Preschool With Josiah–The Snowy Day (BFIAR)

Josiah and I spent the last two weeks “rowing” his next book – The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. I was really hoping for some real snow to go along with “The Snowy Day.” However, all we got were a few flurries. Unfortunately, we’ve had an unseasonably warm January and not enough snow to play in. So…we made our own snow, and had an indoor snowball fight.

Mommy won!

Josiah has enjoyed having his own real schoolwork to do while Alexis does her work boxes. I’ve set up three workboxes for him that he does with me about 3-4 times a week. I also try to plan some extra activities along with the workboxes (a cooking project, a craft…).

Snow Paint

I saw this idea on another blog. I wish that I could remember which one. Josiah helped me mix up some salt paint to paint snowmen and snowflakes.

1/4c Liquid Laundry Soap

1/4 c Water

2 Tbs blue paint

1 c salt

We cut these out to hang up and decorate our school room before adding them to his Lap Journal.

Snowball Cookies

Some of them may not have been quite “ball-like.”

He decided that he just wanted to lick the powdered sugar off of them!

Recipe:

1 C butter

1 tsp vanilla

6 tbsp powdered sugar

2 c flour

1 c walnuts (we left out because I didn’t have any)

1/3 c powdered sugar

cream butter and vanilla. combine 6 tbsp sugar and flour. Stir into mixture until just blended. Mix in Walnuts. Roll into 1 inch balls (or sausage looking things). Bake 12 minutes at 350 degrees. After cool, roll in the remaining powdered sugar.

Workboxes – For direct links to the resources I used, see the end of this post.

Some of his workbox activities included:

Making the Letter S with his Handwriting Without Tears Pieces

Counting the Snowflakes and clipping the clothespin onto the correct number (From The Snowy Day Printables at Homeschool Creations)

Finding the Letter S with his Do-A-Dot markers (Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Pre-Writing Practice (From The Snowy Day Printables at Homeschool Creations)

Color By Number (2 Teaching Mommies) – This was my favorite! He has NEVER shown a bit of interest in coloring or anything fine motor skill related. But, he picked this up and worked so hard on it!

Winter Playdough Mats (PreKinders) – Each one had a different number listed of things to make (5 snowballs, 4 icicles…)

Snowman Grid Game (PreKinders)- We took turns rolling the dice and placing the correct number of snowballs over the snowmen (1:1 correspondence). The first to fill the board won!

Initial Sounds Clip Cards (The Snowy Day Printables from Homeschool Creation)

Before Five in a Row Lap Journal – I got the inspiration for this Journal from Delightful Learning. Here, I keep the work for each book that he rows.

Resources Used:

The Snowy Day Printables from Homeschool Creations

Snowman Preschool Pack from Living Life Intentionally

The Snowy Day Lapbook Pieces from Homeschool Share

Letter S Printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Winter theme from PreKinders

Winter theme from 2 Teaching Mommies

How to be a TRUE SUPERHERO! (Part 1)

I intended to start off the new year with a Bible study on the Fruits of the Spirit. However, I did not have time to get everything together, and our unit would not be finished up before the new baby comes in February. So, I started looking around for other ideas. When I came across this post at Impress Your Kids, I knew that it would be perfect for our first Bible study of the new year. Josiah is VERY into Superheroes right now, and he will be having a Superhero birthday party right about the same time that this series ends. Also, most of the planning and work is done for me (which is perfect for this very tired and pregnant mommy) …thanks to Amanda, at Impress Your Kids.

On our first day, we looked up our Memory Verse for the unit: 1 Timothy 4:12. We sang along to the Seeds Family Worship video to help us begin memorizing this. We listened for the qualifications for being a true superhero in this verse. There are five of them, which we will covering over the next 5-6 weeks.

1. Super Speech

2. Fantastic Conduct

3. Incredible Love

4. Lightning Fast Faith

5. Magnificent Purity

We also had fun watching and singing along to this video of Jesus is my Superhero. We talked about why Jesus is so much better than Superman, Spiderman, and all the other superheroes that Josiah loves to pretend to be. Each day of the Bible study, we continue to sing these two songs, which they both love!

Our first activity was to make Superhero Crests. These will be used to keep their badges on after we learn about each of the five qualifications. At the end of the series, they’ll be awarded with a cape to put their crest on!

They had fun decorating them, and they were pretty proud of the final product!

Our first verse for Super Speech was Matthew 12:34.

We did a little experiment to help them understand this verse. We made two different concoctions. Without telling them what we were making for either, I had told them what to pour into each container. In the first, I grabbed lots of “yucky” stuff that I knew the kids wouldn’t like. Luckily, I needed to clean out the refrigerator. I had some old spaghetti sauce, Italian dressing, salsa, pickles, and leftovers.

Then, we poured it into an old paint cup for added effect. We discussed how when we put yucky stuff into the jar, only yucky stuff would come out. It could not change into good stuff and have good stuff come out. It works the same with our hearts. We can not fill our hearts with bad things and expect good to come out of our mouths. We specifically related this to what they are allowed to watch and not watch. They chose not to drink it!

In the second container, we put cotton candy ice cream, some extra candy pieces and milk. We blended it up…and out came a very yummy drink! When we filled the container with good things, good things came out. This is the same with our hearts. We want to fill up our hearts with Scriptures, songs, kind words…and out of our mouths will come good things. They chose to drink this one!

They both said that they want their hearts to be filled with good stuff!

On the next day, we discussed a new verse regarding our speech: Ephesians 4:29. “Don’t let any evil talk come out of your mouths. Say only what will help build others up and meet their needs. Then what you say will help those in need.”

To illustrate this verse, they each cut out their own mouths. I wrote the Scripture verse on a long piece of paper. We practiced saying it an pulling it through the mouth. We talked about what would be “evil talk” and what kinds of things can “help build others up.”

We talked about this verse more the next day. We got out our large cardboard blocks. I let them make towers for a little on their own. Then I asked them what they were doing. They responded, “building!” I asked them to listen to our verse again and listen for something to do with building. They heard, “help build others up.”

We talked more about the meaning of these words, and we took turns adding blocks to our tower as we said kind words to each other. It was very sweet. They would hug each other after each kind word was spoken. Then we talked about how when we say mean, unkind words, it is like tearing down that nice strong tower that we had built.

The last verse we talked about was Psalm 34:13 Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking lies. We sang along to the verse with the Hide Em in Your Heart Vol. 1. Of course, we had to hold our tongues as we sang!

After finishing up the first part of this series on being a TRUE SUPERHERO by having SUPER SPEECH, they received their first badge for their Superhero crest!

As you can tell, they are having lots of fun and learning, too! I love that their little hearts are getting filled up with the Word of God. I have heard them several times reminding each other to have Super Speech! Again, thanks to Amanda at Impress Your Kids for the wonderful ideas!

Coming Soon… How to be a True Superhero Part 2 – Fantastic Conduct

Our First Week of Christmas Fun

Christmas is in full swing here at our house. We have had tons of fun this week with all of our Advent plans!

To begin, here are a few pictures of our decorating fun! After the decorations were complete, we watched a Christmas movie and ate snowmen with marshmallow snow!

In the evening, we have been working through Truth in the Tinsel. With each lesson, there is an ornament to make. We hang our ornaments on a small wooden tree. Some of the photos were taken before our ornaments were hung.

On Day one, we learned that Jesus is the Light of the world.

On Day 2, we learned that Jesus is King.

On Day 3, we learned about Zechariah. At first, he didn’t believe God’s promise for a son. Because of his unbelief, he was unable to talk until after John was born. For our ornament, we used a button to close his mouth.

On Day 4, we learned about the angel Gabriel going to Mary to tell her she would be the mother of Jesus.

On Day 5, we learned about Mary’s obedience to God’s plan.

On Day 6, we talked about the excitement that Elizabeth and Mary must have had as they talked with each other about God’s plan. Our Elizabeth and Mary ornaments are pregnant! OOPS…I forgot to take a picture!

On Day 7, we learned about the song that Mary sang to worship God. We looked for the reasons she had to praise God and thought of our own reasons to praise God.

If that wasn’t enough fun already…along with our family devotions, each day we are unwrapping a Christmas book and doing a simple activity to go with it. The kids look forward to the book and activity each day!

Day 1 – Snowmen at Christmas – We made cute snowman handprint ornaments.

Day 2 – Mooseltoe – This was one of their favorite books. I didn’t get a picture of the finished product.

Day 3 – How the Grinch Stole Christmas – We made green milkshakes and watched the original Grinch movie.

Day 4 – Christmas Night Fair and Bright – No pictures, but after we read the book, they decorated the windows in their rooms with Nativity window clings. It amazes me how such a simple activity can be so exciting for a young child!

Day 5 – Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree – This was a very cute story. They made sugar cone Christmas trees. They had lots of fun eating while they were creating!

Day 6 – Saint Nicholas: The Real Story of the Christmas Legend. They woke up to find new slippers filled with goodies, their new ornament for the year, and a chocolate “Santa turned St. Nicholas.” After reading the book, they got to open a present to share – the Playmobil Nativity Set.

Later in the evening, they took an anonymous gift to a neighbors house just like Saint Nicholas used to leave anonymous gifts!

Day 7 – Fancy Nancy’s Splendiferous Christmas – We made splendiferous Christmas cookies and had a Christmas tea party!

It has been a great first week of December, and we look forward to all that is yet to come!

To see what others are up to, be sure to check out the Preschool Corner and 5K too!