping in.


We had a picnic lunch with our friends Julie, Ethan and Ryan. After lots of running around, the kids got to make a pumpkin mask craft at the Nature Center.


It was one of those fun days that makes me glad to be a stay-at-home mom. :-)

Yo No Go

Well, the mix-in yogurt thing was short lived. After a few days, the novelty wore off, and the girls didn't like it anymore. :-( I tried!

Something that has been working better, however, is a recipe from Alton Brown for what he calls "Pearsnip Sauce." It looks just like applesauce, but is made from pears and parsnips. I've never cooked a parsnip in my life, but thought this might be a good way to trick the girls into eatting some vegetables. It worked! C loves pears, so I just told her it was "Pear Sauce." (She's too smart for her own good, if I said "Pearsnip" I KNOW she would say, "I don't LIKE Pearsnips.")

E and C have asked for seconds and thirds and fourths of it! I modified the recipe slighty, so here it is:

Pearsnip Sauce

Ingredients:
1 pound parsnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces (2 parsnips)
1 pound pears, peeled, cored, and cut into 1-inch pieces (4 pears)
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 cups orange juice
Pinch kosher salt
1/2 pinch ground clove
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions:
Place the parsnips, pears, maple syrup, orange juice, salt, and cloves into a microwave safe, sealable 3 to 4 quart container. Cover with a lid, leaving one corner open to allow steam to escape. Microwave on high for 10 to 15 minutes or until the parsnips and pears are fork tender. (*** NOTE: I used my Pampered Chef Microcooker and this spilled out everywhere making a HUGE mess.***)

Add the lemon juice and puree to your desired consistency using a blender. Serve warm or chilled. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days, refrigerated.

Good luck!

Preschool - Week 6 - Letter E

This week was brought to you by the Letter E and the Number 5. :-)


Here's what we covered:

Language Arts:
- Letter of the week craft:


- Handwriting worksheets (elephant, egg)

Math:
- Number 5 worksheets
- Pattern worksheet
- Estimating (introduced C to the concept of estimating. Anyone care to estimate how many buckeyes or macaronis?)


Science:
- Elephants (read books, made an elephant craft, found Africa and Asia on our globe)


- Science Journal page:


Social Studies:
- Egypt
- Read books about modern and ancient Egypt, made a cartouche for C's name online, found Egypt on the globe
- This coincided so well with our Bible Stories about Moses

Sight Words:
- Egg, End, Eat, Elephant, Empty

Music:
- Edward Elgar (couldn't find this at the library, but discovered Amazon has some very cheap MP3 album downloads which can be burned onto a CD. How sweet!)




Bible Stories:
- Moses Crosses the Red Sea (made this cute craft. Lots of cutting prep-work. I did this in the car on our road trip)




- Manna from Heaven
- I had C pretend to sleep in the tent while I turned off the lights, spread the "manna" (aka Cornflakes) for her to find in the morning:

Mt. Monadnock

Mount Monadnock is visible from Keene, NH and is one of the great local landmarks. We didn't see much of it during my July visit, but it was very visible last week. On Sunday, I persuaded Doug to come climb it with me. (And you know that he must REALLY love me to give up football watching to climb a mountain.)



It was the perfect day to make the climb. A brisk air, but very clear and dry. Unfortunately, about 500 other people must have thought the same thing because the place was a madhouse!


We didn't really know what to expect, and the ascent was a bit longer than we thought. Our goal was to make it home by supper (and the Colts game, of course) but it took about 2 hours to reach the top. There were loads of people in front and behind us the whole time. The second half of the trek was very rocky and required climbing up and over boulder fields and very steep rocky areas. People were backed up trying to get up and down the same narrow area. Ug.


But the scenery was fantastic. I'm glad we did it. Although the next day I could barely walk... Good thing I had nothing better to do than sit in a car for 15 hours!

Boston in the Fall

Now I can say that I have been to Boston in the fall. :-) Or close to it, anyway. It was such a wonderful coincidence that our visit fell on the weekend of Michelle's baby shower. Greg's family graciously offered to throw her a shower along with Kate, Greg's sister-in-law, who is also expecting.


Greg's family is great and they all made me feel so welcome and at home with them. Michelle was blessed with lots of gifts and well-wishes. You can read more at her blog if you'd like.


(everyone said that we look like sisters due to our both wearing a lot of jewelery...)

I Heart Vermont

Greg played hookey took the day off work on Thursday so we could all travel up to Vermont. Greg and Meesh were excellent tour guides, taking us to a Cider Mill,

Ben & Jerry's Factory,


a brief but pretty hike,


the von Trapp Lodge (with drop-dead gorgeous views),





and even humored me with a visit to the King Arthur Flour store! (my favorite flour and great baking catalog):