What's in the Box - Preschool Workboxes

We've been learning about Thanksgiving this week. I'll post more about our Thanksgiving unit later this week, but here is a look into Lexy's workboxes for the week. I didn't get many action pictures. She wasn't in the mood for her picture to be taken.

Writing/Language Arts

I printed this sheet off from childcare land. Lexy is going to use it to write what she is thankful for.
Fine Motor/Language Arts

Lexy and Josiah each made there own set of turkey stick puppets after hearing the poem, "5 Little Turkeys." The printables also came from childcare land. After making and numbering their puppets, they used them to make their own puppet shows for me.

Math


We are still working on counting/number recognition to 100 with Lexy. She counts well up to 50 and then sometimes gets lost. She can count by 10s to 100 pretty well, so I think she could count to 100 if she really wanted to. However, I really like the "Uncle Wiggily Game" for counting to 100. It's a fun for her to practice the numbers without it seeming like a drill.


Memory

I printed off this concentration game last year. It has pictures of Thanksgiving symbols: cornucopia, turkey, mayflower, pumpkin pie, squash, pilgrims. We had fun playing concentration and talking about what the different symbols represent.
Handwriting


A friend let me borrow this handwriting books. Most of our nomral handwriting practice is done in her Explode the Code books or just everyday use. This book has been an "extra" that has been lots of fun for her. She practices writing the letters on the dry erase board. It also has puzzles to put together for each letter and letter tiles to make words that start with each letter.



Cooking


Josiah got in on the action for Lexy's cooking project. We made cut-out sugar cookies shaped like turkeys. Then the frosted them brown. It was a messy project!






Bible


Our Bible story this week is from Matthew 19, "Jesus loves the Children." Lexy's workbox contains cardboard figures of children. We will decorate them with fabric, markers, googly eyes, yarn, etc. to turn them into children. Then, we'll string them together to for a "Jesus Loves the Children" banner.



Reading


Lexy practiced her CVC and two letter words on these turkey cards also printed from childcare land. I would say a word, and she would make the word out of wooden letters.



Phonics
I put this castle game from "Happy Phonics" in to review vowel sounds. This is one of Lexy's favorite Happy Phonics games.
To find out more about our Workbox System read this post.

See what others have in there workboxes at Confessions of a Homeschooler! Check back in a few days to see the fun we've been having learning about Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just want to wish anyone who wanders this way a Happy Thanksgiving. Alexis and Josiah made these cute Thanksgiving cards this week to hand out to family. I found the idea for the handprint pilgrims at Almost Unschoolers and just decided to turn them into cards. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Mother's Day Tradition

This Mother's Day marked our 2nd annual "Operation Plant the Garden." Lexy has been looking forward to this for several weeks. I'd have to say, that I have been looking forward to it too. It is fun to get the whole family involved in the planting, watch it grow, and reap the benefits (salsa!) this summer!

Of course, Lexy wants to know why we can't plant a garden like this in our own backyard. I'm not sure if my excuse is good enough for her. I'm simply not up to keeping up with a garden. We very much enjoy helping with Mamaw and Papaws garden...and they generously share with us!

While waiting for the planting to begin, Lexy and Mamaw weeded other areas of the yard.


"Man's work..."
Last year, Lexy enjoyed the digging and planting. This year, watering was way more fun. As soon as a plant was in the ground, she was there with the watering can.


Stepping on the big shovel was fun, though.

Planting...

Everyone's got a job to do!

Watering...again...with Daddy.

Josiah slept through the gardening; however, he woke up and got to see baby birds in a nest.

Can't have all work with no play!

Corn Hole competition

A little driver's ed in Papaw's cars...

I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day!

We Made It!!!

We FINALLY made it to the end of the alphabet! Lexy never seemed to mind, but I was getting a little tired of the letter themes. I went ahead and did letters Y and Z this week so that we could finish up. I am very excited about moving on to new things! We get to start our 12 days of Easter next week (Thursday - can you believe Easter is coming up so quickly?). Last year was our first year for doing this, and the kids really enjoyed it. I've got a lot planned for it this year. I'm hoping to post each day what we do, so check back often.

Our New Schedule

We started doing our "school time" a little differently this week, and it worked out great! I plan on doing a more detailed post about our schedule and schedule magnets soon. Basically, after our breakfast/calendar/devotion time in the morning, we do a fun (sometimes messy) activity that can include both kids. Josiah isn't much into anything crafty (painting, playdough, etc). So trying to come up with something that they both enjoy can be challenging. Then we spend the rest of the morning playing...whatever they want to do. I have the centers set up in the schoolroom. They've been choosing to do them a lot, but if not that's fine. The weather has been great, so we've spent a lot of time outside. They also love "make-believe" world. Most of the morning is spent there. I do my best to enter that land with them...sometimes I find it hard.

After lunch, Josiah takes a nap. Lexy has given up naps for the most part (there are occassional days when she still needs one). So, we use the first hour of his naptime as a quite school time for us. I've started turning on some light classical music while we have this time together. I can't believe the difference it has made in the atmosphere. We work on writing, math, learning games, phonics, science, geography, etc (not all in one day!). Or, some days we'll spend coloring and drawing pictures together. Also during this time, we have our own little devotion time together. We spend 10 minutes on the couch reading our own Bibles and praying. Sometims Lexy reads hers, and sometimes she just watches me. After 10 minutes, I let her pick something from her Bible that she'd like me to read to her. All of this usually takes about an hour. During the 2nd hour of Josiah's nap, Lexy has her own quite time in her room...and I get my much needed quite time!

Letters Y and Z

I wasn't very creative this week with our letter activities. We did all of our regular activities: read "first steps to reading," brainstormed words that start with each letter (Lexy is getting really good at this!), and practiced writing the letters.

I printed off Letter Y and Z handwriting sheets from Home Grown Hearts. I laminated them, because dry erase markers seem to make everything more fun! Lexy loves using these minature "re-writables." They have their own little eraser attached to each marker. Lexy has been getting sloppy with writing her name. Notice in this picture that she wrote it backwards and didn't put much effort into her letters. I know that she can write it better, but just doesn't seem interested lately. She did a great job of tracing "Y is for Yarn" and the letters.

We also worked on filling in space and staying in lines while coloring this hidden "y" picture sheet.

Lexy still enjoys looking for letters in nature and around the house. I've tried to take pictures as she points them out. I want to print them all off and create an alphabet book out of them once she has found all the letters. Today, she discovered that her scissors create an "x." To see my original post about this click here.

We're still having grip issues. I gave in this week and broke her crayons into tiny pieces to help with the grip. I hate broken crayons, so this was hard for me. However, she was holding them correctly!

St. Patrick's Day Activities

Each day, we talked about a different aspect of St. Patrick's day, and they did a craft. When we talked about different St. Patrick's Day traditions, Lexy was horrified that people pinch you for not wearing green. When I told her this on Monday, she quickly decided that she didn't like St. Patrick's Day! We tried to have fun anyway. Even Josiah (my anti-crafter) joined in on the crafts this week! We also enjoyed the St. Patrick's Day parade!

Lexy also added a St. Patrick's Day story to her story notebook. I printed it from here. She added the missing words and illustrated it. It is titled, "The Leprechaun's Walk." She had fun walking the leprechaun on the popsicle stick through the story!

Outside Fun!

We enjoyed the long-awaited nice weather this week by riding bikes and picnicing at the park!

We are looking forward to some more outside fun this weekend as we take a weekend trip to Mama and Papa's cabin!

Bible

I am now posting our Bible time in separate posts and linking up to Raising Rock Stars. Check back on Tuesdays to see all of the creative ideas my husband is coming up with!

To find some great ideas to do with your preschooler, check out the Preschool Corner every Friday!

Handprint St. Patrick's Day Craft

I just thought I'd share a cute St. Patrick's Day craft idea. This past Christmas, our family put together a handprint calendar to give to grandparents. We each had a role. I came up with the ideas. The kids did the handprints, and dh was responsible for making it all look nice. Anyways, our March handprint was a little leprechaun that turned out really cute.

Instructions: Use green paint on the thumb and bottom part of the hand (as the hat). Next put a little stripe of orange paint as the bottom of the hat. Then use pink as the face in the center of the hand. Lastly, paint the fingers orange as the beard.

I was not able to do this with my one year old. He moved his hands around too much and mixed the paint up. My three year old did just fine...and probably would've done fine with it as a one year old.

The poem reads:

I'm a little leprechaun.

Can't you see?

I'm as tiny s I can be.

I only come around

Just once a year.

That's when

St. Patrick's Day is here.

For more fun ideas and a few St. Patrick's Day ideas check out the Preschool Corner.