Friday, May 14, 2010

Preschool Corner / Weekly Wrap-Up – 5/14/10

M is 3.5 years old

We had a fun week, with no particular theme.  I am trying to have 1 to 2 weeks of theme-based activities, followed by at least 1 week of non-themed activities while I prepare for the next theme.  I’m hoping to get in a bug unit, then we will be DONE.  The plan is to enjoy a nice long break, get some much-needed things done around the house and just spend time having fun as a family.  :)

We started our week with a scavenger hunt.   This was so much fun.  M and his cousin, S, had a blast with this.  In fact, we had to do the whole thing again one evening with Daddy. :)  I created a chart for the kids, with pictures of 12 things for them to find in our backyard.  They took their little charts, a couple of crayons, and some plastic containers outside and began hunting: may 008
My niece was the first to find everything pictured, and was quite proud of herself:
may 009
A close up of her treasures, which she insisted on bringing home with her (much to my brother’s delight, heh):may 010I uploaded our scavenger hunt chart and you can find it here, if you think you’d like to use the same one.  It was a big hit!

The weather was awful, so we did a lot of indoor activities the rest of the week…

Fine Motor Skills:
A little fishing game where you try to catch the fish as they go in a circle and open and close their mouths:blog pictures 019   
M’s Lite Brite made its way onto his shelves, and he really had fun with it – all closed up in his room with the shades drawn. :)blog pictures 043
His little wooden dress-the-bear puzzle was out for him also; he played with it once and never bothered with it again:blog pictures 048
Literacy Skills:
I made a little name train for M, and he connected the train cars in order to spell his name.  I used velcro dots so they could stick to each other:blog pictures 054
He did his Bob the Builder Name puzzles (For these I use large flat marbles and write the letters on them with a sharpie):blog pictures 045
Colors / Sorting:
We’ve had this file folder game forever, and M always enjoys it.  I used Jolanthe’s color cards, and created pockets with the color name cards.  M goes through the stack and places each picture in the correct pocket.  He just loves pockets. :)may 001
Math Skills:
I found these at a thrift store and at first glance I thought they were Cuisenaire rods.  However, once I got them home and took a look at them… well, I’m not sure what they are or what to do with them.  Each single block unit is 1/2 inch.  The rods go from 1 unit up to 12 units, and apparently we don’t have a full set.  There’s only 2 8-unit rods, and only 1 10-unit rod.  Sigh.  Any ideas how we can use these?  Or, does anyone know what they are?  They are not the traditional Cuisenaire rod colors either.  I let M just play with them and explore them the first time I set them out.  I showed him how to create some designs, like a house and a stair (the stair was useful for showing the relation between the rods from shortest to longest).blog pictures 049
I hope everyone had great weeks!  I’m linking this up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up.  Be sure to go check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)

9 comments:

  1. I really like your bob the builder cards where they match the marbles with the letter on the bottom in sharpie - bet my kids would love that activity! I think they'd enjoy a scavenger hunt, too, I'll have to make one that matches what they can find in our yard =)

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  2. Hmmmm, what colors are the different sizes? They might be homemade Math U See blocks. I know 8 is brown, 5 is light blue, 10 is dark blue, 3 is pink.....

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  3. I've been considering a Lite Bright purchase as I loved it as a kid. The reviews on Amazon are pretty dismal for the current version. Any thoughts?

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  4. Cute Bob the Builder - a favorite at our house.

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  5. Pathfinder Mom -

    I haven't read the reviews on Amazon, but M loves his. I got it at Target for $10. It only comes out once in a while because I don't want the little pegs all over the house. There are a couple of things that bothered me about it originally, now that I think of it... first, the storage compartment doesn't hold all the pegs, and it sticks, so when you finally get it to open they usually go everywhere. We just keep the pegs in a ziploc baggie and when M wants to use it, I pour them into a small container for him. Also, the paper that comes with it is mostly patterned - for older kids that want to use them to make a real picture. M enjoys just using it to make any design he wants, and then looking at it in a dark room. There were maybe 2 or 3 plain pieces when we bought it. He doesn't know that "y" means yellow (or any of the other colors either), so I just cut up some black construction paper for him and he uses that.

    I hope that helps! He really enjoys playing with it, and to me his enjoyment far outweighs the minor problems I had with it.

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  6. It looks like you had a very relaxed and happy week. I am also looking forward to the summer, but I don't plan for any formal breaks - we already really do very little school-wise even though it might appear differently in my posts :) 30 minutes a day is our absolute maximum that we spend on it :)

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  7. We are with you on the Summer part. We are so ready for Summer! We will continue to learn, but nothing real formal.

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  8. Great learning fun, as always! I would like to use your scavenger hunt, so thanks for sharing.

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  9. What a great week! I love the name train!

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