Our Preschool and Tot School Workbox System

So, I'm finally back from my long blog hiatus. Although I do not have blogs to prove it, we remained busy this summer. We had lots of fun swimming, playing outside, going to parks, and doing all the normal summer things. Some learning happened here and there, too... random science projects, lots of reading, and playing.

Even with all the fun we had, I was very ready to get back into a normal routine. Our first week of school was great! I'll write more about that this weekend (as we still have more to do tomorrow). But, I wanted to take some time to share how we've switched things up this year. We jumped on board with the workbox bandwagon, and it fits us well.

Workboxes for us are done quite differently and on a scaled down version for a preschooler and tot schooler.

Preschooler Workboxes

I have set up 9 workboxes that are done on a weekly rather than daily basis. Each day, during Josiah's nap time, Lexy begins with doing a few pages out of her phonics books (Explode the Code). After finishing her phonics book, she chooses 2-3 workboxes to do each day. After completing the workbox, she takes the label off and places a check mark on it. I used velcro sticky dots to make these.

Here's what she had in her boxes this week:

1. Math: Apple Numbers. Reviewing recognition of the numbers 1-20.

2. Patterns: I die-cut a bunch of little apples in different colors. I made patterns, and Lexy would continue them. Then, she would create patterns for me to finish.

3. Letter Writing: Making S's out of playdough


4. Phonics: Muffin Match from Happy Phonics. This was a review of matching capital and lower case letters. We added a pretend aspect to it by throwing in some chef things. She pretended that she was the baker and needed to get the muffins ready for an Alphabet party.

5. Music: Her piano book was in a box with her assignment to do from music class.


6. Game: To go along with the apple theme of the week, she had to place a certain number of apples (red pom poms) on each tree.

7. Science: Apples. This box included a real apple along with "My Apple" and apple tree sequencing cards. As we read the book, she used her real apple to perform the experiments in the book. Then she placed the sequencing cards in order.


8. Language Arts: Story Bag. This idea came from Chasing Cheerios (not sure where). I placed wooded pieces in the bag. We took turns making up stories with the pieces.
9. Fine Motor Skills: Apple punches. The box included cut out apples, a hole punches, and pipe cleaner worms. She punched holes in the apples and placed worms in them.

TOT SCHOOL PLAY BOXES:

Josiah participates in a lot of activities that we do in the morning time for our theme of the week. Right now, we are also focusing on a color each week with him. I am trying to plan a few fun activities to do with him each morning. However, I've also set up some boxes for him. He doesn't have a certain time each day to do them. They are just there for him to play with as he wants. Basically, these are just a motivation for me to switch out toys so that he can play with different things.

My goal is to have a different building toy, fine motor toy, puzzle, and imaginary play toy each week. Here's what were in his boxes this week:

1. Building: Magneatos

2. Fine Motor: Lacing cards

3. Imaginary: Dinosaurs

4. Puzzle: Number Train

5: Other: Drill Set

6. Building: Road and Cars

7. Other: Calculator

Be sure to check back to see some fun pictures of our first week of school. To see what other preschoolers are up to, check out the preschool corner at Homeschool Creations!