R is for Rainbows!

We've had fun with rainbows this week. I give a HUGE thank you to Confessions of a Homeschooler for all of her rainbow printables. I also found many ideas at Homemade-Preschool.

In the Kitchen

Helping in the kitchen continues to be one of Lexy's favorite activities. I try to include her in all the meal preparations in some way. She measures, mixes, pours, spreads, or whatever I can find that needs done. She also enjoys setting the table, washing the dishes, sweeping the floor, and wiping up spots from the tile with a wet rag. I hope her willingness continues for a long time! A few special treats we made for rainbow week were rainbow pancakes (just added food coloring) and rainbow brownies (added sprinkles).

They really enjoyed making rainbow toast! It wouldn't work with wheat bread, so we had to use white.

Letter R Activities

Drawing on the window is still a favorite. Lexy drew Rs and rainbows as well as lots of other things. My patio door will forever be colored!

She made a wax paper rainbow for the window. The idea came from Homemade Preschool.

She made a rainbow shape book and cut color pictures from Homeschool Creations to fill the pages.

Letter R paper (Homemade Preschool)

Wipe off Letter R (Confessions of a Homeschooler)

Painted pictures of rainbows

Rainbow Puzzle

We read "My First Steps to Reading" little r book. Then the girls went on a Scavenger hunt for letter r things to fill their basket. Although Lexy can easily tell me things that start with letter r, finding things was more difficut...we don't have many rhinos or rabbits running around. Once she thought of "red", she went with things that were red. She also found rattles, a rake, and a ring.

We used the pocket chart to sort pictures by beginning sounds.

Raindrops - color, cut, sort, describe (Homemade Preschool)

Playdough! Rs and rainbows...along with lots of other things!

We really enjoyed the Tell Your own story from Homemade Preschool. It worked similar to MadLibs, but without using parts of speech. I hope to do more activities like this. Here is Lexy's story.

"There once was a raindrop named Little Teno. he lived in a beautiful black cloud with all of his raindrop friends. They loved to look at birds flying in the sky. One day the black cloud got very heavy and started to fly very low. all of a sudden Little teno fell out of teh cloud, down towards the ground, splahing into a lake. Little teno felt very scared and alone. then he heard a noise that sounded like this, 'ROOOAAR.' He looked around and saw a monkey. they monkey said, 'Don't be scared, the sun will heat you up and you will float back up to your cloud.' Little teno said, 'Thank you very much,' and hurried up to the surface to get nice and warm. Soon he was floating back up to his black cloud with all of his raindrop friends."

Math

From Confessions of a Homeschooler, she did the rainbow sequencing, rainbow graphing, rainbow number writing practice, and the rainbow lacing card.

We also used the number cards to play a simple game of running to the correct number. This was review, but fun.

We have a Math area set up in our school room with various math toys, manipulatives, etc. Lexy was very interested in playing here this week. She spent a lot of time with the shape magnet game. It gives a picture and she tries to make it using the magnets on the white board. She also enjoyed the blocks, sorting toys, and a counting game.

Early in the week, we played a counting to 30+ game. It has several ways of playing it, and we did them all. I was most interested in seeing her put the cards in order from 1-30. At this age, I never do any type of "formal" assessment. I just do a lot of observing while she plays. She did put all the cards in order from 1-30...yeah!

Geography

We've continued with our States in the daily binder, but haven't added any new ones lately. She was, however, interested in the globe this week. She and Alex (dh), talked about it and played a game. She would spin it, point to a country, and he would tell her the name of it. She also wanted us to show her where France is. She LOVES Madeline, and wanted to know all about where Madeline lives. So, we've talked some about France. Now, whenever we drive past a tall tower, she says it looks like the Eiffle Tower. She is continually asking when we can go to France to visit Madeline. Hopping on an airplane and going is nothing in the eyes of a 3yr old.

Bible

Alex took over the planning of our Bible time this week, and he is doing a great job. Our story was of the widow who gave all she had. The kids each created their own pocket purse and found two small things to put in it to give away. They also acted out the story...cute! They decorated a pringles can to put their own offerings to Jesus in. One night, they did a coin rubbing of two small coins. We still have two nights left. I'm excited to see what else he has planned!

Science

Rainbow Ice - After freezing ice cubes with food coloring, we put them into bags. Blue with yellow, blue with red, and red with yellow. We talked about ice and what causes it to melt. Then, they tried different ways of melting their ice...rubbing the bag in their hands, sitting on it, a hot wash cloth, and keeping the bag under hot water. When the ice was melted, they observed the color that was formed from the two previous colors.

Our Big Backyard magazine came in the mail, and we spent one afternoon with the magazine. The majority of the magazine was dedicated to Elephant Seals. I had never even heard of them before...the things you learn in preschool :)

During lunch one day, we did the Dancing Raisins experiment. All three of the children watched for a long time and were excited about this. It's a little much to try to explain acids and bases to preschoolers, but it was fun to watch!